Bandcamp [Release date 18.06.24]
‘Tupelo’ is a down-home tale of drifters and grifters in the Deep South.
It’s a digital equivalent of an old school 45 rpm single, in which the musical feel and narrative creep up on you like the film noir shadows of a Cohen Brothers movie.
‘Tupelo’ is far removed from the legends of Elvis, being a sepia tinged slice of contemporary roots music into Americana with story telling lyrics that get inside characters heads.
If the story line was projected onto a much bigger screen, the characters might easily represent the minutiae of the urban legends of Mississippi.
Musically the song is a potent reminder of the world weary style that made last year’s ‘Problem & Remedy’ such a joy.
There’s real musical and lyrical craft here. Paddy Wells, the harp playing vocalist and lyricist is the perfect conduit to a fading Deep South in which hopes and aspirations are extinguished in moments rather than expanses of time.
Everything is meticulously planned and articulated in a clever chorus which is as uplifting as the lyrics are the opposite.
The band applies richly hewn brush strokes to music that rises and falls like a character’s very next breath: “Sweet the sound, and grace nowhere to be found, She’s got her head down, In Tupelo.
There’s ain’t no way to say how It’ll shake down, Heading for breakdown, In Tupelo.”
Best of all is the way a droll turn of phrase finds a new way to evoke dashed hopes and desperation:
“But he showed up wearing stolen boots, and the kind of suit, that he thinks a rich man wears.”
Dust Radio spin their tale in an acoustic led groove, full of Wells’s husky phrasing and country harp flourishes, alongside Tom Jackson’s chiming guitar lines which lock in with drummer Rob Kenny and bassist Stu Baggaley’s lightness of touch.
And yet the song rises again to reach for the kind of intensity that only definitive harp break can resolve.
The credits roll, the lights come up and we silently leave the cinema. *****
Review by Pete Feenstra
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
Next session: Sunday 19 January
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 24 November 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 26 November 2024.
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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024
In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections
Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)
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