The Blueflowers – In Line With The Brokenhearted
Head Blueflowers Kate Hinote and Tony Hamera , are two fine people, known to me for around five years or more. Originally they played as Ether Aura , a shoegaze act out of Detroit. Tony’s guitar finesse twinned with Kate’s siren vocals drew comparisons with Curve . Since then they have ditched the effects pedals in favour of the steel pedal, and became The Blueflowers , a reverberated country noir with a dash of sixties pop kitsch.
I think friends and contemporaries The Lost Patrol may have been an influencing factor in this stylistic makeover. The Lost Patrol have operated just outside of New York City for many years, perfecting their sound which is anything but Urban. Maybe The Blueflowers thought the same – ‘we’re in this huge, iconic city, how do we get noticed? I know, let’s go towards dreamy folk’. You couldn’t imagine anything less Motor City to be honest. Then again, maybe I’m doing Hinote and Hamera a disservice. Maybe The Blueflowers is their true calling? They are, after all, a married couple and bitterness, heartbreak and blues are staples of Country music. (I’m only joking folks)
‘Blue Flower’ was the name of a Mazzy Star song and in keeping, In Line With The Brokenhearted flits between jaunty country-pop and doomy surf noir. If this is pastiche, it is lovingly done. Everyone should at least go and listen to something by them because Kate’s voice, her pitch and control in particular, is a thing of beauty. Songs like ‘Maybe’ bring to mind Mari Wilson’s beehived sixties revisits. (Do see the Jukebox jiving video) Others run the full country/alt country gamut from Patsy Kline to Paula Frazer and most stops in-between. My favourite is probably ‘Even Now’ with its soaring chorus reminiscent of Indigo Girls ‘Kid Fears’. Don’t expect an OK Computer of an album. In Line With… won’t shunt your reality sideways. It’s too gentle for that. Not innocuous, just tender and loving. And lovelorn.
Album number two. Let’s toast the happy couple.