Album Review: The Perch Creek Family Jug Band - Jumping On The Highwire

The Melbourne collective – most of whom are related – come into Jumping On The Highwire eager, road-refined and with a bag full of ideas. At times, too many ideas. With so many songwriters, Jumping On The Highwire never really settles into a rhythm, party-jigs backing into bleak murder ballads and Depression-era blues swings leading into round-the-campfire singalongs. Thankfully the best moments are intoxicating enough to throw the need for consistency out the railcar door, the band's own coherency the only glue they need.