Geez, the mailbox has been pretty twangy lately…
Drinking Dark Whiskey – The SteelDrivers
A bunch of seasoned, road tested Nashville studio vets with a shared love of bluegrass, The SteelDrivers have an interesting take on a pretty traditional genre: eschewing the high lonesome cliche in favor of a bluesy Muscle Shoals soul vocal sound. The playing is stellar and the songwriting is not your standard “pig in a pen” fare. Their self titled debut is out on Rounder Records.
The SteelDrviers on MySpace
Don’t Send Me Roses – Chris Unck And The Black Roses
Sticking with the firewater theme, Chris Unck wants to continue imbibing the amber fluid in the afterlife, imploring his successors to “make sure that you bury me with my mouth wide open/you can pour that whiskey down on my grave”. Country Roads And Love, the debut by these folky Southern rockers from Atlanta, came out on Lower 40 a couple weeks ago.
The War – The Whipsaws
Speaking of Southern rock, a big reason I’m sorry I’m not headed down to Austin for SXSW (unlike seemingly every other blogger on the planet) is that I’ll miss The Whipsaws. The second record from these youthful Anchorage roots rockers is called 60 Watt Avenue and it’s on Shut Eye. Killer crunchy guitars with thought provoking lyrics like the track above that addresses the current conflict from a poignant, personal point of view. Imagine The Drive By Truckers were from Alaska instead of Athens, GA and listened to early Neil Young instead of Lynyrd Skynyrd and you get the idea…
While trolling WFMU’s fabulous Beware of the Blog I came across Monday night DJ Scott Willaims’ photo collection depicting the affliction that is guitar face. A hilarious set with some infamous sufferers like 
Carlos Santana included but there are some glaring omissions. No Jimi Hendrix? Where’s Eddy Van Halen? I’m sure with VH touring again it wouldn’t take much effort to compose a study of how his current lack of hair effects frame composition when photographing the obligatory open mouth solo.
A little google searching for this six and four stringed malady revealed (among over 23,000 items) this creepy comparison between rockers and porn stars courtesy of Details magazine and an Urban Dictionary definition. The real find, however, was the glorious and extensive Guitar Face group photo pool over at Flickr.com. The Flickr pool is pretty damn cool with 200+ members and over 900 pictures. It’s been going for over a year now and really appeals to the retentive rock geek in me what with its rules and moderators. I’m signing up!
I’ve got a promo copy of Vagabonds, the solo debut from Jayhawks front fella Gary Louris, to give to some lucky Now Hear This reader. But more on that later.
First I wanna tout another debut that recently slid through the ol’ mail slot: the Muddy & White EP (click the picture to purchase) from Berkeley band Winter’s Fall. It’s a nifty blend of folk, pop noir and country with enough indie rock and glitchy laptop noise to push it to the front of a crowded alt. folk pack. Bandleader Peter Stanley’s a great story teller with a fresh, arresting voice. They’re in the studio recording their first full-length so get ready to hear a lot more from them soon.
The Hollowing.
Winter’s Fall on myspace for more music and tour dates.
Now about that giveaway. The much anticipated solo debut from Jayhawks frontman and Golden Smog member Gary Louris has only been out a couple weeks but it’s doing pretty well, climbing both the Americana and Billboard charts. More philosophical and introspective than his work in either of his previous projects, Vagabonds finds Louris on a rootsy search for something to believe in. I’m particularly enjoying the gorgeous backing vocals from the Laurel Canyon Family Choir which includes Chris Robinson (who also produces), Susanna Hoffs and Jenny Lewis, among others. To win a copy email me at mlubenow@gmail.com with your address and the answer to this question: which member of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers appears on the Jayhawks breakthrough Hollywood Town Hall?
Vagabonds
Gary’s homepage.
