Artist: The Americans
Album: The Right Stuff
Bitrate: 234kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Loose Music
Genre: Rock
Size: 35.42 megs
PlayTime: 0h 20min 23sec total
Rip Date: 2017-12-02
Store Date: 2017-04-28
Track List:
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01. Nevada 3:22
02. The Right Stuff 4:23
03. Last Chance 4:45
04. Gospel Roads 7:53
Release Notes:
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ôFrom the first rolling guitar notes, carrying sadness and defiance like dust,
this sweeps me up: I want to know everything about where that feeling came from,
and where itÆs going.ö û Greil Marcus, Pitchfork
ôGenius twenty-first century musicians that are reinventing American heritage
music for this century. And it sounds even better this century.ö û T Bone
Burnett
Sometime in the 1970s, a decade before frontman Patrick Ferris and bassist Jake
Faulkner were born, their mothers met on a train to Woodstock. Patrick and Jake
met as children but lived in different cities and saw little of one another
before they reconnected in high school when they got along immediately through
their joy for busking (street performing), and pre-war American country and
blues. ôNobody I knew liked the same music,ö recalls Patrick. Jake came from Los
Angeles to visit, bringing his guitar and baskets of recording gear. They spent
that summer recording homeless street musicians with a mobile unit they lugged
around San Francisco, making copies of the recordings for the performers to
sell.
Guitarist Zac Sokolow had dropped out of high school and was busking on the
street and working construction in Los Angeles when Jake saw him playing guitar,
and convinced him to move in with them and start a band. Spurring one another
on, they spent years digging through obscure records and arcane field
recordings. They taught themselves banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and slide guitar.
Patrick calls his long immersion, during which he created and hosted a radio
show, a ôpuristö phase. ôWe were suspicious of modern rock music,ö he says.
ôWhen we got together and formed a band, we had to make everything from scratch.
We had no template. There was no band we wanted to be like.ö ôA band influenced
by old blues is nothing new,ö Patrick adds. ôThere was a time when practically
every rock and roll band worshipped that stuff. And there are bands today who
share that nostalgia, incorporating jazz and folk instruments, or old chord
progressions. I think we were all curious whether we could summon the spirit of
old blues and country through what weÆd learned firsthand, and create something
brand new, leaving behind the nostalgia and musical aesthetics.ö
The AmericansÆ debut album, released through Loose in Europe on July 7,2017,
seems to have achieved just that. ôTheyÆve shape-shifted back into the
modern-day rock and roll band,ö writes Cara Gibney ( No Depression ), ôwriting
contemporary music of their time, incorporating the kernel of their traditional
roots, enhancing their rock and roll credentials with the emotional quality of
music made generations earlier.ö Greg Vandy ( American Standard Time ) calls it
ôdistinctly American rock ænÆ roll. Throaty, firinÆ on all cylinders, road trip
rock, charged with intense composition choices that call to mind the history of
roots music, from Chuck Berry and Tom Waits to The War On Drugs.ö
The AmericansÆ transition to an original rock band didnÆt happen overnight.
Struggling to finish songs in time for their recording session, Patrick drove
around late at night looking for hourly motels where he would check in to write.
ôI wrote a lot of the album in those rooms,ö he recalls. ôNot necessarily for
inspiration, but for the sense of urgency they provided.ö Sitting on the edge of
a giant, heart-shaped bed, singing softly into a recording machine, he was
sometimes interrupted by fights in the hallway, romantic couples in a
neighboring room, or loud knockings on his door. ôWe write our songs
inside-out,ö says Patrick. ôWe grab hold of something minuscule and primitiveùa
simple turn of phrase or an unusual beatùand try to build a song around it. It
can be inefficient, and hard to write words over, but itÆs magical when it
works.ö
The farther The Americans get from their Los Angeles home, the less often
theyÆre asked about their name. ôWhere we come from, people want to know why
weÆre called The Americans,ö Patrick explains. ôIs it patriotic? Is it ironic?
By the time we get to Texas or Tennessee, all we hear is, æOh thatÆs a lovely
name!'ö In reality the band got its name from a Robert Frank photo series first
published in 1958. Like FrankÆs photos, The AmericansÆ songs are miniature
biographies, intimate and empathic portraits of individuals that leave much
unsaid. Grammy and Oscar winner Ryan Bingham calls it ôsome of the best
songwriting IÆve heard in years.ö
Their live show, honed over many hundreds of performances, is something to
behold. Ron Wray ( No Depression ) writes, ôTheyÆre led by lead singer,
guitarist Patrick Ferris, looking like James Dean but even betterà. Jake
Faulkner, with his dark black beard and jaunty hat, dances across stage, lifting
his stand-up bass like a dancing partner.ö Chris Griffy ( AXS ) calls them
ôstraight up blue-collar rock and roll in the style of Bruce Springsteen and
John Mellencamp.ö Steve Wildsmith ( Daily Times ) admires their ôanthemic guitar
hooks and a heartland sense of urgency thatÆs tailor made for road trips and
late-night parties beneath a field of brilliant stars.ö
The bandÆs first tour was different from most. Their friendùthe photographer
whoÆd introduced them to Robert FrankÆs work ùwas appointed drummer but was
allowed to play only a plywood suitcase, which he beat with a soup spoon. The
band set off on a meandering, quixotic odyssey that found them playing honky
tonks, rural bars, a Navajo radio station, and a wine cellar in an abandoned
Coca-Cola bottling plant. Some of the venues hadnÆt hosted a live band since the
1980s. ôWe had a passport to the hidden heartland of our country,ö recounts
Jake. Nowadays their tours are more structured, but the guys still seek out the
road less travelled. ôWhat you learn exploring the nooks and crannies of any
place, but especially this country, is that thereÆs no type of person,ö Patrick
explains. Zac adds that ôstereotypes break down at the individual level. What
makes American music great is the same thing that makes America greatùpeople who
come from all over the world, each with a story, each with something to
contribute.ö