Liberty Roots Productions Presents: Saint Christopher, The Devil's Cut, and Jimmy Swope
The Tusk Philadelphia, PA
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Liberty Roots Productions Presents: Saint Christopher, The Devil's Cut, and Jimmy Swope
************************************************ SAINT CHRISTOPHER PUNK/COUNTRY/BLUES LINCOLN, NEBRASKA ************************************************
Christopher Webster has sacrificed a lot over the years in the name of integrity. The way the Nebraska native talks about how his music fits in any context seems to toe the line between stark self-awareness and some form of holier-than-thou preachiness that of his on-stage persona, Saint Christopher.
"Real art" is supposed to make people uncomfortable. "Art and music is meant to stir some emotions, and sometimes they're not fucking pleasant emotions," Webster says. "The things that I write are not for popular consumption. You're not gonna be well known. You're not gonna make a bunch of money. But that's the price you pay for making legitimate music."
It practically drips with the implication that he has taken the high road through what has been Hell and Creation since he started touring and playing in bands more than 20 years ago. He plays a brash, maybe offensive brand of rock, riddled with blistering slurs and enough f-bombs to fill a Quentin Tarantino flick.
And yet, the opposite is true. Webster is so convincingly earnest and self-examined that, as he constantly pauses to reassure that he doesn't want praise or sympathy or undue recognition. When he talks about being tired, hungry and broke, he's simply recounting his life on the road.
Christopher Webster, aka Saint Christopher, plays in support of his third full-length album "Let This Kill Me: A Nebraska Tradition of Murder and Alcoholism"
************************************************ THE DEVIL'S CUT PUNK/ROCK/BLUEGRASS LANSING, MICHIGAN ************************************************
The Devil's Cut is a Rock N Roll band from Lansing Michigan established in 2010. They mix earnest storytelling with a feeling of camaraderie and debauchery. The experience creates a profound sense of community you just want to be involved in, prompting you to hurl crushed beer cans at the screaming singers. An ear full of raucous music about death and love in Lansing, which leaves you a part of something. It is true American folk poetry, set to a sound that makes you want to mosh the shit out of your body.
"music for anyone who has sat on a porch with a beer and watched equipment moved out of a factory after production was outsourced, who has seen the pool hall they grew up in turned in to a convenience store, who has paid their bar tab with a disability check after being hurt on the job."
************************************************ JIMMY SWOPE COUNTRY/MURDER BALLADS HEGERSTOWN, MARYLAND ************************************************
"The Wages Of Sin" is Jimmy Swope's debut solo album freshly released on Farmageddon Records, yet another stellar release to add to their shelf of consistency. There's not a lot out there about Swope, who hails from Hagerstown, MD, and writes some of the saddest country songs ever heard.
Swope offers up his custom style of cantankerous murder country, equals parts salvation and debauchery. Songs about women, murder, suicide, drugs, booze, love, and loss are all delivered in a classy '70s cocaine country vibe, yoked with stellar country musicians, and it's one of the better country records that has been released in years.
The off-base song content and mysteriousness of Swope alone keep an interest, but this is real country music, not a gimmick or in any way a disrespect. Farmageddon's stable of artists walk this line quite often, toting the tagline, "For the music, by the music."
The Wages Of Sin was recorded at Andy Gibson's studio in Nashville, TN in 2013 and provides a wild insight to the innards of bleak sorrows and losses, situations not imagined as much as they come across autobiographical. A collection of well-crafted sad ballads are sewn together with intelligent lyrics and quintessential country fills. It's been said that Swope is "the missing link in country music", an accurate description. The man can write a hell of a song.
"Five Chambers Empty," in all its pedal steel wound glory, tells a connected, commiserating tale of death and debauchery, set to a perfect country song. It's a dark tale of suicide and drinking, partying and thinking.
"The Wolf" is another murder ballad told in a way only Swope can muster. His vocals are murky at times, carrying a stressed out vibrato that's equal parts self-inflicted and forlorn, all the while telling the hapless story of a sleep walking murderer and the "nice guy down the street" brilliant stuff. Another highlight is a meretricious version of Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down," with a distinct lyric change in "I thank the Lord that I get stoned." I'll take thanking over wishing any day.
Swope's duet with Molly Conley, "You and Me" is a bonafide throwback to Tammy and George or Johnny and June, a catchy number with a crack dobro/fiddle trade off, lively and boisterous, witty and diverting. Get acclimated to Swope and the rest of the Farmageddon family of bands -- there's not a bad one in the bunch.
