Vinyl

The Lee County, Iowa-based singer-songwriter is a calming voice amongst chaos, the friend you call when you need advice, and these nine songs are him working through a number of knotty spiritual equations posed by the cosmos.

ROOKIE’s modern take on timeless American rock ‘n’ roll pulls from all corners of the sonic map; it’s familiar but fresh, lived-in but blown-out. It’s the ‘70s/’80s pop-rock sheen of recent tour-mates Cheap Trick; 3-minute precision songwriting of Big Star; loose Neil Young Americana; and the hazey, psych-flavored boogie of The Allman Brothers and Thin Lizzy.

"This record is called 16. Though it's not a tribute to Street Legal, that Bob Dylan record is the source of the songs here. Back in the 1970s, 12-inch LPs were the common currency. Mostly "rock"—white guys with claims on Art & Meaning—but you could often follow the trails outward to country, gospel, R&B, and so on."

For our 25th anniversary, we summoned 10 songs from the good Rev. Biram's God-fearing side of his psyche. Includes unreleased and pre-Bloodshot material.
Stay on the side of the righteous and the raucous with this Sunday-morning-hurts-after-Saturday-night collection.

Let It Be Guitar! showcases fresh new arrangements of these familiar tunes, employing a wide variety of musical styles and guitar sounds, paying tribute to Paterson’s biggest influences including Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Jorgen Ingmann, James Burton, Buddy Emmons, Ernest Ranglin and many more.

Ground Zero outlaw David Allan Coe’s “Monkey David Wine” gets a sinister gut bucket blues duet treatment. It lands about 11 feet away from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins on a ten foot chain. Pass the bottle, friends.

Side B is Gary Stewart’s “Single Again.” The cool-as-can-be song is a shaggy-haired, floppy-hatted prime taste of 70’s rebel country. Pass the weed, brother.

Cinematic and widescreen in its sonic scope and with a live band immediacy, Deserted is the Mekons at their finest. It's folk music by folks who are pissed and disillusioned, lost and longing to be found, but only on their terms.