Wronger

Album review

Cowboys in the Campfire came about around 2016, when legendary Replacements guitarist Tommy Stinson was on hiatus from his stint in Chinese Democracy-era Guns N' Roses. "It was spring, and neither one of us had something to do that summer," Stinson has said of himself and his Philly-based pal, guitarist Chip Roberts. "So we said, 'Let's go play some shows. Let's fuck around.'" Seven years later, the two have released a record—and while it's as loose-limbed and carefree as the previous sentiment suggests, it's also serious enough to find John Doe playing stand-up bass on a bunch of tracks. There's a whole lot of rockabilly on hand—including souped-up "That's It"—and plenty of Small Faces influence, but Stinson's also having fun here by playing around with a variety of styles. "Fall Apart Together" is lackadaisical Bakersfield honky-tonk. Ballad "Hey Man" glides on some classic dreamy Disney piano. "We Ain't" rattles and rumbles like Johnny Cash circa At Folsom Prison. "Dream" is truly countryified, its loose guitar and vocals both slurring. "Schemes" is woozy with the shimmer of a gymnasium-prom disco ball and Stinson crooning like he's sporting a ducktail. He tries out a Dylan-esque delivery on "Mr. Wrong," a sentimental kiss-off to an ex ("I hope your Mr. Next will be Mr. Right"), and comes on like Leonard Cohen for the verses of dark and dangerous "Souls," before the chorus cracks open in a big, gilded lift-off. And he sounds a lot like his endearingly raspy old bandmate Paul Westerberg on "Here We Go Again," a charmer drunk on swaying horns and ukulele. "Karma's Bitch," meanwhile, is the grim real-life story of a beach bum who divorced his alcoholic wife and started dating her substance-abusing progeny: "I wonder how it feels to be the man who dumped his girlfriend/ For the daughter who drank herself to death," Stinson sings against bright guitar, before offering up his own version of the "Wherever you go, there you are" colloquialism: "He walked around in circles/ Trying to find his own shadow." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz