Pat Catania of Hammond’s Invisible Cowboy has always made songs seem effortless. The band has quietly been around for more than a decade making country rock influenced more by Southern rock and boogie than George Jones or Johnny Cash. By now, the band exists primarily playing roadhouse dates on the Northshore, and it doesn’t seem like it is particularly worried about making the Big Time (if it ever was). That sort of peace (if the band made it) is healthy; too many bands struggle way too long to try to “make it” and don’t enjoy the basic pleasure of playing together the way they should.

 

Lowered expectations (if they’ve been lowered) do show up in the music, though. Catania’s songs seem a little easy at times, with two songs with “Girl” in the title and a general slackness in the choruses. His easygoing vocals mask that, though, and the space in the band’s sound suggests that extra notes or more tightly written lyrics would be out of place. But listening to the individual songs is missing the big picture; this is the sound of friends making music together, and though they’d like for you to buy it at their shows, the doing is the thing.