From One to Another

A quick look at From One to Another's cover will conjure up images of the film Deliverance. In a sepia-toned photo, two men stand close to one another. One sports a scowl, an ill-fitting suit and close-cut grey hair; the other is a scruffy-haired man holding a banjo. The latter man also wears a polka dot tie, a clue that this duo might not be from the Georgia backwoods. This twosome, in fact, hails from Australia. The scowling man is singer Ron Peno, the charismatic frontman of the '80s/'90s punk band Died Pretty, while the banjo man is Kim Salmon, the acclaimed Aussie guitarist best known for his tenure in the Scientists. The Darling Downs, however, is a band radically different from the groups of their youths. Here they are mining a spare, simple acoustic Americana sound that basically consists of Peno's rural twang and Salmon's picking on a banjo or guitar. A good example of their unadorned, casual approach is "There's a Light, Pt. 2," a gospel-infused folk number that sounds like Peno and Salmon are performing it around a campfire. The songs here often feel like murder ballads in tone, although not necessarily in content. In fact, there's an elusiveness to the lyrics — their tunes are more fever dream-like than straightforward story-songs — which serves to enhance the mysterious hillbilly noir vibe that surfaces on eerie tracks like "Gather 'Round (Stomp It Down)," "Redeeming" (both of which feature Peno's haunted howling), and "Circa '65." However, the duo isn't aiming to create creepy Americana caricatures. On "Something Special," they address honest emotions, not country hokum. This bucolic ode to love, featuring Peno's heartfelt vocals and Salmon's gentle finger-picking, sounds like something that could have come out of Britain's '60s folk scene. The closing tune, "Somewhere There's a Place Where I'll Be Fine," offers a sense of solace in the darkness, with Peno's cracked voice offers an apology while holding out hope for the future. It is Peno's expressive singing, be it in the fragility that he expresses in "The Only Home I've Ever Known" or the haunted loneliness he projects in "Lately," that helps to steer this disc away from being hillbilly shtick and into music that holds a haunting emotional resonance.