Monthly Archives: September 2013

SWAMP DOGG-PRODUCED LPS FROM WOLFMOON & SANDRA PHILLIPS OUT OCT. 1ST ON ALIVE RECORDS!

WOLFMOON – WOLFMOON
FIRST REISSUE EVER, ON ANY FORMAT of this sought after collectors’ album of Southern Soul and pop gospel. Wolfmoon, aka Little Tommy, hails from Richmond, VA and is without a doubt one of the most talented performers Swamp Dogg has worked with and produced. This terrific album includes great cover songs of “People Get Ready,” “If I Had A Hammer” and “Proud Mary,” along with originals penned by The Dogg. The album art is a beautiful psychedelic illustration reminiscent of the ’70s. Ltd. ed. color vinyl with original gatefold jacket available from Bomp-mailorder.

“Wolfmoon … what can I say about Wolfmoon that hasn’t already been said about Idi Amin. He’s a treacherous, lying, two-faced song thief; with possible cannibal tendencies. With all that said, he was and still may be one of the greatest singers and entertainers that I’ve known in my career. On top of that, he was a drummer’s drummer. He was the best. That’s how I fell into his trap. This album is timelier today than it was in ‘69. Forget the taste I have in my mouth and listen to a bad motherfu**er sing some great Swamp Dogg songs.”  – Swamp Dogg

WOLFMOONart442

WOLFMOON TRACK LISTING:
01. Cloak Of Many Colors
02. If He Walked In Today
03. My Kind Of People
04. If I Had A Hammer
05. People Get Ready
06. Proud Mary
07. God Bless
08. That’s My Hope For Heaven
09. Treasures I Have Found
10. The Artist

SANDRAPHILLIPS442

SANDRA PHILLIPS – TOO MANY PEOPLE IN ONE BED
Never officially released by Canyon (the label went belly-up just after shipping the first copies in 1970), this album was meant to be a follow-up to the Doris Duke hit record “I’m A Loser.” Produced by Swamp Dogg in Macon, GA this is Deep Soul at its best. Sandra Phillips (a/k/a Sandra Reeves-Phillips) has become a star on Broadway, movies and TV, winning awards and appearing in movies such as “Round About Midnight” and “Lean On Me,” and on TV Shows such as “Law And Order.” Ltd. ed. color vinyl available exclusive from Bomp-mailorder.

“I signed Sandra Phillips to Wally Roker’s Canyon label and then took her to Macon, Georgia, where I had a magic lantern that produced a band consisting of Johnny Sandlin (drums), Robert Popwell (bass), Pete Carr (guitar), Paul Hornsby (organ & piano) and me, also on piano. My genie wouldn’t let me do wrong. I had a production deal with Wally for as many albums as I wanted to do, with complete autonomy. I’m damn sorry he went belly-up. The album that you are drooling over was never officially released. Canyon shipped it and then Canyon bought the farm. I gave Sandra an unconditional release and we have remained friends.”  – Swamp Dogg

TOO MANY PEOPLE IN ONE BED TRACK LISTING:
01. Rescue Song
02. I’ve Been Down So Long
03. My Man And Me
04. To the Other Woman (I’m the Other Woman)
05. Now That I’m Gone (When Are You Leaving)
06. Someday We’ll Be Together
07. After All I Am Your Wife
08. Ghost of Myself
09. If You Get Him (He Never Was Mine)
10. She Didn’t Know (She Kept on Talking)
11. Please Don’t Send Him Back To Me
12. Some Mother’s Son

swamp-dogg442

SWAMP DOGG 2013 TOUR DATES:
October 3-4 @ The Ponderosa Stomp – New Orleans, LA
Oct 26 @ Bar Pink – San Diego, CA
Oct 31 @ The Kessler – Dallas, TX
Nov 1-2 @ Continental Club – Austin TX
(more dates to be announced soon)

SwampDogg_Obi

FOR MORE INFO ON SWAMP DOGG:
http://www.swampdogg.net

FOR MORE INFO ON ALIVE RECORDS:
http://www.alive-totalenergy.com

FOR MEDIA AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS:
Tony Bonyata
Pavement PR
p: 262.903.7775
e: bonyata@wi.rr.com
https://pavementpr.com

POPMATTERS PREMIERES LEFT LANE CRUISER’S “ROCK THEM BACK TO HELL!” ALBUM & ADDITONAL PRESS!

POPMATTERS
Left Lane Cruiser – ‘Rock Them Back to Hell’ (album stream) (PopMatters Premiere)

Known as Left Lane Cruiser, the duo of Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck defines its music as “voodoo hillbilly punk-blues”. Whatever that might be exactly, it’s actually a pretty apt description of the combination of thrashy, scuzzed-out guitar and trashy, bashed-up rhythms on Left Lane Cruiser’s latest outing, Rock Them Back to Hell. The new album is as resourceful as it is energetic, especially making an impression with found-sound percussion supplied by paint cans and trash cans. Wrap it all up in cover art by William Stout, known for his work for Return of the Living Dead and Pan’s Labyrinth, and the over-the-top tone and feel of Rock Them Back to Hell is more than complete.
Premiering here on PopMatters, Rock Them Back to Hell comes out 17 September 2013 via Alive Naturalsound Records.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/left-lane-cruiser-rock-them-back-to-hell-album-stream-popmatters-premiere/

NO DEPRESSION
(online music magazine)
5 out of 5 stars!
CD Review: Left Lane Cruiser – Rock Them Back to Hell!
by James G. Carlson
Freddy J. IV and Brenn Beck of Indiana’s roots rock and hillbilly blues duo Left Lane Cruiser are back with a follow-up to their 2011 release “Junkyard Speed Ball,” titled “Rock Them Back to Hell!” Still on Alive Records, this brand new full-length by Left Lane Cruiser consists of ten original songs of rousing sonic mastery. With Brenn’s dynamic drumming on his kit, along with the peculiar clank n’ bang of his occasional trash percussion, and with Freddy’s wildly nimble finger-pickin’ and dirty note progressions on his guitar, and of course his smoky, boozy stream of dirty-throated vocals, they especially rock the hell out of you on this one.

The first time my ears crossed paths with Left Lane Cruiser’s sound was a few years ago when Hillgrass Bluebilly Records released a reissue of the duo’s raucous debut, “Getting’ Down On It.” Admittedly, I became an instant fan as I listen to those early songs, an experience which resulted in a pretty favorable review. Since then I made a point of listening to as much Left Lane Cruiser material as I could find, during which I ended up reviewing “Junkyard Speed Ball.” But, having gone through the songs on “Rock Them Back to Hell!” a number of times in the last week, I am moved now to state that this is arguably their best album to date. Of course, you will have to listen to it and decided for yourself whether or not that is the case. Such things are entirely subjective, after all.

While “Rock Them Back to Hell” is one of those rare albums that are outstanding from start to finish, there are certainly a few album highlights that deserve mention. Zombie Blocked, the album opener, is a piece of hillbilly voodoo blues stomp, marked by note repetition and punctuated by trash percussion, as well as Freddy J.’s unmistakable ashtray vocals and Kevin Jackson’s ferocious harmonica accompaniment. The following track, Electrify, is along similar lines as Zombie Blocked, and again features Kevin Jackson’s harmonica skills. Neighborhood is a dirty song with Freddy J. working the keys on the Fender Rhodes organ, unleashing manic riffs, and delivering a busy stream of vocals as sharp and filthy as the edge of a rusty razor blade. Every good roots album needs a drinking song, especially when that roots album is by Left Lane Cruiser (whose two members undoubtedly have more booze in their veins than blood), and this one is a hybrid piece of beer-swilling, shot glass-turning rock’n’roll and wasteland country blues called The Juice to get Loose, in which Freddy J. praises the gods of fermentation and distillation, of pints and shots, of bottles and cans and jugs. For the song Coley, the boys slow it down a bit, with semi-clean-channel guitar over a foundation of dirty six-string rhythm, a simple but effective beat, and vocals that aren’t as muddy as usual. And lastly, we have the album’s closer, Righteous, an all-out rocker that seems a distant relation to the bluesy stoner rock of the band Clutch, coupled with a touch of ‘70s guitar rock, but when it comes down to all Left Lane Cruiser.

Left Lane Cruiser’s “Rock Them Back to Hell!” is available from Alive Records on red and white blood-splattered disc, in a simple cardboard and plastic case, with track list on back, band photos inside, and killer cover art by William Stout.

For fans of: Restavrant, Ten Foot Polecats, Scott H. Biram, The Juke Joint Pimps, Mudlow, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, etc.
http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/review-rock-them-back-to-hell-by-left-lane-cruiser

ORANGE COUNTY MUSIC EXAMINER
Schwindy’s indie music spotlight: Left Lane Cruiser
Rock Them Back to Hell!
Rating: 5 out of 5
When I received a message about a new Left Lane Cruiser album, it took me approximately 2.3 seconds to respond that I would like a review copy. I’m happy to report, loyal reader, that I am not disappointed.

The album begins with with some wonderfully fuzzed-out guitar and primitive drums in “Zombie Blocked.” Then about a minute into the song comes a harmonica part that reminds me of Five Horse Johnson. So, after two minutes is already pretty good with fuzzy guitar and harmonica. Then about two minutes into the song, comes an instrumental that sounds like the guys in the band are channeling R.L. Burnside. That’s never a bad thing. Oh, and since the song is about zombies, I would love to hear it worked into an episode of The Walking Dead.

If you’re looking for a serious groove, check out the song “Neighborhood.” The vocals are lowdown and gritty, the guitar is wicked, and all the while the drummer pounds out a rhythm that will get your head (and quite possibly other body parts) moving. Frankly, if this song doesn’t get you moving, I don’t know what will. That’s certainly not the only song that will get you moving. “Be So Fine” is pretty good for that too. The slide guitar in this one will get you dancing in your chair (or on your barstool if your watering hole has Left Lane Cruiser on the jukebox).

The amazing thing about this band is that the sound is produced by only two guys. The way the sound seems to surround you when you listen, it certainly seems like more than guys are in the band. Frankly, other bands should take a lesson from Left Lane Cruiser. When it’s time to record, just go into the studio and knock it out. Don’t let some producer convince you that you need to do a dozen versions of a song. Just imagine if Left Lane Cruiser ever succumbed to that. I doubt the band produce the raw, raucous blues sound we’ve come know if they gave in to some producer.

This album has so many things to love: slide guitar, harmonica, primitive drums, growled vocals, and a gritty blues that acts as a punch in the nose to all the pop rubbish that surrounds you every day). I’ll say it for the record. This album is a strong contender for the list of my favorite albums of 2013.
http://www.examiner.com/review/schwindy-s-indie-music-spotlight-left-lane-cruiser?cid=rss

WHEN YOU MOTOR AWAY
(online music blog)
REVIEW: Left Lane Cruiser – Rock Them Back To Hell

Left Lane Cruiser is a duo playing heavy, dirty blues-rock. If that makes you think Black Keys, White Stripes, so much the better. They’re definitely in that vein – substitute Ft. Wayne, IN for Akron, OH or Detroit, MI. On Rock Them Back To Hell, their latest album, they worked with the great Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders, Detroit MI: White Stripes, Dirtbombs, The Pack A.D., Ponys, etc etc etc).

What’s the sound here? Well, look at the album cover – dirty, hillbilly zombies! Now look at this picture:

They’re drinking 40s from paper bags! There’s a clear message being sent here, and you will be awarded points for picking it up. The souls of old hard-drinking Southern bluesmen reside in these two young Indiana musicians, and these souls want to get out. Bad. They are going to make a hell of a racket on their way out, too.

There’s good slow blues here, too – “Coley” is one where they dial it back a bit, and it’s got some pretty acoustic work. But the guitar playing on tracks like “Jukebox” and “Paralyze Ya” is incendiary, and there’s no way you won’t test the max volume of your speakers while listening to this album. It’s not a headphone album, it’s a “loud in the car” or “disturb the neighbors” kind of album. Thanks, as with so much good blues-rock, to the fine people at Alive/Naturalsound. Read more, check out tour dates and previous releases, and best of all, buy this thing at the links below.
http://whenyoumotoraway.blogspot.com/2013/09/review-left-lane-cruiser-rock-them-back.html

ADOBE & TEARDOPS
(online music blog)
Left Lane Cruiser — Rock Them Back to Hell!
Gott damm this is amazing, hair-curling stuff.

Left Lane Cruiser has been tearing up the pavement with their freakish garage blues for some time now. Today, they release their third studio album.

At first I was a little dubious of the slutty Union zombie (seriously? What do you even do with boobs like that?) but Rock Them Back to Hell! is all killer, no silicone. (Except for the CD, I guess.) Freddy J IV’s squalling vocals and Brenn Beck’s “trash” drum kit (it really is made of trash) create an unearthly sound that’s simultaneously sublime in it’s perfection and unholy in its blistering sensuality.
http://adobeandteardrops.blogspot.com/2013/09/left-lane-cruiser-rock-them-back-to-hell.html

LARGEHEARTED BOY
(online blues music site)
This Week’s Interesting Music Releases – September 17, 2013
Left Lane Cruiser: Rock Them Back To Hell!
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2013/09/this_weeks_inte_726.html

BLUES MAGAZINE
(online blues music site)
Audio: New single LEFT LANE CRUISER – Juice To Get Loose
from Rock Them Back To Hell! Due 17 Sept 2013 via Alive Records
New single LEFT LANE CRUISER – Juice To Get Loose, from Left Lane Cruiser’s new studio album “Rock Them Back To Hell!” (out on CD, Vinyl & Digital Sep. 17, 2013 through Alive Naturalsound Records).
Heavy southern blues sludge done just the way we like it – raw and kickin’ hard.

Left Lane Cruiser’s Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck are back with an album of voodoo hillbilly punk-blues. Recorded in Fort Wayne IN, and mixed in Detroit by renown producer/engineer Jim Diamond, “Rock Them Back To Hell!” sees the duo expanding their sonic palette by adding bass, harmonica, organ and “trash percussion” (that would be a cardboard box, a paint tin, trash can and an electrified five-gallon bucket). The result is an album to wake up the dead, and rock it back to hell! The “hell-billies” cover art is the work of renowned artist William Stout (Return Of The Living Dead, Invaders From Mars, Pan’s Labyrinth).

“ROCK THEM BACK TO HELL!” TRACK LISTING:
01 Zombie Blocked
02 Electrify
03 Neighborhood
04 Juice To Get Loose
05 Overtaken
06 Be So Fine
07 Jukebox
08 Coley
09 Paralyze Ya
10 Righteous
http://www.bluesmagazine.nl/audio-new-single-left-lane-cruiser-juice-to-get-loose/

BROADWAY MUSIC WORLD
(online music site)
Left Lane Cruiser’s ‘Rock Them Back to Hell!’ Out Today
Left Lane Cruiser’s Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck are back with an album of voodoo hillbilly punk-blues. Recorded in Fort Wayne, IN and mixed in Detroit by renown producer/engineer Jim Diamond, Rock Them Back To Hell! sees the duo expanding their sonic palette by adding bass, harmonica, organ and “trash percussion” (that would be a cardboard box, a paint tin, trash can and an electrified five-gallon bucket). The result is an album to wake up the dead, and rock it back to hell! The “hell-billies” cover art is the work of renowned artist William Stout (Return Of The Living Dead, Invaders From Mars, Pan’s Labyrinth).
Left Lane Cruiser’s new studio album Rock Them Back To Hell! will be available on all formats today, Sep. 17th through Alive Naturalsound Records. There will also be a very limited edition of colored vinyl available exclusively online through Bomp! mailorder.
http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Left-Lane-Cruisers-Rock-Them-Back-to-Hell-Out-Today-20130916

AMERICANA ROCK MIX
(internet radio show)
Juice to get Loose and Be So Fine aired on Sep 12th
http://americanarockmix.com/2013/09/12/episode-200-with-a-few-helping-hands/

SKOPE MAGAZINE
(online music site)
LEFT LANE CRUISER NEW FREE SINGLE “JUICE TO GET LOOSE”
September 11, 2013
Left Lane Cruiser’s Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck are back with an album of voodoo hillbilly punk-blues. Recorded in Fort Wayne, IN and mixed in Detroit by renown producer/engineer Jim Diamond, Rock Them Back To Hell! sees the duo expanding their sonic palette by adding bass, harmonica, organ and “trash percussion” (that would be a cardboard box, a paint tin, trash can and an electrified five-gallon bucket). The result is an album to wake up the dead, and rock it back to hell! The “hell-billies” cover art is the work of renowned artist William Stout (Return Of The Living Dead, Invaders From Mars, Pan’s Labyrinth).
www.skopemag.com/2013/09/11/left-lane-cruiser-new-free-single-juice-to-get-loose

CAPTAIN’S DEAD
(online music blog)
left lane cruiser “juice to get loose” off ‘rock them back to hell due’ out on 9.17 on alive naturalsound records and can stream it via popmatters, here.
http://captainsdead.com/left-lane-cruiser-juice-to-get-loose.html

ZOMBIE NEWS
Left Lane Cruiser – ‘Rock Them Back to Hell’ (album stream) (PopMatters Premiere)
http://www.zombiesnews.com/news/left-lane-cruiser-rock-them-back-hell-album-stream-popmatters-premiere

TWANG NATION
Listen Up! Left Lane Cruiser : “Juice To Get Loose
Left Lane Cruiser doesn’t skimp on the grease, whisky and dust on their single “Juice To Get Loose” from the upcoming “Rock Them Back to Hell” (9/17) The Fort Wayne, IN. duo of Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck defines its music as “voodoo hillbilly punk-blues”. That’ll just about get you in the wrong side if the tracks this cut leaves you. Hold on for your life.

The cover art is a great Jack Davis- style send up by William Stout, known for his work for Return of the Living Dead and Pan’s Labyrinth.
http://www.twangnation.com/2013/09/10/listen-up-left-lane-cruiser-juice-to-get-loose/#sthash.yDqm6sf5.dpuf

KRFC RADIO
(Fort Collins, CO public radio)
“Juice To Get Loose” aired on Scott Foley’s Routes & Branches show  8/31
http://routesandbranches.blogspot.com/2013/09/routes-branches-august-31-2013-scott.html

THE NEWS-SENTINEL
(Fort Wayne, IN daily)
The best things to do in the coming week
SATURDAY
DAY OF MUSIC: Enjoy the music of Left Lane Cruiser, James & the Drivers, The B.E.A.T. and Blue Satellite during the Pinestock Music Festival beginning at 2 p.m. at 6725 N. Road 550E near Churubusco. Gates open at 10 a.m.

Punk-blues duo Left Lane Cruiser is preparing to release its sixth studio album, “Rock Them Back To Hell!” on Sept. 17. The album was recorded in Fort Wayne.

Tickets are $20 for those age 21 and older who plan to drink beer at the event, and $25 each for those age 20 and younger or those age 21 and older who don’t plan to drink beer. The tickets include camping and a bonfire. Buy tickets at http://pinestock2013.brownpapertickets.com.

For information, call 450-8296 or go to http://pinestockfestival.com.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130905/ENT/309059998/1009/TELEVISION

THE MAD MACKEREL
(online UK music site)
Best Of The Month: Left Lane Cruiser – Juice To Get Loose
Swampy, distorted blues and junkyard punk that is raw, visceral and undeniably thrilling.
http://madmackerel.org/2013/09/05/mad-mackerels-best-of-the-month-august-2013/

WMNF RADIO
(Tampa public radio)
“Electrify” aired on 8/31
http://ninebullets.net/archives/playlist-ninebullets-radio-08-24-2013-88-5fm-wmnf-tampa

PLUG IN MUSIC  
(online music site)
Left Lane Cruiser Announce “Rock Them Back To Hell!” Out, 9/17
http://www.pluginmusic.com/news/article/left-lane-cruiser-announce-rock-them-back-to-hell

THE MAD MACKEREL
(online UK music site)
New Album From Left Lane Cruiser
Good news! Left Lane Cruiser’s Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck are back with a new album of voodoo hillbilly punk-blues, Rock Them Back To Hell.

By all accounts they’ve matured a bit too, adding harmonica, organ and even something they term trash percussion (that’ll be battering the bejesus out of cardboard boxes, paint tins, trash cans then). In truth the boys live up to every expectation that the cover art brings – swampy, distorted blues and junkyard punk that is raw, visceral and undeniably thrilling.

Download the zombie barn dance of Juice To Get Loose here.
http://madmackerel.org/2013/08/28/new-album-from-left-lane-cruiser/

BLUES IN THE NORTHWEST
(online blues music site)
Left Lane Cruiser – “Rock Them Back To Hell”
Left Lane Cruiser release their brand new record “Rock Them Back To Hell” next month. We don’t have a review copy of this record but I am delighted to report that one of the songs is available as a free download.

Left Lane Cruiser’s Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck are back with an album of voodoo hillbilly punk-blues. Recorded in Fort Wayne, IN and mixed in Detroit by renown producer/engineer Jim Diamond, Rock Them Back To Hell! sees the duo expanding their sonic palette by adding bass, harmonica, organ and “trash percussion” (that would be a cardboard box, a paint tin, trash can and an electrified five-gallon bucket). The result is an album to wake up the dead, and rock it back to hell! The “hell-billies” cover art is the work of renowned artist William Stout (Return Of The Living Dead, Invaders From Mars, Pan’s Labyrinth).
Left Lane Cruiser’s new studio album Rock Them Back To Hell! will be available on all formats on Sep. 17th through Alive Naturalsound Records. There will also be a very limited edition of colored vinyl available exclusively online through Bomp! mailorder.
http://www.bluesinthenorthwest.com/index.php/2013/08/31/left-lane-cruiser-rock-them-back-to-hell/

WHEN YOU MOTOR AWAY
FREE SONG: Left Lane Cruiser – “Juice to Get Loose” from Rock Them Back to Hell, out Sept. 17
Left Lane Cruiser, a Ft. Wayne-based dirty blues/punk duo, has released “Juice to Get Loose” for your enjoyment. It’s a free download, in advance of their new album Rock Them Back to Hell, due out Sept. 17. If I tell you they are on Alive/Naturalsound Records AND that they worked with the legendary Jim Diamond, you know it’s hard, heavy and full of bad-ass guitars. There’s plenty of slide guitar, electric lead guitar and guttural growling – these guys have blues in their souls:

You may recall that we shared their most recent record, a collaboration with James Leg on a bunch of inspired covers – Painkillers. They’re currently out on tour – you can catch this fiery concoction at the following locations in the days ahead:

LEFT LANE CRUISER’S 2013 TOUR DATES:
Aug 30 @ The Green Lantern – Lexington, KY
Aug 31 @ The Muddy Roots Music Festival – Cookeville,TN
Sep 1 @ Zanzabar – Louisville, KY
Sep 2 @ Warm Fest / Broad Ripple Park – Indianapolis, IN
Sep 7 @ Pinestock – Churubusco, IN
Sep 14 @ Brandanza – Columbia City, IN
Sep 25 @ MOTR Pub – Cincinatti, OH
Sep 27 @ The Bohemian – Greenville, SC
Sep 28 @ North River Tavern – Sandy Springs, GA
Sep 29 @ Boondoxx – Nashville, TN
Oct 25 @ Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
Oct 26 @ Mojo’s – Columbia, MO

And they will be adding dates – read more, check back to see if they’re coming to your town, and most importantly, buy the record if you want, at the links below.
http://whenyoumotoraway.blogspot.com/2013/08/free-song-left-lane-cruiser-juice-to.html

ENGINE 145
(online roots music site)
Left Lane Cruiser is offering a free download of “Juice to Get Loose,” a song from their next album, Rock Them Back to Hell (out September 17).
http://www.engine145.com/blog/

WMNF RADIO
(Tampa public radio)
“Juice to Get Loose” aired on 8/24
http://ninebullets.net/archives/playlist-ninebullets-radio-08-24-2013-88-5fm-wmnf-tampa

HELLHOUND MUSIC
(online music site)
LEFT LANE CRUISER’S NEW ALBUM “ROCK THEM BACK TO HELL!” OUT SEP. 17TH! FREE “JUICE TO GET LOOSE” MP3
http://www.hellhoundmusic.com/tag/left-lane-cruiser/

DEEP BLUES
(online blues blog)
LEFT LANE CRUiSER – New Single :: Juice To Get Loose from Rock Them Back To Hell! Due 9.17.13 via Alive Records!
Heavy southern blues sludge done just the way we like it – raw and kickin’ hard.
http://realdeepblues.blogspot.com/2013/08/left-lane-cruiser-new-single-juice-to.html

BROADWAY WORLD  
(online music site)
Left Lane Cruiser’s ‘Rock Them Back to Hell!’ Out, 9/17
http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Left-Lane-Cruisers-Rock-Them-Back-to-Hell-Out-917-20130823

LLC_1_442

PRESS ROLLS IN HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL’S NEW LP “FICTION, FACT OR FOLKTALE? “

MAGNET MAGAZINE
(national music magazine) – “Standing at the End of the World” featured as MP3 AT 3PM with positive post, band photo and related links,
MP3 At 3PM: Have Gun, Will Travel

Americana quartet Have Gun, Will Travel is putting out Fiction, Fact Or Folktale? on September 10 via the This Is American Music label. The Florida boys were fortunate enough to have the LP mastered by Rodney Mills, who’s worked with the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The first single off the release is “Standing At The End Of The World.” Download it below.

“Standing At The End Of The World” (download):
– See more at: http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2013/08/24/mp3-at-3pm-have-gun-will-travel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MagnetMagazine+
 http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2013/08/24/mp3-at-3pm-have-gun-will-travel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MagnetMagazine+%28Magnet+Magazine%29

AMERICAN SONGWRITER (national music magazine) – SATEOTW Video premiere.
Video Premiere: Have Gun, Will Travel, “Standing at the Edge of the World”
Written by Andrew Leahey
When it came time to film a music video for “Standing at the Edge of the World” — the first single from Have Gun, Will Travel’s fourth album, Fact, Fiction, or Folktale? — the guys set up shop at a turn-of-the-century cabin in a Florida historical preservation park. The house, with its old wooden floorboards and beat-up porch, seemed to fit their boot-stomping mix of country, folk, and roots rock. Over the course of one long day, the bandmates strummed their instruments, played cards, turned the porch into a makeshift venue and even found enough time to smash a TV with a tire iron.

“The song is a sort of commentary on the world we live in, the media sensationalism that we’re subjected to, and how we choose to process that information,” says frontman Matt Burke. “It can be overwhelming. And at times, you want to throw your hands up and say, ‘Fuck it. I’m just gonna watch it fall apart.’”

And the video?

“It was a lot of fun drinking and carrying on in that kind of environment,” he adds. “I’m sure a few rules were broken that day.”
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/08/video-premiere-have-gun-will-travel-standing-at-the-edge-of-the-world/

SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE
(Sarasota, FL daily) – News on “Standing at the End of the World” Video premiere.
Video Premiere: Have Gun, Will Travel, “Standing at the End of the World”
By Wade Tatangelo
Check out this locally-shot video premiere for Americana band Have Gun, Will Travel’s single “Standing at the End of the World.” It’s the first song off the Bradenton-based group’s  fourth full-length album “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” out Sept. 10 on CD and digital formats through This Is American Music. I wrote about the album earlier this month.

“(‘Standing at the End of the World’) is a sort of commentary on the world we live in, the media sensationalism that we’re subjected to, and how we choose to process that information,” HGWT frontman Matt Burke told American Songwriter, which posted the video earlier today. “It can be overwhelming. And at times, you want to throw your hands up and say, ‘F— it. I’m just gonna watch it fall apart.’”

Burke described the video shoot as “a lot of fun drinking and carrying on in that kind of environment … I’m sure a few rules were broken that day.”
Track listing for “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?”

1. Standing at the End of the World
2. Trouble
3. High Road (song that inspired award-winning beer of same name)
4.The Places
5. The Show Must Go On
6. Another Fine Mess
7. Silver and the Age of Opulence
8. Finer Things
9. Fairweather
10. Take Me Home, Alice

Have Gun, Will Travel tour dates:

Sept. 13 Will Call – Miami, FL
Sept. 14 Bamboo Room – Lake Worth, FL
Sept. 27 The Loft – Columbus, GA
Sept. 28 Sky City – Augusta, GA
Oct. 03 Home Team BBQ – Sullivan’s Island, SC
Oct. 04 Burro Barr – Jacksonville, FL
Oct. 05 High Dive – Gainesville, FL
Oct. 18 New World Brewery – Tampa, FL
Oct. 19 Pickin’ Picnic at Bradenton Riverwalk – Bradenton, FL
Oct. 20 Clearwater Jazz Holiday @ Coachman Park – Clearwater, FL
Nov. 01 MacDintons at Jannus Live – St. Petersburg, FL
Nov. 02 Rock Brothers Craft Beer & Music Festival – Fort Myers, FL
Nov. 06 Sellersville Theater – Sellersvillle, PA
Nov. 07 Hill Country – Washington, DC
Nov. 08 Pianos – New York, NY
Nov. 14 Pisgah Brewing Company – Black Mountain, NC
Nov. 16 Smith’s Olde Bar – Atlanta, GA
Nov. 22 Underbelly – Jacksonville, FL
Nov. 23 The Little Manatee River at the Canoe Outpost – Wimauma, FL
Dec. 31 First Night – St. Petersburg, FL
http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2013/08/22/video-premiere-have-gun-will-travel-standing-at-the-end-of-the-world-bradenton/

MIAMI HERALD– Show preview
Bamboo Room Presents Have Gun Will Travel & Blackfinger
Saturday, Sep 14 9:00p
Bamboo Room Lake Worth, FL
Florida’s multiple Best of the Bay-winning Americana makers Have Gun, Will Travel have a natural instinct for combining folk, pop, rock and classic country influences to create a sound all their own. “Their music has a great energy to it with infectious, sing-along choruses and refrains” remarked NPR’s Robin Hilton. American Songwriter called HGWT’s music “organic, infectious Americana Pop. Their music has a refreshing immediacy to it.”
HGWT’s music has been featured in a national Chevy TV commercial; multiple episodes of the PBS series Roadtrip Nation; a Gte Federal Credit Union TV and radio ad campaign; and an episode of CBS’s The Good Wife. Their albums have spent months on the CMJ Radio Top 200 chart and ranked as high as No. 3 on WMNF 88.5 Tampa’s list of most-played albums.
HGWT’s live performances have been described as rousing, rollicking, energetic and dynamic. “Matt Burke & co. have what it takes to win over any crowd” – Suburban Apologist
The band’s fourth full-length album “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” is scheduled to be released this fall.
Leading lights of the new Lake Worth crop of roots rock acts, Black Finger is a rock band, and that’s it. And that’s a good thing. Instead of relying on subgenre flair, the quartet plays straight-ahead, slightly shuffling, twangy tunes meant straight for the heart of the Great American Songbook.
http://events.miamiherald.com/lake_worth_fl/events/show/344941723-bamboo-room-presents-have-gun-will-travel-blackfinger

LAKE WORTH ARTS
(Lake Worth, FL weekly) – Show preview
Have Gun Will Travel & Blackfinger Saturday, September 14, 2013, 09:00am
Florida’s multiple Best of the Bay-winning Americana makers HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL have a natural instinct for combining folk, pop, rock and classic country influences to create a sound all their own. “Their music has a great energy to it with infectious, sing-along choruses and refrains” remarked NPR’s Robin Hilton. American Songwriter called HGWT’s music”organic, infectious Americana Pop. Their music has a refreshing immediacy to it.” HGWT’s music has been featured in a national Chevy TV commercial; multiple episodes of the PBS series Roadtrip Nation; a GTE Federal Credit Union TV and radio ad campaign; and an episode of CBS’s The Good Wife. Their albums have spent months on the CMJ Radio Top 200 chart and ranked as high as No. 3 on WMNF 88.5 Tampa’s list of most-played albums. HGWT’s live performances have been described as rousing, rollicking, energetic and dynamic. “Matt Burke & co. have what it takes to win over any crowd” – Suburban Apologist The band’s fourth full-length album “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” is scheduled to be released this fall. Leading lights of the new Lake Worth crop of roots rock acts, Black Finger is a rock band, and that’s it. And that’s a good thing. Instead of relying on subgenre flair, the quartet plays straight-ahead, slightly shuffling, twangy tunes meant straight for the heart of the Great American Songbook.
http://www.lakewortharts.com/index.php?option=com_jevents&task=icalrepeat.detail&evid=1806&Itemid=395&year=2013&month=09&day=14&title=bamboo-room-have-gun-will-travel-a-blackfinger&uid=0b3f4cf1f2dd99c19941a9eb724a83c5&catids=51

SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE
(Sarasota, FL daily)
Review: Have Gun, Will Travel’s “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” is a superb slice of Americana
By Wade Tatangelo
“Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” by Have Gun, Will Travel
GRADE: A, Hear here: hgwtmusic.com

Americana music is all about offering the real deal and Have Gun, Will Travel has been delivering the genuine article for about seven years now. Those Bradenton boys simply seem incapable of faking a single note. National touring and accolades pouring in from NPR and other media outlets from across the country have done nothing to diminish the band’s ability to brilliantly paint portraits of working class struggles and those small victories that keep us pressing on.

“Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” is HGWT’s fourth, and best, full-length. Matt Burke hasn’t written a single clunker since starting Have Gun, Will Travel, but this album, with wonderfully melodic and timeless roots music composed and co-produced by all the band members, finds him in top form.
The album opens with the apocalyptic fever dream “Standing at the End of the World,” a back-porch rocker filled with gallows humor and jabs at modern society. “High Road” is a horn-goosed blast of joy while “Finer Things” finds the band delivering a violin-laced love song with lyrics that would make Woody Guthrie grin.

The album close with one of the most emotive songs you’ll likely hear by anyone this year. Titled “Take Me Home, Alice,” it’s a haunting, holiday-season character study with gently played banjo and churchy organ reinforcing the heart-wrenching lyrics. “A bar stool is no place to spend Christmas Eve,” Burke sings. “But I can’t find the courage to get up and leave.”

Whether celebrating life or examining its miseries, “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” succeeds on every level.
 http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2013/09/11/review-have-gun-will-travels-fiction-fact-or-folktale-is-a-superb-slice-of-americana/

BEAT SURRENDER  
(online music blog) Video and album stream featured.  announcement with band photo and tour dates.
Sound & Vision – Have Gun Will Travel’S “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” out now.
http://www.beat-surrender.com/2013/09/10/sound-vision-have-gun-will-travel/

BROADWAY WORLD  
(online music blog) News post from press announcement with band photo and tour dates.
Have Gun, Will Travel Releases New Album, Fiction, Fact or Folktale Sep. 10th
 http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Have-Gun-Will-Travel-Releases-New-Album-Fiction-Fact-or-Folktale-20130910

BUCKETFULL OF NAILS  
(online music site)
Review: Have Gun Will Travel – Fiction, Fact or Folktale?
We’re not in Kansas anymore. No matter if we were, trouble would certainly find us according to Fiction, Fact or Folktale?, the new release by Have Gun Will Travel.

From the media-curated apocalyptic opening single, “Standing at the End of the World,” to “Take Me Home, Alice,” the Christmas dirge that closes the album, the 10 songs on Fiction, Fact or Folktale? are travelogues of sorts, detailing cautious escapism with just a hint of irony — and presented with the insouciance of street buskers strumming their songs to nobody in particular. All that matters is the players know they and their songs are good.

I’ve been looking for a way to
Put my troubles in the rearview
Maybe try to catch a clear view
Of what’s down the line

Whether romping through the horn-laced “High Road” or detailing the murder of a failed film director by his lead actor in “The Show Must Go On,” a cautionary tale akin to Tom Petty’s “Into the Great Wide Open,” the characters inhabiting Fiction, Fact or Folktale? continue along their paths without second-guessing continual missteps, hoping for better fortune to come their way.

Staring at a loss of innocence
Through the rust on a window pane
Tension like an awkward silence
In the eye of a hurricane

The world is not always a pretty place. Have Gun Will Travel do not try to sugarcoat this fact. They are simply messengers dispatched by denizens of low places who hold out hope for a better tomorrow. Should tomorrow never come, at least we have Fiction, Fact or Folktale? to sing us to sleep this evening.

Stream Fiction, Fact or Folktale? below and order through This Is American Music. Also check out the free seven-song sampler the band has issued via NoiseTrade.
http://bucketfullofnails.com/2013/09/10/review-have-gun-will-travel-fiction-fact-or-folktale/

ROOTS MUSIC EXAMINER
(national online music site)
REVIEW – ‘Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?’ by Have Gun, Will Travel
By James Carlson
Outsider country and alternative folk rock band Have Gun, Will Travel have recently dropped their fourth full-length album, “Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?” on This Is American Music. A follow-up to “Mergers and Acquisitions” (2011), “Fiction, Fact, or Folktale” is a ten-song release featuring acoustic guitar strumming, subtle electric leads, low-end bass accompaniment, tight drumming and stomp n’ clap percussion, half-crooned and half-sung vocal deliveries, and a selection of auxiliary instrumentation. For the most part, “Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?” is the sort of album we have come to expect from this skilled quartet, as well as the sort many of us have come to appreciate.

Altogether, “Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?” amounts to a rambling album which journeys through a wilderness of subject matter and immediate soundscapes, from the stompy country blues opener Standing at the End of the World to the sober picking and slow vocals of the closer Take Me Home, Alice. But there are plenty of worthwhile songs in between the two that deserve mention. Trouble, just such a track, begins with measured strumming and clank n’ bang percussion and calm vocals, reaches the chorus and pick up into a more spirited part, and goes around full circle to end as it started. Places, another standout track, is a strong folk-punk composition, catchy and raw, with a steady stream of rousing vocals. Another Fine Mess is a solid strum n’ bang piece of folk rock, creative and infectious, with slightly distorted background vocals that answer the cleaner vocals at the forefront, both in play with the music. And Fairweather, a well-composed arrangement of haunting Americana, has plenty of gentle twang over an otherworldly choir of wordless background utterances, and main vocals that are both harmonious and sincere.

Have Gun,Will Travel are of the crop of country and folk artists that are somewhat removed from the mainstream, and all the better for it. Other such artists are Austin Lucas, Whiskey & Co., Yesterday’s Ring, Old Man Markley, the now defunct Rumbleseat, and the like. While Have Gun, Will Travel have released four albums to date, their sound is clearly still evolving. And I, for one, see good things for this talented quartet.
http://www.examiner.com/review/review-fiction-fact-or-folktale-by-have-gun-will-travel

PLUG IN MUSIC
(online music blog) – Positive review with SATEOTW & Another Fine Mess
Have Gun, Will Travel Launch Tour, Free Digital EP
http://www.pluginmusic.com/news/article/have-gun-will-travel-launch-tour-free-digital-ep

WHEN YOU MOTOR AWAY
(online music blog) – Positive review with SATEOTW & Another Fine Mess
New Country-Rock Discovery: Have Gun, Will Travel – Fiction, Fact or Folktale?

Have Gun, Will Travel is the vehicle of singer/songwriter Matt Burke. It’s a familiar country-rock sound, featuring acoustic and electric instruments and a raspy lead vocal. They hail from Bradenton, FL and are on This Is American Music – a label that has sent us a terrific variety of country rock sounds. These guys are among the most straight-up country sounding ones we’ve heard in a while. Here’s the lead track “Standing at the End of the World” – a singalong country anthem if there ever was one:

In fact, most songs on this album feature repetitive, fairly basic lyrics with familiar phrases – and to me, the method behind this is to make it all more singable. Some titles: “Another Fine Mess”, “Finer Things”, “High Road”, “The Show Must Go On”… Here’s “Another Fine Mess”:

As I said, they’re creating an atmosphere, with Burke’s engaging voice and folky instrumentation, to make you want to join in. And I bet you will. You can buy, listen to more or find tour information at the links below.
http://whenyoumotoraway.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-country-rock-discovery-have-gun.html

FARCE THE MUSIC
(online music blog) – Video featured
YouTube Gems: Have Gun, Will Travel
From their new album Fiction, Fact or Folktale?, here’s Have Gun, Will Travel with “Standing at the End of the World.” RIYL: Wilco, The Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Drive-by Truckers.
http://www.farcethemusic.com/2013/09/youtube-gems-have-gun-will-travel.html

SOUTH FLORIDA.COM
Have Gun Will Travel
Sat., Sep. 14, 9 p.m.
25 S. J St..
Bamboo Room
$7, $10 | 561-585-2583
Lake Worth
Tampa’s multiple Best of the Bay-winning Americana band combines folk, pop, rock and classic country. Also appearing is Lake Worth roots rock quartet Black Finger.
http://events.southflorida.com/events/sf-have-gun-will-travel-lake-worth-event

LARGEHEARTED BOY  
(online music blog)
This Week’s Interesting Music Releases – September 10, 2013: Have Gun, Will Travel: Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2013/09/this_weeks_inte_724.html

WORDS, MUSIC & SOMETIMES BASEBALL  
(online music blog) Brief post with “Standing at the End of the World” mp3.
Also out tomorrow (and clamoring to be reviewed) is Fiction, Fact or Folktale? the new album from Have Gun, Will Travel.
http://www.wordsmusicbaseball.com/?tag=dont-you-want-it

ADOBE & TEARDROPS
(online music site) Positive review with album art and 3 audio streams.
Have Gun, Will Travel — Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?
I used to wonder
Why the petals fell
But it’s a fool who meddles
In the affairs of the dead

Say what?

That was my reaction halfway through the kickoff track, “Standing at the End of the World,” a cheerful, apocalyptic ditty.

That incongruence sets the tone for the rest of the album. Fiction, Fact, or Folktale? is about cheerfully going to Hell while holding the hand-basket. HGWT has received some commercial success lately (they’ve had several songs featured on network TV and they’ve recently received a nod from NPR.) Fiction, Fact, or Folktale? has a wry  melancholy and bookish intelligence that is sure to catapult the band into heavy rotation on public radio. It’s certainly one of the best albums so far this year. I’m excited to get to know it better as the year passes.
http://adobeandteardrops.blogspot.com/2013/09/have-gun-will-travel-fiction-fact-or.html

DANCING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE
(online music site)
Is it country? Is it Americana/pop? Is it roots-rock? The band is from Bradenton, Florida and their new album (their fourth) ”Fiction, Fake or Folktale?” is due September 10. Here is a free mp3 at SoundCloud and a video at YouTube. And I just came across a free sampler at NoiseTrade with “Standing” plus six songs from the band’s three previous albums. Here’s the link: http://noisetrade.com/hgwtmusic/hgwt-fall-sampler
http://www.daabar.com/

WMNF RADIO (Tampa public radio) “Take Me Home, Alice” aired on 8/31
http://ninebullets.net/archives/playlist-ninebullets-radio-08-24-2013-88-5fm-wmnf-tampa

SARASOTA MUSIC SCENE
(Sarasota music site) – News on “Standing at the End of the World” Video premiere.
VIDEO PREMIER!! Have Gun, Will Travel “Standing at the End of the World”
Video Premier for the first single from Have Gun, Will Travel their 4th album, Fact, Fiction, or Folktale available on ITUNES September 10.
http://sarasotamusicscene.com/2013/08/video-premier-have-gun-will-travel-standing-at-the-end-of-the-world/

WITH GUITARS  (online music site) – News post (from press release),
Florida-Based Roots-Rock Band Have Gun, Will Travel To Release Their Fourth Studio Album “Fiction, Fact Or Folktale? Video for ‘Standing At the End of the World’ http://www.withguitars.com/florida-based-roots-rock-band-to-release-their-fourth-studio-album-fiction-fact-or-folktale/

BROADWAY WORLD  
(online music site) – News post (from press release), Have Gun, Will Travel Releases Video for ‘Standing At the End of the World’
http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Have-Gun-Will-Travel-Releases-Video-for-Standing-At-the-End-of-the-World-20130823

ARTSWARP/UK
(online UK music blog) – News posting on record release with album art and related links.
Fiction, Fact or Folktale – Have Gun, Will Travel
This is the fourth studio album to be released by the rock group. It includes their new single ‘Standing at the End of the World’.
The group also have American tour dates coming up, with extra dates yet to be announced.
Have Gun, Will Travel on Wikipedia
Have Gun,Will Travel on Facebook
http://artswrap.co.uk/event/fiction-fact-or-folktale-have-gun-will-travel

WEVL RADIO
(Memphis Community Radio) – “Standing at the End of the World” aired on the Superdeformed show on Aug. 15th.
http://superdeformedwevl.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html

WMNF RADIO
(Tampa Radio) –”Standing at the End of the World” aired on the Ninebullets show on Aug. 17th. @autopsy4
http://ninebullets.net/archives/playlist-ninebullets-radio-08-17-2013-88-5fm-wmnf-tampa

SPEAKERS IN CODE (online music site) – SATEOTE FEATURED AS JAM OF THE DAY, with band photo
Jam of the Day | Have Gun, Will Travel – Standing At The End Of The World
by Alexandria Santangelo
I got distracted on Friday by the fact that we’re having October in August here in North Carolina this weekend, which delayed me bringing you this excellent song from Florida’s Have Gun, Will Travel. It’s appropriate, though, because ‘Standing At The End Of The World’ is a foot-stomping, hand-clapping, autumn-feeling sort of roots song. It’s a cheerful little song about peering over the edge of the abyss, the perfect song to soundtrack a fall road trip to nowhere in particular. With a chorus you can shout along to and a harmonica line that sounds like a train whistle blowing in the distance, you can’t do better than this song and Have Gun, Will Travel’s upcoming Fiction, Fact, or Folktale? for any driving you plan to do in that beautiful cool fall weather.

Fiction, Fact, or Folktale? will be out September 10 on This Is American Music, both digitally and on CD, and Have Gun, Will Travel will be on the road themselves to support it.
http://www.speakersincode.com/2013/08/jam-of-day-have-gun-will-travel.html

KRFC “ROUTES & BRANCHES
(Fort Collins, CO Public Radio): “Standing at the End of the World” aired on Scott Foley’s “Routes & Branches” show on Aug 10th http://spinitron.com/radio/playlist.php?station=krfc&plid=12723

SKOPE MAGAZINE
(online music site) – News post with”Standing at the End of the World” mp3, band photo, and related links.
HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL “STANDING AT THE END OF THE WORLD” AS A FREE MP3
http://www.skopemag.com/2013/08/08/have-gun-will-travel-standing-at-the-end-of-the-world-as-a-free-mp3/

SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE
(Sarasota, FL daily) – Positive show preview
Have Gun Will Travel, which has been creating as much buzz for their tasty High Road Ale lately as their terrific music, perform melodic folk-rock. It’s marked by the gripping lyrics and emotive vocals of singer-songwriter Matt Burke. Chances are, HGWT will be performing some material from their album “Fiction, Fact or Folktale,” due out Sept. 10.

Roadkill Ghost Choir / Thomas Wynn & The Believers / Have Gun, Will Travel: 8 p.m. Saturday, The Blue Rooster, 1525 4th St., Sarasota; $15; 388-7539; blueroostersrq.com
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130808/ARCHIVES/308081005/-1/search10?p=2&tc=pg

FARONHEIT
(online Chicago music blog) – “Standing at the End of the World” mp3 featured in their 8/7/13 Pick Your Poison.
http://faronheit.com/2013/08/pick-your-poison-wednesday-8-7-13/

SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE

(daily) – News post (from press release), with SATEOTW mp3, band photo, album art and related links. [Wade to also do an interview with Matt for a feature/show preview]
Have Gun, Will Travel new album details; free mp3
By Wade Tatangelo
Bradenton Americana band Have Gun, Will Travel, which has been praised on NPR and had a song featured in a national Chevy TV commercial, will release its  fourth, and perhaps finest, full-length album “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?” Sept. 10 on CD and digital formats through This Is American Music.

The album, which is excellent and I will post review closer to release date, was mixed by HGWT guitarist Scott Anderson in Bradenton and mastered by Rodney Mills (Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Drive-By Truckers).

Check out this free download of the album’s first single “Standing at the End of the World,” a delightfully Dylanesque original by singer/songwriter/guitarist Matt Burke.

Here’s the track listing for “Fiction, Fact or Folktale?”

1. Standing at the End of the World
2. Trouble
3. High Road (song that inspired award-winning beer of same name)
4.The Places
5. The Show Must Go On
6. Another Fine Mess
7. Silver and the Age of Opulence
8. Finer Things
9. Fairweather
10. Take Me Home, Alice

Have Gun Will Travel, which has been creating as much buzz for their tasty High Road Ale lately as their terrific music, performs Saturday in Sarasota at The Blue Rooster.

Roadkill Ghost Choir / Thomas Wynn & The Believers / Have Gun, Will Travel 8 p.m. Saturday, The Blue Rooster, 1525 4th St., Sarasota; $15; 388-7539; blueroostersrq.com
http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2013/08/07/bradenton-based-band-have-gun-will-travel-offers-free-mp3-from-new-album-fiction-fact-or-folktale-out-sept-10/

POPA’S TUNES
(online music blog) – News post (from press release), with “Standing at the End of the World” mp3, band photo, album art and related links.
Have Gun, Will Travel announce release date for Fiction, Fact or Folktale? Share new single
http://popatunes.blogspot.com/2013/08/have-gun-will-travel-announce-release.html

COUNTRY FRIED ROCK
(online music blog) – “Standing at the End of the World” mp3 featured
Have Gun, Will Travel
Sa-weet! Free tune from Have Gun, Will Travel! New album on 9/10/13.
http://countryfriedrock.org/have-gun-will-travel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=have-gun-will-travel#.UgKrK1MWkrw

CAPTAIN’S DEAD
(online music blog) –”Standing at the End of the World” mp3 featured with album art
Have Gun, Will Travel: “Standing at the End of the World”
Off their upcoming record, Fiction, Fact or Folktale? due out on 9.10 http://captainsdead.com/have-gun-will-travel-standing-at-the-end-of-the-world.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+captainsdead+%28captains+dead+feed%29

LARGEHEARTED BOY
(online music BLOG) – “Standing at the End of the World” mp3 featured in their Aug. 6th Daily Downloads.
Have Gun, Will Travel: “Standing at the End of the World” [mp3] from Fiction, Fact or Folktale? (out September 10th)
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2013/08/daily_downloads_3466.html

VENTS MAGAZINE
News post (from press release), with SATEOTW mp3,and related links.
HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL TO RELEASE THEIR FOURTH ALBUM  FICTION, FACT OR FOLKTALE?  SEP. 10TH! FREE MP3 SINGLE!
http://ventsmagazine.com/have-gun-will-travel-to-release-their-fourth-album-fiction-fact-or-folktale-sep-10th-free-mp3-single%E2%80%8F/

INSOMNIA RADIO
(internet radio) – News post (from press release), with SATEOTW mp3, album art and related links.
Free Download of Have Gun, Will Travel’s “Standing At The End Of The World”
http://insomniaradio.net/2013/08/06/have-gun-will-travel-standing-at-the-end-of-the-world/

HELLHOUND MUSIC
(online music site) – News post (from press release), with SATEOTW mp3, band photo, tour dates and related links.
HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL TO RELEASE THEIR FOURTH ALBUM “FICTION, FACT OR FOLKTALE?” SEP. 10TH FREE MP3 SINGLE
http://www.hellhoundmusic.com/tag/have-gun-will-travel/

BROADWAY WORLD  
(online music site) – News post (from press release), with band photo, tour dates and related links.
First Listen – Have Gun, Will Travel’s ‘Standing At The End Of The World’ Single
http://music.broadwayworld.com/article/AUDIO-First-Listen-Have-Gun-Will-Travels-Standing-At-The-End-Of-The-World-Single-20130805
HaveGunWillTravelART442

SWAMP DOGG SCORES GREAT FALL TOUR PRESS!

SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
Singer-songwriter wanted a title that fit his iconoclastic style
By George Varga
Swamp Dogg, with > DJ Claire and Mr. Mazee
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park

DID YOU KNOW?
SWAMP DOGG was born Jerry Williams Jr. on July 12, 1942, in Portsmouth, Va.

Call me Swamp.”

It is an uncommon request, even in a pop music world in which the uncommon often seems ordinary. But there is little common about maverick singer-songwriter Jerry Williams Jr., the funk, blues, rock and psychedelic-soul iconoclast who has recorded for the past 43 years as Swamp Dogg.

How uncommon? Let us count the ways.

A quintessential cult artist, Swamp Dogg did not see his classic 1970 debut album, “Total Destruction to Your Mind,” go gold (sell 500,000 copies) until 1992. He is the only person who used to manage hip-hop superstar Dr. Dre and co-wrote Johnny Paycheck’s 1971 country-music hit “She’s All I Got.”

In the early 1970s, his very public anti-Vietnam War protests landed him on President Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list, alongside Jane Fonda. In 1971, he composed what may still be the world’s only blues opera.

Over the past decade, his songs have been prominently sampled on hit records by Kid Rock, DMX and others. This summer, three early Swamp Dogg albums — “Total Destruction,” “Rat On!” and “Gag a Maggot” — were rereleased by Alive Natural Sound, the indie label that put out the Black Keys’ 2002 debut. A young hipster audience now embraces him as the missing link between Sly Stone, George Clinton and vintage Memphis soul music.

“I invented Swamp Dogg because a dog can do all kind of things and you still love it and forgive him,” said Williams, 71, who made his first hit record as a singer, “HTD Blues,” when he was 12.

By 1970, when he became Swamp Dogg, he’d written million-selling hits for Solomon Burke and Gene Pitney, and produced records for The Drifters, The Commodores, Lulu, Patti LaBelle and others.

“To me, the name Jerry Wiliams did not say funk, hard-rock, nasty blues; it didn’t say any of that,” he noted. “It said: ballads, songs about women, with ‘I love you, come back, let’s get married’ and all that (stuff) lyrics. Swamp Dogg can do, and has done, songs like that, but he’s not cemented into that.”

Swamp Dogg and his band perform an ultra-rare San Diego club gig Saturday at Bar Pink in North Park. Will he do such barbed love songs as “Choking to Death (From the Ties That Bind)” and “The Love We Got Ain’t Worth Two Dead Flies”? Or such politically charged gems as “God Ain’t Blessing America” and “I’ve Never Been to Africa (And It’s Your Fault)”?

“I scope out my audience,” he replied. “I won’t sing a bunch of (stuff) that you’re not responding to. I’ll keep shooting songs at you until you respond.”
For more of our Swamp Dogg interview, go to utsandiego.com/news/
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/oct/24/tp-swamp-doggs-the-name/

SAN DIEGO READER
(San Diego weekly) Positive show preview with Swamp photo
This week in the San Diego clubs, October 24–30
That Southern-soul Doggfather Swamp Dogg brings his thing to Bar Pink Saturday night!
Saturday 26
“Black music didn’t start ’til 10 at night, and I was in bed by then. If you strip my tracks, take away all the horns and guitar licks, what you have is a country song.” That’s Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams on NPR’s Studio 360. Dogg’s raunch-lite rock ’n’ soul is curiously outsider, because he’s right, there’s rootsy simplicity in his songs. But, what they lack in heft they more than make up for in old-school groovin’ and croonin’ that’ll goose your butt and tickle your funny bone, if you got them anatomicals. He’ll be at Bar Pink behind this year’s remastered 1970 solid-gold Southern-soul classic Total Destruction of Your Mind…. My plan is to catch the Doggfather’s set and then crazy-cab it to Casbah, where instrumental mind-benders Earthless will be rocking From the Ages, the trio’s latest and greatest, imho.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/oct/23/club-crawler-san-diego-october-2430/

SAN DIEGO CITY BEAT
(San Diego weekly) PLAN A critic’s pic show preview
Swamp Dogg, Hunx and His Punx and more San Diego concerts
we’re stoked about this week
By Jeff Terich
Saturday, Oct. 26
PLAN A: Swamp Dogg, DJ Claire, Mr. Mazee @ Bar Pink. Virginia soul singer Swamp Dogg performed as Little Jerry Williams for a few years, but he developed his Swamp Dogg persona after his first LSD trip in the 1960s. Eccentric, satirical, a little raunchy but, above all, soulful, Swamp Dogg is a unique icon in funk music, definitely not to be missed.
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-12340-swamp-dogg-hunx-

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
(Dallas daily)
Swamp Dogg With Special Guest Bobby Patterson
Thursday, Oct 31 8:00p
Kessler Theater Dallas, TX

Raunchy, satirical, political, and profane, Swamp Dogg is one of the great cult figures of 20th century American music. The creation of Jerry Williams, Jr., an R&B producer and songwriter of the ’60s, Swamp Dogg fit no tidy category. In sheer musical terms, Swamp Dogg is pure Southern soul, anchored on tight grooves and accentuated by horns, but the Dogg is as much about message as music. Williams incorporated all the mind-bending psychedelic ideas of ’60s counterculture — drugs, sex, radical politics, social politics — into the framework of deep soul, establishing his blueprint on 1970’s Total Destruction to Your Mind, then spinning out variations over the next several decades, never having hits (although Total Destruction to Your Mind apparently went gold at some point), but earning a rabid cult following while raking in royalties through his behind-the-scenes work, which included penning the country standard “She’s All I Got,” popularized by Johnny Paycheck. A native of Virginia, Williams began his career recording under the name Little Jerry, releasing a jump blues single called “HTD Blues” in 1954 when he was just 12 years old. For the next decade-and-a-half, he was an R&B journeyman working under the name Little Jerry Williams in the early ’60s, then leaving the “little” behind in the mid-’60s, having a minor hit in 1966 with “Baby, You’re My Everything.” By that point, Williams had made serious inroads into the industry. He was working A&R and he was writing and producing singles, usually for unknown artists but occasionally for big names like Gene Pitney. Eventually, he earned the attention of Jerry Wexler and Phil Walden and began working behind the scenes at Atlantic Records in 1968, engineering and producing singles for the label. He also worked as a writer, and as the decade came to a close, he had written “She’s All I Got” with Gary “U.S.” Bonds, a song that wound up bringing him royalties for decades.
http://listings.dallasnews.com/dallas_tx/events/show/358047223-swamp-dogg-with-special-guest-bobby-patterson

THE ADVOCATE
(Baton Rouge, LA daily) – Swamp Dogg feature/interview
Williams gets career boost as Swamp Dogg
By John Wirt

Jerry Williams Jr., the psychedelicized Southern-soul singer, songwriter and producer known as Swamp Dogg, is one of the big dogs at this year’s Ponderosa Stomp.

The Stomp, a music festival that bills itself as a celebration of the cult heroes of American music, landed Swamp Dogg for a Thursday afternoon music history conference interview and a Friday night show at Rock ’n’ Bowl.

Williams’ long underground profile got a boost this year via the re-release of his classic early 1970s Swamp Dogg albums “Total Destruction of Your Mind” and “Rat On!”

In the nearly two decades before his late ’60s conversion to psychedelic soul, Williams tried to be a conventional rhythm-and-blues singer. He even got an R&B hit in 1966 with his smooth, orchestrated ballad, “Baby, You’re My Everything.”

Despite the hit, Williams got stuck in music’s minor leagues. He never was the type of act who, like Jackie Wilson or Chuck Jackson or Tommy Hunt, thrilled the girls.

“You know how you work on a job and you work and you work and, without being egotistical, you know you are one of the best workers there?” Virginia native Williams asked from Northridge, Calif., his home for 35 years.

“And you know how everybody gets praises and raises but you? Well, that’s where I was. People liked my stuff, but I was never going to be the closing act. And I was never going to be the act right before the closing act.”

Williams’ dissatisfaction with his R&B career and his love for the brilliantly inventive music of Frank Zappa combined to inspire his new musical identity.

“It took me a long time to find out who Jerry Williams was,” he said. “Once I found out who Jerry Williams was, I became Swamp Dogg.”

The “Swamp” half of his new name came from Jerry Wexler, the Atlantic Records executive and producer who nicknamed the great ’60s session musicians of Muscle Shoals, Ala., “The Swampers.”

“The dog part is just that something you love,” Williams explained. “No matter what he does, you give him another chance.”

Swamp Dogg’s 1970s debut, “Total Destruction of Your Mind,” was an underground hit. He followed it with 1971’s “Rat On!” Released by major label Elektra, the album features a cover of the grinning Swamp Dogg riding a giant white rat.

Despite his mid-’60s and early ’70s flirtations with stardom, Williams, the producer, co-arranger and writer of his only hit, “Baby, You’re My Everything,” found his biggest success as a producer and songwriter.

Williams’ production credits include Gene Pity, Andre Williams, Kid Rock and Irma Thomas’ lost soul classic from 1973, “In Between Tears.” Bob Dylan, Patti LaBelle, Tracy Byrd and many others recorded songs he’d written. The more famous of them include Johnny Paycheck’s country hit, “Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got).”

Until this year’s re-releases of his underground classics by the Burbank, Calif.,-based Alive Natural Sounds Records, Williams, 71, occupied himself by occasionally writing for other artists and licensing his various songs and productions to film and TV. The reissue campaign has given him a new career as performer.

“The satisfaction for me is still out there on stage,” he said. “So far people are accepting me and loving me. Jerry Williams wasn’t star material. Swamp Dogg is star material, if he can hang around long enough.”
http://theadvocate.com/utility/homepagestories/7207695-129/williams-gets-career-boost-as

THE TIMES PICAYUNE
(New Orleans daily) Swamp Dogg / Irma feature
Irma Thomas, and Swamp Dogg, are your midday music break
By Alison Fensterstock
This coming weekend is packed with excellent music – from Gretna Fest to the Ponderosa Stomp to the Bayou Blues Festival at the Lakefront Arena, and more – so to celebrate the acceleration of the fall concert calendar, we’re dedicating the remainder of this week’s midday music breaks to folks you can see live in New Orleans, in the next few days.

First up: Southern soul man Swamp Dogg, whose 1970 album “Total Destruction To Your Mind” was a wild, fuzzy, funky sleeper classic. In 1973, Dogg produced and co-wrote the album “In Between Tears,” for Irma Thomas, which to my ears shows a rougher, more passionate and untethered side of the stately soul queen.

“In Between Tears” was reissued on CD in 2007, as “Two Phases of Irma Thomas,” on Swamp Dogg’s own indie label. Earlier this year, the Alive Records label brought it back again under its original title on vinyl, along with several Swamp Dogg ‘70s albums. Swamp Dogg plays the Ponderosa Stomp Friday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m. at the Rock ‘n’ Bowl. Will Irma Thomas come say hello? Stranger things have happened.
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2013/10/irma_thomas_and_swamp_dogg_are.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=irma-thomas-and-swamp-dogg-are-your-midday-music-break

THE LOUISIANA WEEKLY
Ponderosa Stomp Roots Out the Swamp Dogg
By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

The Ponderosa Stomp, taking place Thursday, October 3, through Saturday, October 5, at the Rock ‘n Bowl, is all about celebrating, remembering and most of all presenting those deep-rooted artists who were vital in the creation and evolution of blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Some could be considered household names like the great R&B and soul singer Maxine Brown (Friday, Oct. 4) who climbed the charts with her self-penned hit, “All In My Mind” and such classics as “Oh No Not My Baby.”

Other names, like Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams Jr., might not immediately ring a bell though his presence prevails on an array of genres as a composer, vocalist, producer and pianist. He’s credited for putting together and arranging the renowned Muscle Shoals horn section that reigned supreme backing artists for Atlantic Records. He, along with good friend Gary U.S. Bonds (“Quarter to Three), wrote the often-covered “Don’t Take Her She’s All I’ve Got” that gained country singer Johnny Paycheck a Grammy nomination.

The soul singer was first recognized as Little Jerry Williams who was introduced on his memorable tune, “I’m the Lover Man.” The multi-talented artist and noted outspoken renegade took on the handle Swamp Dogg to espouse his political views of the world. In 1970, he released his first album, Total Destruction to Your Mind, using that unusual moniker.

“Would you let somebody else do that to you?” Swamp Dogg asks with a laugh when questioned on the origins of his name. He explains that legendary record producer Jerry Wexler coined the word Swampsters.

“If you listen to “Sweet Home Alabama” you hear them say that Muscle Shoals has got the Swampsters,” Swamp Dogg says. “Well the Dogg part happened because I was trying to get out of the conventional R&B, soul, Black thing because it wasn’t making it for me. It didn’t allow me to do and say what I wanted to do and say.”

“The dog is, in my connotation. a word for freedom – freedom of expression, freedom of the mind. That’s what the dog represents,” Swamp Dogg sincerely yet hilariously continues. “As a dog, you can walk around as a real dog and do just about anything you want to do. Pull up flowers, shit in the house, bite somebody – if you’re not rabid – and be forgiven. You’ll be forgiven sometime before the day is over.”

Thus we get tunes like “God Bless America for What?” from his album Rat On!, the album cover of which shows Swamp Dogg astride a giant rat. He proudly informs that it has been declared one of the worst album covers in history. “Pretty far out – that’s where I like to go,” he says mentioning that the album is available again on vinyl and CD.

His latest release due out in March, The White Man Made Me Do It, will include “If that Ain’t the Blues, Nothin’ Is.”which addresses the ineptness of Congress. Another recently-penned original on the album is “Prejudice Is Alive and Well,” which deals with education, health care and employment in the Black community.

Swamp Dogg also boasts a strong connection to New Orleans as he produced and wrote most of the tunes on Irma Thomas’ 1973 album, In Between Tears, that has now been remastered, repackaged and re-released.

“That’s my love, writing and production,” declares Swamp Dogg who promises to bring some of his Little Jerry Williams soul numbers as well as his more eyebrow raising numbers to the Stomp on Friday night.

For the full schedule of events go to www.ponderosastomp.com. (via Heather West)
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/the-season-of-fall-is-environed-by-music/

OFFBEAT
(New Orleans monthly music magazine)
Swamp Dogg’s Mad Soul Genius
by Brett Milano
There will always be argument about the greatest song title in the history of popular music. Poison’s “I Hate Every Bone in Your Body but Mine” has its supporters, as does Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty’s immortal “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly.” But, to these ears, they all pale beside the majesty of the title for a song that R&B mad-genius Jerry Williams Jr. (a.k.a. Swamp Dogg) wrote for a romantic duet in 1981: “The Love We Got Ain’t Worth Two Dead Flies.”

Asked to explain his inspiration, Williams says, “It was a buddy of mine who died recently, a DJ in Philadelphia named Steve Turner. I asked him one day, ‘Man, why’d you cut that girl loose?’ And he said, ‘Man, she wasn’t worth two dead flies with their wings pulled off.’ That kind of stuck with me. I get a lot of song ideas from people I know—I had another friend who was a publicist, and he was with this actress who shall remain unnamed. He thought she had money because she’d been in Clint Eastwood movies or some shit, and she thought he had money because he was a big publicist. Turned out neither of them were well off. So I wrote, ‘She married me for the money/ I took the vow to do the same/ Only to find out we were playin’ the same game.’ They were my subjects, but I already had the concept.”

Like most of Williams’ work over the past 40-plus years, the song proved too hip for the proverbial room. In fact, the closest thing to a hit that he had under his own name was his debut single, 1970’s “Total Destruction to Your Mind.” But that wasn’t just any hit. It was arguably the first song to really integrate classic R&B with acid consciousness, beating George Clinton by a few trips. The legend is that Williams wrote it after his first overpowering experience with the drug. “That’s true and untrue,” he says, “because I first did LSD back in 1966, and right now I do believe that some of my little mental problems are flashbacks from that shit. But in writing, your mind expands and you write some shit that don’t nobody understand but you.”

That song led to a major-label signing with Elektra and a brace of studio work—including the 1973 album In Between Tears with Irma Thomas. One of Thomas’ funkiest and least-characteristic albums, it featured some gritty monologues on infidelity and divorce, more up Millie Jackson’s alley but without the bawdy humor. Williams wrote most of that material with his main collaborator at the time, a pre-comeback Gary U.S. Bonds. “I knew that she had a hit voice, I just wanted to make some hit songs,” Williams says of Thomas. “She can sing anything and it always comes out as Irma; it don’t remind you of no one. Those divorce songs, they were the kind of thing that Gary U.S. Bonds and I were writing at the time—we were into that unfaithful husband shit. Both of us were brought up in houses full of strong women, not little sissy women. So we wanted to write from that standpoint.”

Another legend is that Swamp Dogg wound up on Richard Nixon’s official enemies list after playing some “Free the Army” shows with Jane Fonda. “Far as Nixon was concerned, I’m sure that everybody who didn’t vote for him wound up on that list,” he explains. “And I voted for Nixon, but he was like the guy who comes to town and you let him stay with you, then he’s got bad hygiene and dirty ways and he runs your phone bill up. That’s how Nixon was, an untidy motherfucker. The benefits I did with Jane Fonda, my wife Yvonne put those together—she was the one that was super political. So I would vote from her book, because we agreed on everything—from politics to raising children, everything. Only thing she didn’t agree with me on was me running around sometimes.”

Williams continues to record. His latest batch of demos includes “Where Is Sly?”—a killer tune about the errant Family Stone mastermind. Meanwhile, the Alive label has just reissued four of his early albums. And he still gets sampled by hip-hop artists, which should help keep his name alive.

“You mean, is that how I make my living?” he shoots back when asked about the reissuing and sampling of his work. “It’s partly that I own 90 percent of the music I made from the ’60s up ‘til now. So a label like Alive, they don’t own my shit. It’s rented. I was able to build a very big publishing firm because at the time no one thought I could write. And then if someone like Kid Rock samples me and sells 18, 19 million, that’ll keep the liquor flowing for a week or two. Then once in a while I’ll go to the Netherlands, or to Third World places like Suriname and shit—I draw like a motherfucker over there. So that’s how I make my living. I sure don’t make it from singing, because that wouldn’t give me enough to get on welfare.” (via Heather West)
http://www.offbeat.com/2013/10/01/swamp-dogg-mad-soul-genius/

PORTLAND TRIBUNE
You must see this show: Swamp Dogg Sept. 14 th at Dante’s in Portland,
There are many reasons NOT to miss underground legendary soul artist Swamp Dogg’s upcoming show, but we can only list a few.

1. He made President Richard Nixon’s enemies list.

2. His album cover for “Rat On,” which features him sitting astride a white rat, was voted “Worst Album Cover of All Time.”

3. He’s probably the only artist who’s been compared to both Sly Stone and Frank Zappa.

4. And last, but far from least, he’s invited his 91-year-old mother, Vera Lee, to open the show. Now that’s class.

In other words, in a world of soul, R ’n’ B and funk pretenders, Swamp Dogg is a true king, a funny, sincere, soulful cat who digs white country music (which he loves to sing) as much as black blues, which makes him as much a reason to hope for a better, harmonious America as you could ever find this side of heaven.

Swamp Dogg, The Pynnacles, Vera Lee, 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, Dante’s, 350 W. Burnside St. $15. Info: 503-345-7892, www.danteslive.com.
http://portlandtribune.com/pt/11-features/161577-live-music

THE PORTLAND MERCURY
Up & Coming
This Week’s Music Previews
SWAMP DOGG, THE PYNNACLES at Dante’s Saturday 9/14
While Swamp Dogg’s tight, kicking, ’70s funk tunes may not ring a bell, his record sleeves might. The most (in)famous features Dogg riding the back of a giant albino rat. He is stocky, mustachioed, and black, wearing a fringed leather vest and a matching shirt and beret while smiling wide, his arms raised in celebration. Recently Dogg—AKA Jerry Williams—expounded on the image to LA Weekly: “That cover was about me finally getting on top of the white man… Notice that the rat is smiling. He knows I’m gonna fall off soon.” Indeed, Dogg is nothing if not far out. And while his latest touring incarnation may appear a bit more anodyne, a bit more church band than the crisp, raspy, quick-burning folk-funk found on the original recordings—in particular, the album The Total Destruction of Your Mind—Swamp Dogg’s oeuvre amounts to much more than just a few iconic images. ANDREW R TONRY
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/up-and-coming/Content?oid=10500442T

THE STRANGER
(Seattle weekly) – Positive Seattle show preview.
Up & Coming
Thursday 9/12 Swamp Dogg, Brother James & the Soul-Vation at Triple Door
Those who’ve slept on Swamp Dogg—i.e., most of us—can catch up, to a degree, with reissues of three key early-’70s albums by the Virginia-born soul man: Gag a Maggot, Rat On!, and best of all, Total Destruction to Your Mind. These releases (back in circulation via Alive Naturalsound Records) evidence a vocalist of raw, soulful vigor and a lyricist of sociopolitical insight and irreverent humor. The man’s music from this era is a loose-limbed combo of Southern-fried funk, animated blues rock with surprising country undercurrents, and heart-punching soul. Now Swamp Dogg (aka Jerry Williams Jr.) is doing a rare late-career tour, and it would be a serious blunder to miss him. He may be 71 now, but recent footage reveals Mr. Dogg’s voice has lost very little of its vibrant timbre or emotional turbulence. DAVE SEGAL
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/up-and-coming/Content?oid=17715415

WILLAMETTE WEEK  
(Portland, OR weekly) – Positive Portland show preview with photo & video interview.
Primer: Swamp Dogg

Born: Jerry Williams Jr. in Portsmouth, Va., in 1942.

Sounds like: A country-tinged, rock-informed soul shouter, wailing witty, dirty lyrics about conflicts between rich and poor, black and white, man and wife.

For fans of: Southern soul, Sly Stone, Frank Zappa, Blowfly.

Latest release: Three of the Dogg’s first four albums—Total Destruction to Your Mind, Rat On! and Gag a Maggot—have just been reissued. An album of new material is anticipated next year.

Why you care: A true independent, Swamp Dogg has been making funny, savvy and obscure R&B since 1970, his singular voice encompassing a piercing wail, the grit of the chitlin’ circuit and that gargle in the back of the throat that made MLK turn heads. At once self-effacing and self-aggrandizing, his album titles tell the story: I Called for a Rope and They Threw Me a Rock; I’m Not Selling Out/I’m Buying In!, whose cover depicts the Dogg dancing in white tie and tails atop a boardroom table surrounded by nonplussed executives; and the quintessentially braggadocious If I Ever Kiss It…He Can Kiss It Goodbye! His way with a title extends to the songs themselves: political screeds, from 1971’s “God Bless America For What” to the 2007 anti-Bush blast “They Crowned an Idiot King”; racial explorations such as “I’ve Never Been to Africa (And It’s Your Fault)”; and countless meditations on marital infidelity, such as “Choking to Death (On the Ties That Bind)” and “Did I Come Back Too Soon (Or Stay Away Too Long).” And when he puts that unreal voice to another writer’s song, sparks fly, as on his damn near definitive reading of John Prine’s junkie-vet lament, “Sam Stone.”
SEE IT: Swamp Dogg plays Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., on Saturday, Sept. 14. 9 pm. $15. 21+.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-21117-primer_swamp_dogg.html

KEXP RADIO: SEATTLE
Swamp Dogg’s “Wife Sitter” & “The Mighty Mighty Dollar Bill” aired on Greg Vandy’s show ‘The  Roadhouse’ Sep. 11th with Seattle show shout out.
Swamp Dogg played last night too. Talk about feeling conflicted, that’s exactly how I felt when the soul funny man was booked on the same night as our showcase event with Los Colognes. So, you’ll hear two tracks from the recently re-issued 1973 LP from Swamp Dogg called Gag A Maggot (2013’s best re-issue), that was presented to the live listening Seattle radio audience as a choice – Swamp or Los Colognes? It was a win-win, I suppose.
http://americanstandardtime.com/home/2013/9/13/listen-to-roadhouse-radio-now-091113-99-ways-to-get-down.html

KBOO RADIO: PORTLAND
(Portland, OR Community Radio)
Swamp Dogg phone interview with Jeff Rosenberg Fri. Sep. 13th at 2pm PDT.

KEXP RADIO: SEATTLE
Recommended Events: Swamp Dogg with Brother James & The Soul-Vation 9/12 at Triple Door in Seattle! http://kexp.org/events/details/8662

PLUG IN MUSIC  
(online music site) – News post , with  photo, tour dates and related links.
Swamp Dogg Hits The Road For Rare US Tour Dates
http://www.pluginmusic.com/news/article/swamp-dogg-hits-the-road-for-rare-us-tour-dates

BLURT MAGAZINE
(national music magazine) – Feature/reviews of first three Swamp Dogg LPs.
SOUTHERN FRIED SOUL: Swamp Dogg
As evidenced by a recently-inaugurated reissue series, the larger-than-life character—and first-rate songwriter—born Jerry Williams, Jr. had substance, personality, and above all, soul.
BY CARL HANNI

The world of soul, funk and R&B is heavily populated with major characters and outsize personalities, which is hardly surprising: they are entertainers, after all. Popular music is also one of the few realms where eccentric behavior can be celebrated as opposed to shunned. Yesterday’s high school outcast or town weirdo can be tomorrow’s chart topper or night club headliner, given the right set of circumstances.

R&B and funk seems to be particularly populated with willful eccentrics and those whose fires burn especially bright. Think Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Andre Williams, Blowfly, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Rufus Thomas and yea, you also better think Swamp Dogg, aka Jerry Williams, Jr. In March Alive Natural Sound reissued Dogg’s first two full length classics, Total Destruction To Your Mind (1970) and Rat On! (1971); he had previously recorded some sides under the name his parents called him growing up. Dogg is a first class character, from the whack cover art on his records, to his hilariously surreal and self congratulatory liner notes to his all-over-the-place lyrical musings. Fortunately the man has substance, not just personality, and both of these are red hot platters of burning Southern Soul.

Rat On
Both discs were recorded at a high water mark for Southern Soul, Total Destruction… at Capricorn Studios in Macon, GA, and Rat On! at Quinvy Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL. And both use the world class musicians available in those studios, including drummers Johnny Sandlin and Jaspur Guarino, bass player Robert Popwell, guitarist Jesse Carr, keyboard player Paul Hornsby and various horn players and back up singers. These cats lay down a swampy soul groove to equal most anything at the time, all bathed in the wondrously warm analog sound of the era. Swamp Dogg wrote or co-wrote most of the material, produced and arranged everything, plays piano and “everything else of any importance” as he so modestly puts it. And of course he sings it all in his strong, Southern dipped voice, comfortable in the mid and especially higher registers.

Williams/Dogg’s outsized personality infuses most everything with a touch of the surreal, from the see-it-to-believe-it photo on the cover of Total Destruction… to the cheeky liner notes (he name checks Gene Autry, Moms Mabley, Phil Walden, Snow White, Jerry Wexler and Wally Roker in one sentence), and then on to the music, even the straight up soul numbers. How about we just lay a few song titles out there? We’ve got “Dust Your Head Color Red,” “Sal-A-Faster,” “Mama’s Baby, Daddy’s Maybe,” “Redneck” (by Joe South), “Synthetic World,” “Total Destruction To Your Mind” and six others from the first record, and “Predicament #2,” “That Ain’t My Wife,” “God Bless America For What,” and seven more on the more straight-ahead second. It’s important to know that these aren’t novelty songs in any way at all, and Dogg’s isn’t a jokey performer, per se: sure, some of them are funny, others are topically pissed off, but most are straight up soul numbers that could have been on the radio at the time. He may be a bit off-the-wall, but there’s always an underlying sense of integrity to what he’s doing, at least as far as these two releases go.

Most importantly, they really are great songs, from start to finish on both records. Check “Total Destruction…,” “Remember, I Said Tomorrow,” “Creeping Away,” “Mama’s Baby, “Daddy’s Maybe,” “Do You Believe,” “Do Our Thing Together,” and really just about anything here and you’ll find the vintage goods, sounding as good today as they the day they were laid down.

Gag a Maggott

The third Alive Natural Sound installment turned up recently, 1973’s Gag a Maggot, which picked right up where its two predecessors left off, a wide territory that spans the distance between the surreal and the soulful. The beauty of Swamp Dogg is that he scores both coming and going: he’s both a hilariously in-your-face character with a wicked, deeply off-the-wall sense of humor, and a terrific soul singer and songwriter. He also benefited from recording in some of the great southern studios which were stacked with world class house musicians. Gag a Maggot was cut in Miami, and benefits immeasurably from the smooth, funky guitar playing of Willie Hale, aka Little Beaver, one of the great blues/soul fusion guitar players of the era. The band (Little Beaver, bass player Ron Bogdon, drummer Ivan Olander, some horns and Williams on piano) cooks up tight, tasty southern soul grooves than bridge the gap between gospel, soul and country.

Gag a Maggot features nine Dogg/Williams originals, several co-written with one S. McKinney, a decent version of “Midnight Hour,” and a throw away version “Honky Tonk Women,” one of two bonus tracks not on the original LP. As always, the songs titles tell a lot of the story: “Wife Sitter,” “Choking to Death (From the Ties that Bind),” “I Couldn’t Pay For What I Got Last Night,” “Plastered to the Wall (Higher Than the Ceiling)” and a live version of his nasty slow blues classic “Mama’s Baby, Daddy’s Maybe,” the other extra track.  The material flows effortlessly from raunchy to topical to sweet, a nice trick if you can pull it off.

But seriously, the record is worth the price of admission for the recently penned liner notes alone, both in the insert and the CD sleeve. Williams has not lost a step over the decades since these tracks were cut: “Henry (Stone, southern soul industry maven) wasn’t like other industry heads. He fucked you and made you love it. You’d wake up the next day and ask ‘what was that and what else can I do to contribute to the cause?’ Henry used a condom, some gel and fatback grease. You almost apologized for being unresponsive.”

Or “I’ve been told that I was light years ahead of myself with my music. Well I’ve finally caught the fuck up. My trip was so long that when I got back, vinyl was back and the president was black. I must have been frozen in ice for several decades. People now telling me how great I am and I’m a genius. Hell I was great back then, but I was the only one who knew it or gave a good goddamn.” Elsewhere he name checks Nixon and Bernie Madoff back to back, and drops something about a ‘faggot great dane.’ Man, this guy just does not have a filter. Which, of course, is a large part of the charm of the persona known as Swamp Dogg, which, one suspects, is essentially a larger version of Jerry Williams, Jr.

Whatever it is, it works, and we’re all a little stranger and better off for it.

FYI, Dogg is still kicking it. There’s a nice NPR piece here:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=16322903&m=16322952
http://blurtonline.com/feature/southern-fried-soul-swamp-dogg/

SKOPE MAGAZINE
(online music site) –  News post on tour with related link.
SWAMP DOGG 2013 TOUR DATES
Swamp Dogg (aka Jerry Williams) has been enjoying a renaissance in his musical career this year, thanks to Alive Naturalsound Records’ ongoing Swamp Dogg Soul & Blues Collection. Critics and fans alike have been singing the praises of these highly sought-after and long out-of-print rarities, all remastered and available on vinyl for the first time in decades. This collection, thus far, includes Swamp’s first three solo records, Total Destruction To Your Mind, Rat On! and Gag A Maggott, as well as the Swamp Dogg-produced albums In Between Tears from the ‘Soul Queen of New Orleans’ Irma Thomas, Charlie Whitehead’s Raw Spitt and Lightnin’ Slim’s High & Low Down.

SWAMP DOGG 2013 TOUR DATES:
Sept 12 @ Triple Door – Seattle, WA
Sept 14 @ Dante’s – Portland, OR
October 3-5 @ The Ponderosa Stomp – New Orleans, LA
Oct 26 @ Bar Pink – San Diego, CA
Oct 31 @ The Kessler – Dallas, TX
Nov 1-2 @ Continental Club – Austin
http://www.skopemag.com/2013/08/26/swamp-dogg-2013-tour-dates

VENTS MAGAZINE
(online music site) –  News post on tour.
Swamp Dogg hits the road for rare seven-city U.S. tour! http://ventsmagazine.com/swamp-dogg-hits-road-rare-seven-city-u-s-tour%E2%80%8F/

WITH GUITARS
(online music site) –  News post on tour with Swamp photo.
Soul legend Swamp Dogg Embarls On Rare Seven-City U.S. Tour!
http://www.withguitars.com/soul-legend-swamp-dogg-embarks-on-rare-seven-city-u-s-tour/

PSF11

  • Archives

  • tour dates

    • 03/22/24 THEE SINSEERS in Los Angeles, CA at The Belasco
    • 03/23/24 THEE SINSEERS in Riverside, CA at Riverside Municipal Auditorium
    • 04/18/24 THEE SINSEERS in Phoenix AZ at Crescent Ballroom
    • 04/19/24 THEE SINSEERS in Phoenix AZ at Crescent Ballroom
    • 04/20/24 THEE SINSEERS in Tucson, AZ at 191 Toole