There’s no scent of a squalor in Clay Street Unit’s debut album ‘Sin & Squalor.' Celebrating the often underused mandolin, the iconic pedal steel and banjo and raw vocals that could make Stapleton look stage left, these eleven, occasionally sinful – in the good way – stories will have you reaching for the repeat button.
The effortless musicianship of Clay Street Unit creates a beauty of an emotional bridge between the two largest mountain ranges in the United States (the spirit of the western Rocky Mountains and the bluegrass home of the eastern Appalachians), capturing a unique music vista across country, both in geography and genre.
The six musicians (mandolinist Scottie Bolin, banjo player Jack Cline, pedal steel guitarist Brad Larrison, drummer Brendan Lamb, bassist Jack Kortarba and singer/guitarist/ringleader Sam Walker) met in Denver Colorado in 2021, initially through the live bluegrass scene at Zuni Street Brewing and then jamming at lead vocalist Walker’s house on Clay Street.
From the uptempo banjo-driven opening track, ‘Nothing Else Matters’, the message from the six trucker cap wearing band members is clear: we’re here for a good time and a long time. I bet their live shows are phenomenal. The mandolin opens up the ballad ‘Drive’, harmonising with the steel guitar to perfectly echo the sentiment of a life on the road for a touring band, missing loved ones. The speedometer shifts a couple of gears for a blissful banjo ending, giving the effect of racing towards something new and saying goodbye to the past.
‘Choctaw County’, featuring bluegrass singer Lindsay Lou, is a gut-wrenching steel guitar led ballad, Walker’s vocals effortlessly contrasting and harmonising with Lou. The energy hits fifth gear on ‘One Last Time’ almost four and a half minutes of guitar-driven music, edged with Cline’s captivating banjo. The pause button is pressed on life, but not on the music, on ‘Let’s Get Stoned’ a reflective three-minute harmony harnessing imagined rain on the panes thanks to Bolin’s mandolin. The song also homes the album title with the lyrics, “sin and squalor’s what your Mama said/I’ll keep the job and you keep us fed…you next to me is all I need/I’m not much, but I’m all yours”.
My favourite track, ‘Where Have You Gone?’ spins me out into Smokey and the Bandit and O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack territories, such is their energy and harmony. The only drawback is that it’s one of the shortest tracks on the album. When the album stopped on the final track, the zone-out ‘Way Over Yonder’, reflecting on early love and the roots of marriage, looking after each other to create a home, the room felt too quiet like the band had virtually left the building. Thankfully, I could lean back into my headphones and play the eleven tracks all over again. Life can hang on for a while.
Sin & Squalor is perfect for fans of bluegrass, country, Americana and folk, as well as multi-instrumentalist bands like Whiskey Myers, 49 Winchester and Flatland Cavalry. One thing is certain, if you love music to disappear into, you need forty minutes for a full listen of this album, produced by Chris Pandolfi of the Grammy-winning group The Infamous Stringdusters.
Track list: 1. Nothing Else Matters 2. Drive 3. Let’s Get Stoned 4. Where Have You Gone? 5. Choctaw County (ft. Lindsay Lou) 6. One Last Time 7. Virginia 8. Left Unsaid 9. Freightline Blues 10. Rollin’ 11. Way Over Yonder Record Label Leo33 Release Date: 13th February 2026 Buy ‘Sin & Squalor' right here
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