CHAMBERLAIN
Five-Year Diary
(Chamberlain/South
Bittersweet Lane)
Pity the poor Chamberlain
fans.
Many followers of these magnificent and
grossly-under-appreciated roots rockers from Indianapolis/Bloomington are still
in semi-denial that they split after three studio albums. Their last piece of the band is a
two-disc retrospective, Five-Year Diary, released in 2002, two years
after Chamberlain’s demise.
The set collects many of the
group’s best works both in alternate takes and live versions recorded at
Bloomington’s Second Story and The Patio in
Indianapolis. Listening to it all, it still is amazing
to even the most schooled audiophile how quickly the five original members
matured from purposeful hardcore (known as the band Split Lip from 1991-1995)
to reflective rockers.
The upbeat bobbing and weaving
guitars of “Everything Here” opens disc one, and David
Moore’s signature tensile, sweetly smoky voice settles in. “Racing Cincinnati,” a piano-based weeper from
the second Chamberlain record, The Moon My Saddle, is transformed into
an acoustical number here, a starkly emotional composition with a rainy day
lull. “From Infinity to the
County Fair” proved to be the perfect balance between rustic twinge and magnetic
rock. The guitars on “The
World Don’t Want Us” ramble on as gauzily as they are twangy. Along with the languid fulmination of
“Lonesome Song” and the complex, encompassing web of heartland rock
on “Stars in the Streetlight,” “Last to Know” was as
richly structured and honest as Chamberlain got.
Among the 15 cuts on disc two,
Moore achieves a Springsteen holler in the
lumbering “Go Down Believing.” “Try for Thunder” is a
ragged version of plaintive glory.
The group quiets down for such hushed compositions as the campfire strum
of “The South Has Spoiled
Me.”
Adherents continuing to hold out hope Chamberlain will one day reunite will probably
be waiting a long time.
Moore essentially left
the business and settled into family life, also
earning an undergraduate degree
in English and pursuing a master’s degree in theology. Guitarist Adam Rubenstein and drummer
Charles Walker are collaborating in the band Bad Moon Music, which released an
ep titled Empire last month on Hawthorne Street
Records.
But from 1996-2000, Chamberlain
was the quintessential Americana
band red-staters should’ve listened to. And Five-Year Diary is
a testament to that.
Wade Coggeshall
Journal Review Music Diary: November 27-December 3, 2004
