Shady Oaks – MAD
Shady Oaks are the kind of band that hopes to drag everything that’s wrong, bad, and dangerous to know about rock n’ roll and bring it screaming to the attention of modern audiences.
There was a time when many people would just accept the stories of bluesmen, like Robert Johnson, selling their souls to the devil. After all, many of the songs that these people wrote involved violence, sex, and murder. Being involved with the Horned-One seemed part of the course.
Later, folks used to describe rock n’ roll as The Devil’s Music. The people who actually played this kind of music, or who had an intimate understanding of it, may not have agreed, but smiled and went along with it. After all, these weren’t tunes meant to be played at wedding receptions.
Shady Oaks know that the reputation of the blues and of rock n’ roll has been cleaned up. But they are using their latest single, “Mad”, to fight against it. What they bring to the table is a direct, simple sound that comes from the guts. This primal energy propels this blues-grunge number forward with everything exciting and wrong that this kind of music has to offer.
The Heavy North – Give A Little Love
Similar artists: The Black Keys, Rival Sons, Jack White, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Hives
Genre: Southern Rock / Red Dirt, Classic Rock, Garage Rock
The Marlboro man may have gone from this world wishing that nobody had followed in the footsteps he left. But coolness is a thing that has a habit of drawing together the kind of people whose lives need changing. The Heavy North sound like they look. And they look like they always knew they wanted to dedicate their life to cool rock n’ roll.
The rebel needs a rock n’ roll soundtrack. At least, the rebel as we all know him from the movies. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Monty Clift or any of their millions of followers can’t just skate away on their fast, thunder-spitting machines while Taylor Swift plays in the background. No, this is the world of nasty stories that require nasty sounds from folks determined to be nobody’s fool.
The Heavy North’s “Give A Little Love” sound like all of the blues-rock groups that wear leather jackets and dark sunglasses indoors. Like all of them! This means that their sound is also dynamic and makes for entertaining listening sessions where images of running away from the law, stealing the preacher’s daughter and driving off a cliff are all conveyed. It’s Old Testament rock n’ roll for a world that is becoming threateningly safe.
