Artist – The Family Wash
Album – Dirty Laundry
Released –23rd May 2023
Reviewer – Chris Currie, Mersey Radio
Not everybody takes delight in airing their dirty laundry in public; however, country and Americana aggregation The Family Wash, who hail from Liverpool, are proud of just that. Dirty Laundry is the debut album from The Family Wash, and it will put your emotions through the wringer. There’s no soft soap here, just bucket loads of love, loss, heartache, romance, philandering, intrigue, cheating, dark secrets, and even schadenfreude — the perfect combination for a country album, and doubtless you’ll want to dance.
Dirty laundry: take it for a spin and let it wash over you. It’s so good for the soul!
Review © 2023 Chris Currie for Liverpool Acoustic
Dirty Laundry is available on Bandcamp.
The Family Wash
The Family Wash hail from Liverpool UK. The story goes that in 2019 JD Wash was holidaying in Nashville TN. One hot spring day on the recommendation of a musician friend who’d been in Nashville only months before, JD and his wife took a walk hoping to find some Shepherd’s Pie, a cool beer, and some fine country music at a bar called The Family Wash, only to find it had closed down!
Despite this disappointment, JD resolved to preserve the name of The Family Wash and form a country music / americana collective. Duly inspired, he wrote a dozen or so songs influenced by what he’d been hearing across the country music spectrum including Johnny, Luke, Jimmy, Kacey, Taylor and KT.
JD went back home to Liverpool and made some calls to his Wash cousins and the excitement grew. Finally in the midst of a pandemic half the songs were taken to the studio and the rest recorded remotely in various home studios. Mixed at Crosstown Studios in Liverpool and mastered by Pete Maher we felt that we had a long playing record of which the family are truly proud.
The ‘Dirty Laundry’ LP was released on vinyl and digital platforms on the 26th May 2023. The country rock song ‘I’ll bring the stars to you’ is the first single and album opener, released on the 7th April 2023.
The album officially launched at Prohibition Recording Studios on the evening of the 25th May 2023 combining a listening event of the Dirty Laundry album and live sets from both Naomi Campbell (Motel Sundown) and Paul Dunbar (Paul Dunbar and the Black Winter Band) including some songs from the album.
The Family Wash collective are:
- Paul Dunbar – vocals, BV’s
- Naomi Campbell- vocals, BV’s
- Scott Poley – guitars and pedal steel
- Cal Williams – bass guitar
- Chris Howard – Keyboards, Piano
- Justin Johnson – Drums (studio)
- Aron Bicskey – Drums (remote)
- Robbie Taylor – Mandolin, Banjo, Fiddle
- Karen Turley – Backing Vocals
- Jon Lawton – additional percussion, baritone guitar and bass