ZINK AND COMPANY, III

ZINK AND COMPANY
III

No Label
No Number

Zink & Company is one of those bands that you find dotting the map throughout the country—good, solid bands that know their way around the music and have built a strong following, perhaps even on a regional or semi-national level. They’re not going to stun a listener with amazing displays of technical ability, either vocally or instrumentally. What they will do is please. They’ll choose (and often write) good songs with good melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Then, they’ll play them in a tuneful, down-to-earth style that will get those songs across as direct as possible.

This is Zink & Company’s third recording, and all of the above applies. They offer up 12 songs. Corey Zink, the band leader and the possessor of a wonderful low, sometimes edgy, sometimes warm and buzzy, baritone lead voice, wrote five of them. Among them are the maudlin ode to a lost love, “Lonesome Your Gone,” the slow memory song, “Sweet Perfume,” and a song he wrote for his son, “The Best Of Her.” In each case, the words have an honest, unadorned quality and the tunes are almost instantly likeable. That is no mean feat.

Surrounding them are several classics. “Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor” everyone knows. Here, as Zink mentions in his liner notes, the feel is of the Country Gentlemen. Bassist Keith Edwards takes the lead. Also in that class is “Wild Mountain Flowers,” a tribute to the Lost & Found, with guest appearance from Allen Mills. Then there’s “Teach Your Children Well,” sung here in a softer, lower pitch that takes away the unnecessary angst of the original. Also of note is the fine pulse of Mike O’Reilly’s “Blue Motel Room #9,” the Gus Kahn jazz instrumental “Goofus” and, most especially, the country hit of long ago “You’re My Best Friend.” You will be pleased. (www.zinkandco.com)BW