Alabama 3 are one of those bands that many people have heard of but whose music far less people have actually heard. They seem to have been dancing forever around the peripherary on the fringes of pop perception and are often found lurking suspiciously just outside the top 40.
Obviously the association of their music with The Sopranos has done their chances of crossover success no harm at all, but this single will do little to tip the balance that would see their music become as widely recognised as their name. Good humour will see them through until that day though, and they must have plenty of that already - being a techno-country band from Brixton and all.
Released to accompany the band's Hear The Train A Comin' DVD, The Gospel Train borrows part of Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay and puts it through an electro-filter to form the melody that runs throughout. It may almost be too simple and one-dimensional, but when you add some cowboy vocals, acoustic guitar and gospel singing, it generates a warmth that should keep all seasonally affected feelings at bay as those winter nights draw in. Surely that deserves a number thirty-nine chart placing at the very least?
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