Shakers

Eilen Jewell & The Sacred Shakers - The Sacred Shakers (2008) {Signature SIG2015}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 336 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 121 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 12 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2008 Signature Sounds Recording | SIG 2015
Christian Blues / Country / Gospel / Folk / Roots Rock

THE SACRED SHAKERS is the work of a Boston-based group of folk, blues, and roots-rock musicians who first started playing old-time traditional gospel tunes at a series of Sunday afternoon gospel brunches at a local club. The 14 tracks on this rollicking album are all traditional gospel tunes, both well-known and fairly obscure, delivered with the energy of early rock & roll and the down-home sentiment of traditional blues. Highlights include a spirited "I'm Gonna Do My Best" and "Titanic," a folk blues based on the sinking of the famed passenger ship.

The Sacred Shakers - Live (2014) {Signature Sounds Recordings} (ft. Eilen Jewell)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 339 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 118 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 16 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Signature Sounds Recording | SIG 2060
Gospel / Bluegrass / Country / Folk / Folk Rock

Released January 21, 2014 on Signature Sounds. The 14-song album was recorded live at Boston’s Lizard Lounge on January 24, 20,13. The Sacred Shakers are comprised of Eilen Jewell and her band: Jason Beek, Jerry Miller, Johnny Sciascia and rounded out by Daniel Fram, Greg Glassman, Daniel Kellar, and Eric Royer. Together, they offer new life to the gospel genre by revisiting the stripped down country and bluesy gospel material that inspires them.

As the opening track, "Agony Wagon," shuffles out of the starting blocks like some sort of hillbilly klezmer chestnut, complete with violin and clarinet, you can't help but wonder if the Legendary Shack Shakers have done a 180 for their second album, 2004's Believe. Further research confirms this isn't quite the case, but Believe does find this band of hot-wired Nashville maniacs adding a few more flavors to their usual gumbo of country, blues, rockabilly, and punk. Fiddles and horns add seasoning to a few tracks, the group musters up a shade more technical finesse than they did on their blasting debut, Cockadoodledon't, and the graceful waltz-time "The Pony to Bet On" suggests this band might actually have some subtlety lurking deep down inside of them. But for the most part Believe shows the Shack Shakers's instincts remain mercifully unchanged – they're here to kick ass and get wild, and man oh man, are they good at it.

The Legendary Shack Shakers have long been known for their knack for grinding up the most unstable aspects of American roots music forms, including redneck country, punk, honky tonk, swamp blues, garage rock, and primal rockabilly and serving them up in a dark, steaming, 200-proof cocktail of chaos. But "Melungeon Melody" and "Killswitch," the track that closes the album, are extreme even by Shack Shaker standards. Why they'd choose to open a set with a discharge of unlistenable noise is anybody's guess, but the rest of the album finds the band in its familiar, over-the-top mode.

After five years away from the recording studio, the Legendary Shack Shakers don't sound as frantic as they did back in the days of Cockadoodledon't, but their commitment to bad craziness below the Mason-Dixon line is as strong as ever, so the title The Southern Surreal is more than fitting. Instead of going for the breakneck psychobilly of their formative days, in 2015 the Shack Shakers continue to explore the swampy sound that dominated 2007's Swampblood as they ponder the more forbidding side of life in the deep South. Bassist Mark Robertson and drummer Brett Whitacre lay out a deep, implacable rhythm as guitarist Rod Hamdallah spreads echo-drenched guitar figures over it all and Col. J.D. Wilkes howls and moans his tales of booze, bad living, the walking dead, and other unhealthy phenomena of life along the riverbank (and occasionally tosses in some high-powered harmonica work). The band also brings along a few high-powered guests (including former Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison and sax player Ralph Carney, best known for his work with Tom Waits), and Billy Bob Thornton steps up to the vocal mike for a brilliantly creepy spoken word piece.