The very name
Tommy Stinson's Cowboys in the Campfire
-- the appellation the former
Replacements
and
Guns N' Roses
bassist gives his duo with his longtime associate
Chip Roberts
-- is a nod that this group is a country & western outfit. That's not necessarily the same thing as an Americana act. As
Wronger
, their 2023 debut, makes clear,
Cowboys in the Campfire
is too ramshackle to be an Americana band, lacking any hint of artistic pretension and caring not a whit for genre authenticity.
is nominally roots music, but those roots are tangled, consisting of strands of country music, rockabilly, cowboy tunes, and twilight ballads. The kind of songs that sound good when strummed by a campfire, in other words, a vibe that
captures even when the simple tunes are fleshed out either by a full band or a dash of strings.
Stinson
's rumpled charm and casual touch make
sound tossed off in the best sense: it's light and intimate, the kind of record two old friends make when they just want to relax and enjoy each other's company. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine