Breaking news: Today, after work and after whacking the parrot or feeding the wife or whatever it is you do between getting off work and heading out 'n carousing, you, sir or madam, are going to Knuckleheads.
Here's why.
Those two charming bastards are Johnny Kenepaske (left) and Adam Lee who comprise one of KC's coolest new bands, Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Company.
I wrote a column a month back about the hard honkin' and authentic yet refreshingly new sound of Lee and the DHSC. The piece contained a review-within-a-review that got cut for space, so, after the jump, check it out and download a free song or two. Just be sure you either buy them a shot or buy the CD itself, or both, tonight at the show.
Here's what I wrote that (mostly) didn't make it into the April 30 issue of The Pitch.
Ghostly Fires is a fantastic debut.Twangy opener "Southern Railroad Co." is about going on a cross-country picaresque by train and drinking a lot along the way. (It's easy to picture a young, drunk Paul Newman hanging off the side of a locomotive in some '60s Western while the song chugs along.) Track two, the title number, is a bluesy, country-gothic cautionary tale, with Adam crooning in his quavering baritone, I put up little resistence/My soul was easy to break/The devil, he knows what I'm doin'/And he don't think it's a shame.
MP3:
That's great start for the Johnny Cash-admiring listener. But on the next song, "Oh, Virginia," when a finger-picked guitar and lowing violin make way for Lee's whinnying falsetto on the chorus, it brings to mind the songwriting of Whiskeytown-era Ryan Adams.
What makes Fires so compelling is the way it builds bridges between classic and new styles. Bluegrass rambler "Whiskey Wheels" is chased by the Uncle Tupelo-flavored, pedal-steel ballad"Lies & Patience." The rockabilly reverb on "Ebru, KY," is offset by the quiet, introspective "Military Man," in which Lee touches on his relationship to his father, a retired Air Force Colonel.
MP3:
The album's sonic elegance is a country mile or three from the hard-drinkin', party-startin' live persona of Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Company.
They're playing tonight at Knuckleheads Saloon with Richmond, Virginia's Cadillac Flambe. Show starts at 7 p.m.
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