State of the Blog Address

As most of the three of you reading this blog may have noticed, the posting frequency has dwindled to a slow trickle. This is a result of a few things happening that are important to me and probably not important to anyone else. While things are going to be slower for a few months, this is not the end and there is no swan song in the works. I plan to be back to a regular posting pattern in just a few months, but in the meantime I'll only waste your time with the best new music I receive. I may have someone else guest posting from time to time also. Check out Twitter (@bootlegend) and Tumblr (http://inmybasementroom.tumblr.com) as those are a little quicker and I sometimes throw stuff up there that I find of interest. It requires less work from me, but is also limited too. Anyway, I'll be around.

Shadwick Wilde: Unforgivable Things

I discovered this album through Reviewshine, and it is one of only a handful that I've received that way that didn't suck. Shadwick Wilde was raised in a San Francisco but is now based in Louisville. He's just self-released Unforgivable Things, an album of songs concerning heartache and sadness (more or less). No happy melodies here. There's a lonesome fiddle here and a sparse, somber electric guitar fill there, but the primary focus of the album is the lyric. "Wearing Thin" is the confession of a man on the edge of giving up, and "Motorcycle Song" is about the guy that can't get that one girl.

The first comparison that came to mind when I heard Unforgivable Things was Lucero. Careful though, because I'm talking The Attic Tapes brand Lucero, not rock and roll brand Lucero. That said, this could be Shadwick's Attic Tapes, a group of songs that have a vulnerable identity when first recorded that is great, but may also grow into rock and roll excellence somewhere down the road.

Shadwick is playing a ton of shows in Louisville now so you should check him out if you can. He has an Ear X-Tacy show coming up too. Buy Unforgivable Things here, or get it from Itunes.

Also, for you local people, I noticed in the liner notes that Nick Hamstra (Hambone) played electric guitar on the album. So check it out if you dig Hambone too.

Check out the two tracks below.
Shadwick Wilde - Motorcycle Song
Shadwick Wilde - Girls Like You

Trapper Haskins & the Bitter Swill - Alluvium

Trapper Haskins & the Bitter Swill's debut album Alluvium is out on Jake Leg Records and contains twelve tracks of mellow Americana straight from Tennessee. The songs are the product of a two year's writing and cover the usual country base but do so with particularly memorable choruses. The band sounds like they've played together for years and consists of Trapper (vocals and guitars), Ry Evans (drums), Paul Thacker (keys,accordion, sax, backing vocals), and Shane Vahle (bass). First half of the album is the best, partially because most of the later songs are over four minutes or closer to five minutes. Two standout tracks are posted below, along with a select chorus lyric. By the way, artwork on the album is fantastic too.
"Hydrocodone and Green Label Jack
Will push the pain away but it won't bring you back
Won't bring you back any nearer to me
And the day that you left, hon, the sun set on Tennessee"
----Hard Luck Angel----


Trapper Haskins - Souvenir
Trapper Haskins - Hard Luck Angel

Buy Album

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