THE WACO BROTHERS AND PAUL BURCH

Great Chicago Fire comes to us, so the story goes, as the serendipitous result of Paul Burch and members of the Wacos knocking back margaritas together at an industry gathering. What they’ve whipped up brings together the characteristic Waco Brothers strum und twang with Burch’s melodic classicism. The jointness of this joint undertaking doesn’t extend to songwriting (with one exception, the amped-up title track, which Burch and Wacos front man Jon Langford co-wrote); Burch contributes the majority of the songs. They do sport his typical sweet sound, although they all ride a little harder and rougher with the Wacos backing him up. For a finale, the assemblage applies its combined force to a reeling, turbocharged version of Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.” Just the sort of thing you might expect to hear after a few too many—well, maybe just the right number of—margaritas. –Stuart Munro