The BLUES MOBILE radio show w/ ELWOOD BLUES features LEFT LANE CRUISER’s “Elephant Stomp”

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Elwood’s Blues Breaker: Left Lane Cruiser “Elephant Stomp”
TheBluesMobile
on 26 August, 2015 at 10:51

Left Lane Cruiser began life about as basic as a band can get – guitar and drums. They emerged from Fort Wayne, Indiana, but you can sure hear North Mississippi, ZZ Top, Howlin’ Wolf, and more in their hardcore, stoned hillbilly, frenzied sound. The man behind the raw sound is guitar player and yowler, Frederick Joe Evans IV. He has burned through a couple drummers now, and added a bass player, who also plays an electrified skateboard. Listen and let your jaw drop accordingly. This is Left Lane Cruiser. A gentle little ballad called “Elephant Stomp.”

PURE VOLUME premieres JAMES LEG’s “Dirty South”

Music fans will know James Leg for his work with the Black Diamond Heavies, but he’s also carved out a nice side solo career. His dirty keys and trademark gruffy howl have made him a favorite with the rough-and-tumble type and with good reason. Recently, Leg announced his plans to release his second proper solo album this year, and today, we’re excited to premiere the video for Leg’s cover of Bob Reuter’s “Dirty South.” The menacing track is as haunting as it is strangely soothing.

“‘Dirty South’ was written by my dear friend and hero, Bob Reuter of St Louis, Missouri,” Leg says. “I reckon it’s a song about what goes through a man’s mind at 5 in the morning when he can’t sleep and is layin in his own sweat.”

MORE ON THE PURE VOLUME SITE

JAMES LEG’s new album “Below The Belt” reviewed in CLASSIC ROCK

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All hail the Reverend.

Let us consider the time-honoured gravel-throated rasp. Since being defined by Beefheart and Tom Waits, the ravaged buffalo scrotum holler has long been the refuge of those lacking singing chops or much personality.

James Leg is the latest wracked carrier of the ruined distillery gargle and, from his first emission over the rusty chain boogie of Dirty South, is the real deal, backing up his roaring swagger with an innate grasp of life-soiled rudiments.

Leg is John Wesley Myers of the Black Diamond Heavies, son of a Texas preacher and staunch convert from that old-time religion to the eternal good-time diet which laces his missives with knowing poke, along with his rich Fender Rhodes.

His follow-up to 2011’s Solitary Pleasure cuts anyone on the gutter-pointed boogie but can also turn Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s Up Above My Head into a robe-swinging riot. He even manages to ram the Dirtbombs’ Can’t Stop Thinking About It through the barroom window and make The Cure’s A Forest his own.

What More ends the album with a soulful ballad, bolstered by female chorale. It’s a direction he should pursue on his next album, which I hope won’t be too long, as this is a rare raw delight.

CLASSIC ROCK SITE HERE

James Leg Classic Rock review

GOSPELBEACH premieres “Mick Jones” via SPIN

GospelbeacH Return to the Shore for ‘Mick Jones’ Single

As a founding member of Beachwood Sparks, Brent Rademaker built a castle of sand out of gently twanging guitar lines and jaunty basswork and from the looks of things he’s returning to those warm shores for his new band GospelbeacH. Along with singer/guitarists Neal Casal and Jason Soda, bassist Kip Boardman and drummer Tom Sanford, Rademaker’s again making a sleepy (stoned?) version of folk-rock structures that’s somewhere between kaleidoscopic alt-country and the times when the Grateful Dead decided to color within the lines. MORE ON THE SPIN SITE

★★★★ review of DATURA4 “Demon Blues” from GET READY TO ROCK

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Lots going on with this album but it is cohesive, consistent and very, very listenable to. I keep hearing and reading that the album is dead and that people only download selected songs…for sure, your average music consumer today has a very short-attention span and is bombarded by content in the fragmented world we live in but the fact is that, very often, an album is patchy with highs and lows and lots of filler.

Not so with Demon Blues which grabs you early doors with the impossibly catchy “Out With The Tide” and doesn’t let up. Simplicity is a prevalent thread throughout this album but this is to the album’s credit, not detriment. Whether your bag is spacey blues or non-gloomy (White ?) Sabbathy riffs, Datura4 has produced a very delicious piece of work. The band name may sound like the moniker for a wrongly-imprisoned group of ne’er do-wells, preaching their innocence to the public but I’m assured Datura is a poisonous strain of flowering plant with possible aphrodisiac qualities (suspect you might have to smoke it to get the latter effect).

Read the entire review on the GET READY TO ROCK blog