Always one to play armchair psychologist I recently picked up the solo works of Whalen and Mathus, both formerly of Squirrel Nut Zippers and both formerly married to each other. Seeing both cutting and dropping albums withing months of each other and recorded in the aftermath of their relationship makes my inner voyeur tingle with delight. I plan of delving into each album a little deeper but here’s my National Enquirer® style thoughts.

Mathus is restrained in dealing with the break up and Old School Hot Wings reflects it as it plays like a bunch of old friends gathered around the kitchen table plucking out tunes and sipping whiskey. Occasionally he busts out a backhanded slap of a tune like “Wouldn’t Treat a Dog” but for the most part he is boxing up his feelings, tying it tightly up with string and dropping it down a deep well. He is finding comfort in the sounds of the past and the intimacy of friendships of few spoken words. That said, his album is a slow burner of Deep South Country and Blues and is more than worth picking up for the thick and humid atmosphere he and Knockdown South have crafted on these tracks.

Whalen, on the other hand, is announcing her freedom at the top of her lungs and Dirty Little Secret is aired out like laundry. She isn’t hiding anything; she is done with it and wants the world to know. She and her friends are driving with the top down and throwing all her old baggage out the back. Rather than falling back into nostalgia like Mathus, she is reinventing herself while exorcising the past from her psyche. Because of this the album finds itself all over the place with some hits and some misses but it is an exhilarating journey and you cannot help but be compelled to grab a piece of her luggage and chuck it out the window hollering, “You go girl!”

More to follow but in the meantime check out three tracks from Dirty Little Secret and three from Old School Hot Wings.