Artist:     Blackfoot Gypsies

Album:     To The Top

Label:     Plowboy Records

Release Date:     04/14/2017

90

BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

To The Top is 15 tracks of Southern-infused rock, represented by genres such as soul, swamp blues, and hillbilly twang. The Nashville quartet even brings in some punk courtesy of Matthew Paige (guitar, vocals) and his Oregon origins.

Indie and pop-rock fans also won’t feel left out as they can embrace the deep south with this album. Two tracks in, “Everybody’s Watching”, delivers a sound that could please a variety of radio stations. “Potatoes and Whiskey” (featuring Margo Price) and “Velvet Low Down Blues” take listeners to the front-porch swinging deep south, “Back to New Orleans” is the big band that greets you as you make a left out of the alley way, “I Wanna Be Famous” is garage rock that has potential. To The Top is appealing because it’s all over the place.

Paige, along with Nashville’s Zach Murphy, created the Blackfoot Gypsies duo a few years ago, with desires to rock and roll as soon as they could. Their popular live-performances gave them the opportunity to create two EPs and an LP before deciding to expand their sound and bring a few more members on board- harmonica player Ollie Dogg (also a longtime veteran of Nashville’s blues and blues jams scenes) and Pennsylvania’s Dan Whitlow on bass. To The Top is the band’s second release as a quartet, and although their sounds as a duo was far from lacking, having a few more band members on hand makes this band truly rock.

These guys throw it back with a sound that’s old-fashioned and refreshing all at the same time. To The Top is loose, fun, vintage and you’ll realize it’s what you’ve been waiting for as soon as the first track hits your ears.

—Brenda Hillegas