Last Of The Country Gentlemen

Texas singer and songwriter Josh T. Pearson is best known as the frontman for the short-lived cult indie roots band Lift to Experience, who issued a self-titled EP in 1997, a single, and a sole double album, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (which is the stuff of underground legend), in 2001 before splitting. Pearson spent the next decade touring in the U.S. and abroad, including appearing as an invited guest at several All Tomorrow's Parties festivals. The only recording he's done under his own name is an official live bootleg entitled To Hull and Back recorded in the U.K., a live DVD single, and one side of a single he split with Australia's Dirty Three; his half is a stellar version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Pearson has done some sideman work, most notably as a guest vocalist on two tracks on the Bat for Lashes full-length Fur and Gold.

And here is something else that will blow your mind: Most of the people who end up disliking Last Of The Country Gentlemen after they’ve heard it still won’t be able to pan it very much, because that would be like piling more agony on a guy that sounds like he’s just had the worst day of his entire life. Last Of The Country Gentlemen is not an album that asks for forgiveness, or for pity, and to be honest most listeners would struggle to offer much of either. As demonstrated in ‘Sorry With A Song', Pearson had a lot to get out of his system: "My whole life's been one clichéd country unfinished line after line / It's been the curse of my crazy cuckooed up clocks most all of my lifetime", he croons, and you know he means it. You could try and hope that making this record has been a cathartic experience for Pearson; that it could contribute in some way to some sort of happy ending, even an attempt to repent for all the unpleasantness... but it doesn't seem to be here. Who knows where these demons might lead him next?