Hey y’all this here Northeastern dude, “Joisey Guy”, to be more accurate, is pleased to join Southern Fried. The first review I’m having the pleasure of doing is the debut self titled CD by Trucker Mouth.

The band’s lineup is, Tim Atkins, guitar and vocals, Chad Raleigh, lead guitar, Patrick Barrett, drums and Steve Sofronas, bass. The group is not a “southern rock” band in the geographic sense; they are from the Boston area. I swear I heard a little of The Standells in the singing. For those not as old as dirt, meaning as old as me, The Standells had that huge hit in the sixties, “Dirty Water” which can be heard at Red Sox games.

If you are a fan of the Black Crowes you’ll love this CD. If you like the Allman Brothers, the guitar playing is reminiscent of some of Duane Allman’s slide guitar work on their early material such as “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.”

I’m a drummer, and the test of a good song to me is how soon do my hands, fingers, feet start tapping out the beat to any song I like. Then my right hand goes reaching for the air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror which is my cymbal.

I didn’t do that on the opening track, “Black Cat.” However, I found myself banging away the rest of the CD, so I went back and had a listen again to “Black Cat.” I think what it was, more than anything, was the sound mix on the first track is a little buried, a little muddied. The entire CD obviously was not mixed in a state of the art multi million dollar studio. Despite that, the sound quality overall does not detract that much from the enjoyment of listening to the group.

When I heard the opening of the second track, “Nothing to Hide”, I was reaching for that extra pair of drum sticks I have on the side of my car door. Wow, the group sounds like they were shot out of a cannon on that song.

The third track, “Likeness” is vocals of the Black Crowes, but I swear the guitar, as I said above, is Duane Allman on slide guitar. If you close your eyes and imagine the ABB, it takes you back to those Idlewild South days.

That guitar sound continues on the next track, “Love & a Shotgun”, but the vocals sound a bit more like that of Marc Ford, ex-Black Crowes guitarist from some of Marc’s solo work.

Further down on the CD is a tune entitled, “Simple Things” which gave me the feel of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s tunes “Simple Man” and “Tuesday’s Gone.”

What to me detracts from the CD, and this is purely a personal taste, is I’d like to see more variation in the guitar sound. I’m a guy who likes to hear that melodic playing, (Dickey Betts’ sound for example) mixed in. If you love the slide sound and the fuzz tones, you’ll love this CD. Also, Tim does all the lead singing, and again, over the course of an entire CD, my personal taste is I prefer a little variation.

It may be a bit unfair of me to judge the band fully on a CD alone since I’ve never seen them play live. I called a good friend of mine, Matt, who lives in Stoughton, MA and asked if he was familiar with Trucker Mouth. He saw them at Johnny D’s in Sommervile, MA and said “they rocked the house!”

This is one of those CDs that will grow on you. It took me a little while to warm up to it, but I find it on regular rotation in my car CD player. For me, who primarily listens to music while on the road, that is huge. Once I get hooked, a certain CD stays readily available in my car for weeks on end, and that is where Trucker Mouth has been over these last few weeks.

My gut says their next effort will be even more impressive, why not be one of those that will say, “I bought Trucker Mouth’s first CD way back before they became famous.”

 

You can listen to some of the tracks from their CD on their myspace page and their official website. Pick up a copy while you're there!