Tom Catmull and the Clerics | Glamour Puss

Published: October 12, 2009

Popular Missoula songwriter Tom Catmull is a man of more than a few words. Verses pour out amid catchy refrains. He uses simple chord progressions that ring with unexpected yet neatly fitting modulations.  

His latest CD features Catmull and three Clerics, pared down from his formerly huge band: Travis Yost, drums and harmony vocals, John Sporman, double bass, and Gibson Hartwell, electric guitars, steel and harmony vocals. Catmull plays acoustic guitar and renders 12 originals in a style his website calls “handcrafted genericana.”

He starts off with some swingy blues on “Change Your Mind (Did you give your heart and then run out of time?).” Catmull’s great baritone voice rolls through an effects-laden mic in a scratchy, breathy delivery. The hopped-up country-folk number “Letter to a Bachelor” is next, with its pretty pop overtones. This one would do well on the radio.

Conversational lyrics are a Catmull trademark, and he sings ‘em here on the rockabilly “The New One.” The band rocks “After I’m Gone.” It’s about a fellow with too many possessions who’s thinking ahead to when he won’t need them (“God bless nail-hung inner tubes, an old blue tarp that I’ll never use”).

Any song named “Bernadette” gets my attention, and there’s lots of growly guitar on the high-steppin’ country rocker “Fond of You.”

Catmull is an astute observer of human nature, as the up-tempo “People Are Funny” shows. “Passin’ the Time” has a great 50s sensibility, and lots of crashy cymbals and screaming highlight “The End of the World.”

Catmull’s sixth effort is well-produced and the Clerics rise to the occasion with their hot licks. Visit the group at www.tomcatmull.com.

– Mariss McTucker