ARTiST: The Band Of Heathens
ALBUM: Top Hat Crown & The Clapmaster's Son
BiTRATE: 186kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Blue Rose Records
GENRE: Rock
SiZE: 73.75 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 52min 25sec total
RiP DATE: 2011-02-26
STORE DATE: 2011-03-29
Track List:
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01. Medicine Man 4:15
02. Should Have Known 4:37
03. Enough 4:08
04. Polaroid 3:21
05. Nothing To See Here 4:32
06. The Other Broadway 4:33
07. I Ain't Running 4:49
08. Gravity 4:13
09. Free Again 4:20
10. Hurricane 5:23
11. Gris Gris Satchel 3:49
12. Motherland 4:25
Release Notes:
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Produced by George Reiff (Chris Robinson, Courtyard Hounds, Ray Wylie Hubbard),
new album comes on heels of Austin City Limits (PBS) appearance, festivals and
#1 Americana record
Austin, TX - infoZine - 2010 was a year of making noise and news for the Band of
Heathens. With 200-plus show dates, a fifth anniversary celebration, appearances
at Lollapalooza and other top national festivals and a taping of Austin City
Limits with Elvis Costello, it is remarkable that the Heathens even found time
to write and record a new studio album, but they did.
The result is Top Hat Crown & the ClapmasterÆs Son, a surprising, multi-faceted
gem of a disc. Their third studio album and the fifth release overall, Top Hat
Crown displays the wide range of classic influences fans and critics have come
to admire in the band, yet theyÆve added, built and grown. Producer George
Reiff, celebrated for his work with the Black CrowesÆ Chris Robinson, the
Courtyard Hounds (Martie Maguire and Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks) and Ray
Wylie Hubbard, tended to the albumÆs vibe and spirit, which is reaching,
rocking, bluesy, funky and enjoyable as hell, from its rocking opening to its
serene acoustic conclusion.
The Band of Heathens is constantly being compared to The Band because of the
musical finesse that overlays their timeless, rootsy core. And the three
founding members are all skilled multi-instrumentalists who can play almost any
position in the field. But TBoH has reached so many fans so fast because of the
echoes of and subtle homage to so many different artists at the core of the
Americana canon, including Tom Petty, Tony Joe White, the Grateful Dead, Leon
Russell, George Harrison, and other rarified stylists. You can hear a little of
all that at a Heathens show or on disc, and Top Hat Crown feels like the most
coherent and mature encapsulation of those elements so far.
Given the timelessness of their sound, one gets the sense that Ed Jurdi, Gordy
Quist and Colin Brooks would have gravitated toward the same essential feel had
they met in 1975 or 2045. As it happens, it was in 2006 after each songwriter
had established residency gigs on the same night of the week at MomoÆs, an
eclectic-minded club on AustinÆs famous Sixth Street. Friendship, semi-regular
sit-ins and harmony jags gelled into something quite rare: a band with three
frontmen, each with enough humility and passion to invest in the larger project.
The sum transcended the parts. Bassist Seth Whitney was a member from the
get-go. Drummer John Chipman joined in 2007 as their road calendar got heavier.
Fans of the band will note one familiar song here. ôFree Againö was written,
recorded and released as a single in a blast of energy in the summer of 2010,
inspired by the mind-boggling Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ItÆs sincere and
sarcastic, playful and chastising. And itÆs part of a Louisiana theme that
closes out the album and ties the whole project together. ôHurricane,ö the
albumÆs lone cover, a Nashville-written tune from an old Levon Helm album, is a
poignant portrait of an aging Gulf Coast salt reflecting on storms and eerily
anticipating Katrina. And ôGris Gris Satchel,ö the final cut, is a gorgeous and
soothing acoustic tune that evokes old New Orleans and memories of great Crosby,
Stills & Nash tracks.
Like that historic group, the Band of Heathens is distinguished by collaboration
and load-sharing. And while songwriting and vocal duties are chiefly handled by
the three guys across the front of the stage, they are decidedly a five-man
band, benefitting from the equal input of all. This can lead to a lot of
deliberation and creative tension. But it also means the music that emerges has
been through five filters and enjoyed the collaborative creative power of five
music-loving minds. ôWhen I write a song with Ed or Colin, I usually hear it a
certain way in my head,ö says Quist about the power of the process. ôWhen we
bring it in to the band, the song almost always comes out turned on its head,
leaning in another direction from where it started.ö Music fans nationwide will
hear that distilled quality upon the release of Top Hat Crown.