The Bean Pickers Union is a collective of musicians centred around vocalist and songwriter Chuck Melchin. Since 2006, they have released three albums and an EP to critical acclaim. ‘Greatest Picks’ is a compilation curated from the best of those releases from the last 15 years.
The music encompasses Bluegrass, alt-country, folk, and rock as it explores the boundaries of the Americana genre. Melchin’s songwriting is vivid and deep, exploring the human condition in a realised and empathic way, allowing the listener to relate the characters and situations contained within.
Highlights include, ‘Reaper’, a hard-hitting tale of friendship betrayed and murder fuelled by jealousy, the Civil War country-rock epic, ‘Warrior’, highlighting the harsh reality of war for injured veterans and their families back home, and ‘Photograph’. All three are dramatic, hard-hitting songs in which the listener can visualise the situations and feel the pain and devastation of the protagonists.
The haunting ‘Philemon’ explores the effects of religion on people’s lives. It’s a misguided tale of a Christian survivalist seeking refuge fearing the world’s end. Appropriate to these current COVID times and the anti-vaxxer movement, he discovers only the harshness of the wilderness. The gentler ‘Strange’, on the other hand, appears to be a semi-spiritual fear of death and longing for salvation.
The up-tempo ‘Amy Jean’ has hints of the Allman Brothers and is a tale of a wayward lady leaving broken hearts behind her.
‘Greatest Picks’ is a down and dirty collection of some of the finest Americana music around and is an excellent introduction to the works of Chuck Melchin and The Bean Pickers Union.