The Smoking Flowers - Snowball Out of Hell (2019)

The last two albums from Nashville-based couple Scott and Kim Collins were very much inclined to heavy rock riffs and blues. Snowball out of Hell (premiered here), however, finds The Smoking Flowers in a decidedly stripped-down acoustic musical mood with just guitars, keys and occasional drums and is informed by Kim’s successful battle against cancer.

It declares its positive agenda with the opening slow shrug of Coley Kennedy’s Let’s Get Happy, showcasing the duo’s close harmonies and featuring John McCauley from Deer Tick on vocals, before, shaded with pedal steel, Build Your Own Road evokes a country-toned take on early Nico-era Velvets. An acoustic strum companion to the last album’s affirmation of support, Here 4 U Now, Still Here For You Now has Scott’s vocals more prominent while tinkling keys and wordless choral backing provide a bridge to the playout into Beautiful Life, another Scott showcase and a number which, in a fuller arrangement, would be a stadium power ballad.

Kim’s back on lead, melding Harris and Cline for the waltz-time Just Out Of Reach before sparse banjo makes an appearance with the slow lurching Appalachian-tinged title track, the lyrics of which feature the title of the last album, Let’s Die Together, as keyboards and choral harmonies build it to a swelling climax as they repeat “don’t leave me now.”

Their Gram and Emmylou-influenced harmonies take the spotlight on the slow sway One Friend, the track gently caressed by woozily warm trumpet and harmonica, the album playing out with, first, a cover of Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel, its initial naked acoustic strum gradually joined by organ waves as Kim gives it her most impassioned, soaring vocal before Scott takes the baton for the second half, followed by the bluegrassy, harmonica flavoured, harmony whine shuffle tempo Devil In Drag with its “hold on to the one you love” refrain. An affirmation of their shared love and the triumph over adversity, it snowballs into your heart.