T h ese eight-bar tunes (sometimes using only two chords and sometimes needing just four chords covering two bars each) have become specialities of Tuba Skinny's wonderful vocalist, Erika Lewis. They went in for simple, memorable themes that are really good to sing. I suppose this is inevitable with a band that garners so much of its material from the unsophisticated songs of the jug bands and blues guitarists of the 1920s and 1930s. A sixteen bar (8 + 8) example is Late Hour Blues - a song they introduced into their repertoire in April 2015. What I am referring to are themes of eight bars (measures), sometimes repeated, so you could say the tunes are either of eight bars or sixteen bars (often with a 'turn-around' in bars 7 and 8). When struggling to define their sound, just call them American music.Tuba Skinny are fond of what I would describe as 'eight-bar melodies'. The Longneck Stranglers sit comfortably at their crossroads, a genre-spanning group, that can relate to fans on both sides of the tracks. Burnside, Howling Diablos), and featured on the album Detroit native, James Wailin' on harmonica (The Reefermen) and Jimmie Bones (Twisted Brown Trucker Band) on keys. Working with the band was producer hip to the Detroit scene, Tino Gross (Uncle Kracker, Kid Rock, R.L. The rest of the band, including drummer Jeremy Kanouse and bassist Kevin Davis, form the backbone of the music, delivering gospel-tinged blues,Opry-licious americana, beer-soaked ballads and everything in between. His lyrics ooze from the speakers, creamy as velvet, with moments of contradictory gruffness that are only more alluring, like a recently-shaved beard on an otherwise smooth face. Perhaps the most country-sounding thing about the Stranglers' music is Lentz's deep, pure baritone vocals.
![the bartunes band the bartunes band](https://www.barts.cat/archivos/espectacles_arxius/130117113215_mhnl3low.jpg)
Guitarist Rick Browarski, the predominant songwriter of the band, writes his best stuff when pulling from real life, and there's no doubt this album is shaded by mature themes like family and real love, while keeping just enough of those rambunctious beer-bar tunes the band was founded on. Give one listen to their upcoming full-length album, Home (release date ), to see how far the boys have come since their first EP, My First Rodeo, in 2007. A name that became so associated with grabbin' a cold one that the boys have their own limited edition brew for fans to "strangle." Pair that with the influence of neighboring Detroit Rock City and you've got the Stranglers.Īs lead singer, Ricky Lentz, explains, "We're at a crossroads where fans of both rock and country can meet." Their name is, in fact, a euphemism for drinking a beer. Their hodge-podge style is no happy accident but is very likely the product of the boys' hometown of Hazel Park, Michigan - aptly dubbed "Hazeltucky" because of the several residents, transplants from Kentucky, that brought with them their love for southern music. Their grungy, sometimes psychedelic, guitar riffs paired with hard-hitting drums and that good 'ole southern harmonica yield a rockabilly-roots rock that would be just as at home at a honky tonk as it would in a grimy hole-in-the-wall in downtown Detroit. There's no simple way to label the Longneck Stranglers' sound.
![the bartunes band the bartunes band](https://wpengine-myanmore.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/05/IMG_7069-1.jpeg)
But, assuming you can slap a simple "country" label on this band could lead to a bar fight and your own demise.
![the bartunes band the bartunes band](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/9f/44/7f9f4443af4c25ceeb2ff83594be39ba.jpg)
Sure, these are all things that may come to mind when listening to Longneck Strangler.