Little Rebellion Music

Mucho dos Grande – The Beagles (2013)

Nashville trio The Beagles return with their second album, Mucho Dos Grande, and set a new standard for themselves. Comprised of Ward Davis, Rick Huckaby, and Matt Nolen, this trio employed their abundance of songwriting, vocal, and musical talent to create a focused and accomplished album.

Following on from their almost off-the-cuff 2011 debut, Meet The Beagles, this project was taken a little more seriously, and it shows in every way. The debut was a collection of songs penned over just a few days, this is “a record”. A tone is set in opening track ‘Cadillac in a Cowboy Town,’ and the following nine songs stay consistent to a sound that is equal parts a drive through southern California in the 1970s, Texas red dirt music playing on an old radio, and old fashioned Nashville hit songwriting.

Central to this album are the stories being told. In vignettes of a laid-back love affair slowly deepening (‘Nothing Serious’), sweet-talking a potential lover (‘Let Me Make It Easy’), navigating the post-break-up etiquette, or failing to (‘You Didn’t Hear it from Me’), every song approaches the situation from a unique angle. Such is also the case on the it’s-none-of-your-business-if-I-love-you confessional, ‘So What If I Do,’ a song picked up by Trace Adkins for his recent release, Love Will…

While I hesitate to single out any of the tracks on an album as cohesive as this, I do want to make special mention of ‘Chevy Van’ and the tortured lament ‘I Hate L.A.’ In every aspect, these songs equal tunes from the songwriting catalogs of Glenn Frey and Don Henley. The Beagles don’t force themselves to stick to rhymes, or pretty much any other convention, making the storytelling seem that much more authentic.

Davis takes on the majority of vocal duties, but all three artists trade the spotlight. And then there are the harmonies; the beautiful harmonies that transcend the bounds of greatness and flirt with perfection!

But it is also those harmonies that call attention to some of the production choices. Producer Butch Carr built uncluttered arrangements for these songs, so it’s a shame that on a few the mix lets them down. The drums especially are sometimes left too high in the mix, creating a band of clutter that fills in the background, but at the same time takes the focus away from the vocals. On songs where there is more space between the instruments and not everything is bunched up in the front of the mix, everything that is great about The Beagles is allowed that much more room to shine.

It may be somewhat of a side-project for these three songwriters, but Mucho Dos Grande houses more flair, song quality, and artistic integrity than many current major label releases. For those who like to gripe about how Nashville doesn’t produce any “real music” anymore, never fear, The Beagles are here!

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Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.

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