Dougie Poole - At Tubby's [White]

At Tubby's catches Dougie Poole and two longtime bandmates on one of those nights where the room, the crowd, and the songs all agree, now on white vinyl.

Poole has spent years writing country songs about modern indignities, gig work and screens and weed and the slow grind of getting by, delivered in a baritone warm enough that the jokes never curdle. Stripped to a trio here with Mike Etten on electric guitar and James Wyatt Woodall on pedal steel, the songs get more room and lose nothing. These three have clearly been playing together long enough to read each other's minds. The whole set was captured mostly from the board straight to analogue tape, mixed by Poole himself with a light hand and mastered by Carl Saff.

Los Angeles opens with Etten's classic country licks curling around the pedal steel, and it sets the terms for everything after. Vaping on the Job is the rave-up, funnier live than on record. Toshiba Sky, a one-off digital single from 2020, finally makes it to wax, and Heaven Sent an Angel (We Got Stoned) is brand new, carrying one of the best choruses Poole has written.

Live albums are usually souvenirs. This one is the version of these songs you'll reach for.