The Bros. Landreth Highlight AmericanaFest Showcase with Let It Lie
Jay Minkin
Posted On September 24, 2014
I was going to lead off with the full-blown Americana Music Association travel log, but there is some breaking news out of Nashville that supersedes today’s top stories. The AMA showcases are a stumble of luck at times and Friday night was a roll of the dice that came up with winners. Of the 10 clubs hosting 48 different musical acts, the pick was based around seeing Jamestown Revival at the Mercy Lounge. My partner in crime Dale Elwell and I were all in to see Joe Purdy, Black Prairie, and Green River Ordinance, who were also on the bill of performers starting at 8:00 p.m. The last band to perform was a relatively new group that neither of us had heard, but whom Dale recommended based on reviews that pegged the group with such luminaries as the Allman Brothers and Tedeschi Trucks. What we were in for was one of the highlights of the five night extravaganza of music.
Engineered by Donnie Benedictson at Unity Gain Studios in Roseisle, MB, and produced by Murray Pulver, the album’s 11 tracks are bright and beautiful like a sunny outdoor party album. Tracks heard from the band’s showcase included a nice mainstream radio-friendly number called “Tappin’ on the Glass” and the toe-tapping “Made Up Mind.” Next they ripped and wailed through a fuzzy gritty blues rocker called “I Am the Fool,” which led into the classic 1973 Paul McCartney and Wings cover “Let Me Roll It.” They followed that up with a funky rocker called “Runaway Train” that Bonnie Raitt might wish to cover herself. The tempo slowed down a bit with the title track and a nice slow dance number called “Nothing.”
The band threw in a song that’s not on the album, titled “Jesus on the Mainland,” which was cultivated from a timeline moment when Joey toured with a gospel singer who used to walk around strumming the Gsus Chord and saying “loves you.”
The set closed out with “Our Love” — the first song on the record. The opening track sets the table for the rest of an album, and this song hooks the listener early with Joey’s soft deep Allmanesque vocals and electric slide guitars shredding through the bridge and closing notes.
