Ghost Town Blues Band - "Hard Road To Hoe" OFFICIAL PROMO

Описание: Hard Road To Hoe is the third release from 2014 International Blues Challenge 2nd place finishers and Memphis, TN’s very own Ghost Town Blues Band. This twelve-song record, lead by front man Matt Isbell is an enormous explosion of blues and roots music from Memphis, though the hills of North Mississippi, down the Big Muddy all the way to New Orleans.

Recorded on 2” tape, chalked full of horns, organ, piano, cigar box guitars, harmonica from 3-time BMA nominee Brandon Santini and even featuring push broom and shovel percussion, this album was recorded in the newly renovated Ardent Studios-Studio C by 6-time Grammy Nominated Producer and Engineer, Kevin Houston.

Hard Road to Hoe opens with Preston McEwen on the push broom and Matt Isbell on the shovel actually digging a hole on tape. Isbell’s delta bottleneck slide guitar, made from his grandmother’s silverware chest, sets the tone for the record, defending that he and his band have started from nothing with a humbled song about the death and degradation of his family, his own upbringing and the people around him that try to bring him down. Track #2 reminds the listener that this record isn’t going to keep you down, that band was made to boogie-woogie and has no problem writing a song about Big Shirley, who is “6ft tall and 4ft wide, it takes a wrecking ball to keep her satisfied.”
GTBB invites harp player and singer Brandon Santini on the next two songs reminding themselves and everyone that they all met playing in the clubs on Beale Street with a slightly NOLA inspired Tip Of My Hat. My Doggy also features Santini & another guest appearance that turns out to be Isbell’s dog. “He likes it when I play a little harp in ‘D’, I can hear him howlin’ now and he’s in the right key.” The dog howls and makes no fraud out of Isbell on this song that urges us to throw the dog a bone…
On Mr. Handy Man, the band lays down their guitars and all of them pick of their horns to recreate their epic International Blues Challenge (second line) entrance with a throwback to the old days of Memphis with a beautiful tribute to W.C. Handy. This tune and the next, Hate To See Her Go are both meant to be played as a pair, transforming the old into new again. Track #7, Tied My Worries To A Stone is a blues-rock inspired tune that transforms the Mississippi River into a God-like figure of power and strength that can be called upon when times are tough. At this point, the record takes a turn towards the roots music that we heard the band translate so well on their last record “Dark Horse.” The silverware chest guitar is pulled out again on Dead Sea, “I’m lower now than the bottom of the Dead Sea.” Nothin‘ But Time is the slow blues song on this record.
Dime in the Well is a 3-string cigar box and hill-country stompin’ song in which Isbell “Tossed my last dime in the well. My feets’s made of clay but only I can tell” that takes less than 2 minutes to get the point across. The most radio friendly song on this record is Seventeen and the band exceedingly shows their stuff on this tune! Wrapping up this album is a great song to drink alone to, called Road Still Drives The Same (Without You). “The Moonshine keeps me warm here late at night. When the bottle runs dry, I drink the tears from my eyes.” The guys in GTBB pull out all the stops on this CD and you can tell through the music that they do what they love, love what they do and do a damn good job of it.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Hard Road To Hoe (3:10)
2. Big Shirley (3:02)
3. Tip of My Hat (2:39) (Featuring: Brandon Santini)
4. My Doggy (3:31) (Featuring: Brandon Santini)
5. Mr. Handy Man (0:57)
6. Hate To See Her Go (3:22)
7. Tied My Worries to a Stone (4:01)
8. Dead Sea (3:20)
9. Nothin’ but Time (5:34)
10. Dime in the Well (1:45)
11. Seventeen (4:27)
12. Road Still Drives the Same (3:24)

Matt Isbell - guitar, cigar box guitar, vocals, shovel on Hard Road to Hoe
Preston McEwen - drums, vocals, electric-analog broom on Hard Road to Hoe
Jeremy Powell - acoustic grand piano, Hammond B3, Wurlitzer, vocals
Alex Piazza - bass, vocals
Suavo Jones - trombone
Richie Hale - tenor sax
Vicki Loveland - background vocals
Brandon Santini - harmonica & vocals on My Doggy & Tip Of My Hat
Marry Dog Isbell - howling on My Doggy

Produced by:
Matt Isbell, Kevin Houston and Preston McEwen

"With a shoot-from-the-hip Memphis attitude, and a STAX-busting explosion of modern blues vision,
GTBB represents a welcome changing of the guard.” -Living Blues Magazine