Twang is a hard thing to fake. In a world populated by pop country and jam band outfits it's tough to get enough soul in around production to make it sound right.
Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck knows a thing or two about natural sounding country and about the bits and pieces that go into real southern rock. His first album,
Pride was something introspectic and intimate and featured Houck on duties for all the instrumentation.
Between
Pride and his upcoming
Here's To Taking It Easy, a lot has happened... namely the release of a Willie Nelson cover album,
To Willie. It's definitely clear Willie Nelson's style has rubbed off on the young singer/songwriter, because the first single off of
Here's To Talking It Easy, "It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)", is a bustling, twangy little ditty.
It opens with popping horns and goes on to dance and shimmy along with slide guitars, electric pianos and tambourines. Inside of the southern bar band composition is Houck's raspy voice adding personality to what would otherwise be your typical studio country band.
Phosphorescent is currently based out of Brooklyn and it's good to see that the Northeast hasn't drained him of his roots. In fact, from the sounds of it, it's made him a lot more confident in embracing them. If "It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)" is any indicator of
Here's To Taking It Easy, then I'd say expect a lot more lazy-day, feel good blues rock. -
Ryan Broderick
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MP3:"It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)" - Here's To Taking It Easy
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