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Dusty Rhodes & The River Band

Dusty Rhodes & The River Band
‘First You Live’
(Side One Dummy)
www.myspace.com/dustyrhodes

In case you hadn’t guessed from the name, Dusty Rhodes and his southern-fried River Band are pretty well acquainted with their classic Americana. ‘First You Live‘ is the Californian sextet’s debut album, and a gloriously diverse, psychedelic beast it is too. Imagine the Flaming Lips sharing a flask of moonshine whiskey with Hank Williams, and you’ll have a rough idea of where Dusty and co. are coming from.

Incorporating accordion, harmonica, violin and mandolin into the traditional band set-up was never going to result in the most conventional of sounds, and so it proves with ‘First You Live‘. ‘Leaving Tennessee‘ is a yearning, up-tempo country stomp, whilst recent single ‘Dear Honey‘ is a drunken lament to lost love to rival the best of them. Elsewhere, ‘Street Fighter‘ boasts a gritty, guitar-laden chorus, and the closing, Beatles-esque ‘Ballad Of Graff‘ is worthy of a ‘Hey Jude‘-sized sing along.

Check out ‘Leaving Tennessee‘ on the link above. The band will also be visiting the UK for the first time, when they play three London shows at the end of this month. Let’s face it, we could use a bit of Californian cheer at this time of the year.

Live dates:

March 28th – The Luminaire (Kilburn)
April 1st – The Fly (Holborn)
April 3rd – The Water Rats (King’s Cross)