Album Review: Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash - New Old Story

It's been five years of waiting patiently, and I'm excited to announce that the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash have released a new CD - New Old Story. I was informed about the release through early play on Sirius Outlaw Country and once Mark Stuart posted the SoundCloud embed, I've been listening through the BSOJC website almost every day. This is the best country music album I've heard early in this year and seriously competes with my favorites from 2013.  Rootsy or twangy, Stuart delivers through both upbeat honky-tonk, tex-mex, or waltzy ballads. This is real country music - heartfelt songs with a great backing band that plays the instruments in No Honky Tonks: pedal steel, fiddle, mandolin, and plenty of rockn' guitar. We have Alex Watts, David Berzansky, Mark Thomas, and Michael Faughnan to thank for that. The songs sometimes resembles some of the greats, Merle Haggard throughout; Leave the Lights On and Shaver; the title track and Dave Alvin. As the pioneers move on, Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash are there to fill the gap. Now, please just come East for a tour. Pair with Stuart's hometown brewery, Bakersfield's Lengthwise Brewing. Cheers.

 

Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash @ Club Iota

On Saturday March 29th, we made sure we attended the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash show at Club Iota in Arlington Virginia. We started following this band after hearing Austin Nights on XM Radio X Country. This song describes Mark Stuart's - the band's frontman- initial foray into the Austin music scene. His feelings are easy to relate to: "They don't play Joe Ely where I come from." And now the band had finally ventured East.

Wink Keziah opened the show with an acoustic set playing without his full band, the Delux Motel. Mark Stuart produced his current release, Working Songs for the Drinking Class. Wait to you hear "A Hot Woman A Cold Beer" - a great song. During his performance I noticed a generation gap when he tried to get the crowd to participate in a sing along - with Lowell George's Willin'. However, it didn't appear that the younger crowd had ever heard this classic - so Wink sung alone.

From their very first song the BSJC were incredibly crisp - probably excited about playing the last show of the tour. Vance Hazen and Jon Lewis were solid on bass and drums, and Mark Stuart has tremendous stage presence, but Lars Albrecht on the telecaster was amazing. The band rocked. They started with originals from their first three CDs (Walk Alone, Distance Between, and Mile Markers), including Austin Nights, but mixed in a few songs from their next release. Wait to you hear this CD - these news songs were rockin'. By the end of the night, the entire club was dancing and when they covered The Blaster's Marie Marie - it was a frenzy. What a night.

In the coming months Wink Keziah and the Delux Motel are playing in several venues throughout his home state of North Carolina. A road trip will probably be planned. And the BSJC will be playing primarily on the West Coast - but if you find yourself in Iowa the end of this month - catch Mark Stuart acoustic shows with Randy Burk and Jared Hall from Randy Burk and the Prisoners.