Artist: The Deslondes
Album: The Deslondes
Bitrate: 228kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: New West Records
Genre: Country
Size: 67.32 megs
PlayTime: 0h 39min 28sec total
Rip Date: 2015-06-12
Store Date: 2015-06-12
Track List:
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01. Fought The Blues And Won 3:29
02. Those Were (Could've Been) The 2:29
Days
03. Heavenly Home 4:07
04. Less Honkin' More Tonkin' 1:42
05. Low Down Soul 3:36
06. The Real Deal 2:42
07. Still Someone 3:07
08. Time To Believe In 3:35
09. Louise 3:17
10. Simple And True 2:44
11. Same Blood As Mine 3:28
12. Out On The Rise 5:12
Release Notes:
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The left hand invented rock'n'roll. ThatÆs the hand that plays the bass lines on
piano, the hand used by early keys pounders like Jerry Lee Lewis, Moon Mullican,
and Fats Domino to put a little bit of boogie in their blues. That left hand
gave "Great Balls of Fire" its lusty pep and "Blueberry Hill" its making-time
thrill. So, when the Deslondes open their self-titled debut with a walking piano
line played way, way down the left side of the keyboard, theyÆre not just
playing a rhythm that sounds distinctive in 2015 but also conveying an entire
pop history that spans New Orleans rhythm and blues, early Memphis rock,
Louisiana Hayride country, and every pick-up jazz band ever to busk on Royal
Street.
Plus, it just sounds damn good. "Fought the Blues and Won" lopes along on that
syncopated bass line, which makes the bandÆs hangdog harmonies come off a bit
more determined, even if they donÆt sound quite triumphant. The blues will just
show up again tomorrow, and theyÆre bracing for another fight. ôIt might hit you
from all sides, or right between the eyes,ö sings Riley Downing, one of four
singers and five songwriters in the Deslondes. ôKeep on going.ö
Using the piano as a rhythm section instrument certainly distinguishes the band
from a lot of their country peers, who more often use it for melody or
atmosphere. The Deslondes are highlights of an unlikely country scene based in
New Orleans of all places, a city with a rich and renowned music history that
includes everything but country. But a new generation of actsùincluding Hurray
for the Riff Raff, Luke Winslow King, the Longtime Goners, and the late,
lamented Sundown Songsùis marrying twang with Crescent City rhythms. The
Deslondes cut their teeth in street bands busking for tourist change and in
pick-up acts playing backyard barbecues, both of which can be laboratories for
testing new ideas and distilling songs down to their essence.
So their debut introduces a band that sounds confident and fully formed. Every
song contains some new flourish or some new idea to distinguish it, whether itÆs
the spidery pedal steel of "Low Down Soul", the spiky guitar riff that comes out
of nowhere on "The Real Deal", or even the quiet clarinet solo that illuminates
closer "Out on the Rise" from the inside. They take nothing about country or R&B
or New Orleans for granted, but consider everything anew. "Less HonkinÆ More
TonkinÆ" is too fast to really honkytonk to, and thatÆs okay because itÆs about
a traffic jam. Even "Louise", the most traditionally brokenhearted song here, is
interrupted by a shuffling two-step guitar rhythm, as though the Deslondes know
that the best thing about Johnny Cash wasnÆt the clothes or the myth but the men
backing him.
Somehow the country gospel of "Those Were (CouldÆve Been) the Days" and the
Morricone-on-the-cowboy-trail arrangement of "Time to Believe In" actually sound
fresh in 2015. Even as these songs delve deep into the past, they never sound
calculated or revivalist, which is refreshing after the parade of tweed jackets
and uplifting choruses that have defined Americana for the last several years.
Instead, The Deslondes sounds like something scavenged and salvaged, as though
the band members found that walking bass line or that rockabilly rhythm just
lying around on the street, unused and abandoned. They know itÆd be a shame to
let it go to waste.