I made the trip back up to my buddy Jeb Browns The Backroom Lounge to reconnect with everyone up here, and it sure has felt good this past year getting back into the music again. I’m FIRED UP to be bringing you so much new content. I mean, I have so many different articles I’m working on right now, from so many different genres of good music, and I get enamored with one article direction that I forget about others. Then I switch off to others that release new music that excites me.
This past year has been an amazing banger of a year for new music for so many artists and bands, that I don’t know WHERE to start …so THIS is where I’m gong to link in all of my good friend Joshua’s playlists and podcasts, where you can find MORE of this kick ass music we write about on here. He and I try to get out there and dig as deep as we can to find all of these bands.
Folks, let me tell you that the underground music is simply NOT UNDERGROUND anymore, it is indeed surpassing the mainstream crap that the media wants to force feed us all. I recently posted a long article about how downtown Nashville does NOT suck…it contains several reasons WHY it does not suck, and if you are still not convinced….then I have failed. If you feel so inclined to read that, I have linked it HERE
Then you have places like this in the small rural communities of the bigger cities like Springfield, where I am currently relaxing in my hotel room of the Comfort Inn on 6th St off Hwy 55. I highly suggest this hotel for the service and the quality, and the breakfast is exceptional. This little listening lounge is the perfect thing this community needs to have.
This place is specifically designed to be sound proof so as not to bother the neighbors, plenty of room to load/unload, and even a merch area! There are places with nearby food, and I did see people eating in there ( within reason). See, I find it imperative to include so many other businesses while supporting local music.
It has been a few good years since I ran into Alex Williams. If I remember correctly it was my last appearance at my current upcoming event at the North Springs Music Festival in about 2 weeks up in Middle Tennessee, which you’ll be hearing about soon on here. Much like this venue here, that festival is 100 do it yourself, and ran by a local member of the community. I also have an entire festival list of over 200 festivals nationwide that feature the kind of music on here.
Alex Williams is another one of them on the list that has a new album coming out in 2024, and he played some of the new songs for us last night, like the first one I got to hear called “Blind Faith”. I was just a little bit late for the entire show. After that, he went over to his second album from 2022 called “Waging Peace”, and payed that title song along with “Higher Road”.
He began playing a few more new ones before pulling a few great songs from his first album called “Better Than Myself” like my favorite song he does called “Freak Flag”. That is pretty much what I did this weekend was relax and have a few edibles, and let my freak flag fly all weekend. That is pretty much his signature song of his set list besides “Little Too Stoned”.
It’s been way too damn long since I ran into Nick Dittmeier And The Sawdusters. My favorite song he does or they do is Waiting For My True Love off of their Midwest Heart album . They are in the process of making a new record and this song right here is called “Revenge”. Even though their newest offering is from 2023, there is still another new album on the horizon here.
Their first song after that was off their latest album called “Heavy Denim” and the song is called “I Suppose”, and that was followed by the ever popular broken down piece of shit vehicle anthem “Centralia”. They also went through some of their new album’s songs the likes of “Turned And Walked Away”, and something I am currently using “Hotel Pens” only I am not writing confessions.
I want to say the last time I ran across this band was at one of the past Master Musician’s Festivals or one of those Kentucky festivals. This band is an Indiana and Illinois superpower that blazes trails through their home territory. Their latest album also boasts the song “Things Are Getting Strange’, before they drifted back to an earlier song called “Rhythm Of The Train”.
Another great part of getting to see this band again, is getting to cross paths with JD Mackinder again, as he has been playing bass with the band for some time now. Toward the end of the show they payed another great one called “Trouble Song” from the earlier albums, and they ended the show with a very early song called “Save Me From Myself’.
So far this has been a hell of a terrific weekend and I’m only half done with my job here. As of right now I am just resting at the hotel, and picking a place to eat dinner before the show tonight. None other than Hellbound Glory!
At last notice this band The Wolf Crick Boys took the stage first, which is a local four piece band. But tonight one of them couldn’t make the show on such short notice. I knew absolutely nothing about this band before today, but I got to meet them before the show. Upon my further investigation into them, I found a long list of shows all around their area.
Their lead guitarist Tom Woosley was not there today, Patrick Miller on drums, Keith Ramey on bass and lead singer Greg Patterson make up this band, and they have three albums available on their website and wherever you purchase music on. From their newest album called “All’s Quiet On The Western Front” they played the song called “It’s Hard”.
To be honest, one of their best songs was a cover, and that’s not a bad thing. Not many could pull off Hank Williams version of ‘Angel Of Death” like that. I really think that if I got to see them with a full band, I would have witnessed the full effect.
When I started this music blog, and I dug deeper into the bands that this community involves, I found this man, Leroy Virgil and his band called Hellbound Glory. In my opinion he is one of the most overlooked songwriters that currently tour. I am eagerly awaiting this man and the songs of tragedy, defeat and drug overdoses.
Throughout the years I have now had the opportunity to see him play live with many lineup changes, tonight he played with Mr. Chuck Bradley, whom played guitars and lap steel as well. That makes for a truly amazing ambiance in a small setting like this and when an intimate audience gets to hear a song like “Malt Liquor”,they THINK that is the best song of the night…..think again. That song wasn’t even on any of the albums, and is often undiscovered by some longtime fans.
They played many songs from the 2017 album called “Pinball” that was produced by Shooter Jennings ( along with many others thereafter ) , like the song called “Six Strings Away”, and from their “Pure Scum” album “Renowhere” was one of the first ones. He currently is now based out of Reno, however lately we have been introduced to his home of Aberdeen.
To be completely honest in my opinion, the greatest song in the entire set is from the 2011 album called “Damaged Goods” and it’s called “Barroom Beauty”. This is a tragic song about the dark side of life, and paints a wickedly vivid story of a washed up lounge lizard. One night with Hellbound Glory will change the way you look at life, because music isn’t always cheery and bright.
They also included the songs “13 Corners” and the title track “Pinball”, however another pinnacle of the show was this first time I got to hear “Another Dead Friend” live. That song means a LOT to me because I am the last of my teenage buddies left, at 53. This song is an anthem to people like me with cleaned up histories of sobriety, and a metric ton of stories about the running wild decades ago.
They played an incredibly long time, where they included songs like “Neon Leon”, and the anthem for this band called “Another Bender Might Break Me”. This song is a solemn reminder to an old addict like me that sobriety really isn’t bad, and my three years of pills and drinking is a happy ending….if I fall off the wagon, another bender might break me, before they ended the show with ‘Shades Pulled Down” and a few more.
