Album title: Shake the Roots
Artist: Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown
Genre: Rock
Nationality: American
Familiarity (artist): Zero
Familiarity (genre):
A word before I jump in: The album cover made me think this would be like some sort of hippy revival/sixties thing or maybe world music or something. I can’t really get anything genre-wise other than rock, but Wiki tells me they have supported AC/DC, ZZ Top, Aerosmith and Guns n ’Roses, so they must have some sort of heaviness to them.
Tracks
“Bare Bones”
Definite sense of country/bluegrass in this one anyway, with some righteous shots of gospel too. Cool.
Rating: 8
“Ain’t None Watered Down”
Good chunky guitar in an Earle style country rocker.
Rating: 7
“Ghost Rider”
First one that’s really come closer to hard rock than country; sharp guitar and driving drums edging it a little towards post-hardcore territory, he says, as if he knows what he’s talking about.
Rating: 8
“Roots”
Hard rocker with a real edge and a reference to Nashville and Elvis. Decent.
Rating: 7
“Hard Learned”
More laid back with some sweet slide, kind of reminds me of Blackfoot for some reason. Also Chris Rea on
Dancing Down the Stony Road. Shut up.
Rating: 8
“Shackles”
Growling guitar attack in a kind of staggered pattern, stop/start vocal, think it’s a song about an outlaw on the run.
Rating: 7
“Off the Rails”
Ramping back up the tempo with a ride at top speed, chugging along like the locomotive mentioned or alluded to in the title.
Rating: 7
“Good Thing”
Breezy little tune, kind of lightweight and not that much to say about what I heard of it. Meh.
Rating: 5
“Sell Yourself”
All right, first time I read this I thought it said “Soil Yourself.” Yeah. Anyway it’s a powerful upfront rocker with guitar right in your face. It’s all right I guess.
Rating: 6
“Tennessee”
Who doesn’t expect this to have a country flavour? Of course it does. The false start is mildly amusing, the pedal steel is sweet and to be honest if they stuck to this kind of thing I think I would like them better. A real drinkin’ song. Yee-hah, as they say.
Rating: 8
“Sunday No Show”
But it’s back to the rockin’, and to be fair this is one of the better ones, with that guitar walkin’ right up to you and askin’ what the **** you lookin’ at boy? Bit of an attempt at a rap, which kind of works more than it doesn’t. Good chorus.
Rating: 8
“Midnight Oil”
I feel this is a weak one to end on. It’s not bad, but it hasn’t got the energy of the last track or a few of the others.
Rating: 6
Average Track Rating: 7.08
Comments: Yeah, not a lot to say really. This band come across as being unable to decide whether they want to be a rock or a country band, and fall in between two stools as it were. I think they should probably have gone for the latter choice, cause when they cowboy up they’re really good at it. They rock well too, but it’s just better when they’re country boys.
Album Rating: 7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy-yK0m_CKM