If you have no musical talent then become a reviewer.

“Six String Suicide” by Pete Ross and the Paesanos.

The greatest joy of owning an old car, let’s say a 1970 HG Kingswood station wagon, is cruising on an open highway, elbow in the breeze and some fine country tunes playing on the stereo. Yes, it is a clichéd image, I’ll grant you that, but oh so much fun. So when I heard the first few bars of Kiss Goodnight, the opening track on Pete Ross and the Paesanos debut album “Six String Suicide”, I was already imagining Girl O’Sea and myself driving off into the sunset.

The songs seemed to have everything that I look for in driving tunes. A strong vocal delivery? No problems there as Ross is blessed with a voice that wouldn’t be out of place in the Snarski family. Some gun players perhaps? The Paesanos are tight and versatile and include Monique Boggia’s wonderful work on the Hammond organ. Added to them are guest appearances by some of Melbourne’s finest including Matt Walker, Liz Stringer and Jen Anderson. All good so far.

We’ve already had our visual cliché so let’s have some lyrical ones as well because they are as important to good country as boots and a big hat. The second track is called Man In The Long Black Coat. Ah, the infamous “Man In Black” cliché that is taught day one in songwriter’s school. Later we have My Baby’s Gone in which we learn that the protagonist’s baby is, in fact, gone but he is intending too drive all night to get her back. Although no mention is made of the whereabouts of his dog I am still prepared to give this a big tick.

Ok, so we are progressing well, ticking all the boxes, and I’m checking the oil and water but then Mr Ross decides to do something a bit different, with good effect. A Thousand Miles Away starts off with acoustic guitar but is then joined by a new voice, singing in Italian. What progresses is a very Cave-esque duet between this new voice and Ross, singing in English. Duets are not uncommon in country music but usually not between men singing in different languages. It turns out that the new voice belongs to Ross’ father, Peter Ciani, who was something of an Italian pop star during the 1950s. Ciani co-produced the album with Ross and co-wrote a number of songs.

Ross also sings in Italian on two tracks and one of these, Sciuri Sciuri, provides a highlight. Apparently it is a traditional Sicilian folk song and its groove is so infectious that all you want to do is wrap one arm around Nonna, the other around big Uncle Joe and dance the night away.

For the most part I really enjoyed “Six String Suicide”. My only grumbles would be that in a couple of spots Ross didn’t seem to play to his strengths in his vocal delivery and the orchestration was a bit busy in places but I can see how that would happen, given all of those gun players he had in the studio.

That said, it still made me very happy and I look forward to having it on the stereo next time I’ve got my elbow in the breeze.