Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford as President James Marshal; Mary Jane Dunphe and Chris McDonnell as The County Liners in The County Liners, a five-songer pilot episode of a musical teleplay across the states, which is getting push as a country thing, but feels more like an analog mix in a cold island basement of a north atlantic rowhouse; sound on edge, snowbound and claustrophobic. The humbuckers aim for “How High the Moon” but get stuck in the big mud with the smoldering rubber and bent license plates from various states, the aftermath of failed attempts at escape from a modernized Gatlin, Nebraska. A steady drizzle lasts for months and falls on the blanket of snow and ice, mildew and nasal drip in the strawberry curtains and plaid couch, the mere beginnings of life-long insomnia and a restless itch.
…and talking it out like “Shadow of a Doubt” or even “In The Kingdom #19.” But the crash hasn’t happened yet. Not sure there will be a crash. Through the walls, the faint smell of the cooking ghost, and what’s on his grill but disaster and a big smile; but he’s all the way down at the end of Broadway, so it’s too early too tell who the lamb is and who is the wolf, who is texting while driving and who’s driving drunk, who’s “Sleepwalking” and who’s playing dead. The smell is faint, indeed, and in heavy competition with the mildewed curtains, dirty dishes and insulated foam. And if the drizzle has turned to downpour, who could guess, as it is hard to hear above the basement water heater and its creaky pipes.
Call it cabin fever, all these characters played by The County Liners would rather be somewhere else. Many have tried; many more will. They’ll take the stairs, run through that cornfield towards Hemingford, Run down into the green hills / Oh take a Greyhound / You’ll never survive in Oklahoma.
On November 17, Wharf Cat Records will release The County Liners’ Mary Jane Dunphe and Chris McDonnell in the County Liners.
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