Righteous Hillbillies Two Wheels Down a Lost Highway Review by Gary Hill
These guys are really a great band. How you feel about this album will be based to a large degree on how you like groups like Marshall Tucker Band, The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. For the most part, this occupies much the same musical texture. Within that heading, there is a good amount of range here. This never feels redundant or monolithic. I have to say that I really love the name of the band, too.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2017 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Rolling
This has a real 70s sound. It makes me think of things like The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The music is classic and timeless really. It's also satisfying.
Throwing Stones They take us into more rocking territory with this cut. It's a powered up scorching hot Southern rocker. I love the organ solo on this tune. While the number is firmly rooted in the old school, it's definitely more modern overall.
All Down But Nine More of a modern rocker, this still has plenty of nods to the old school stuff. This is arguably more modern raunch and roll than it is 70s Southern rock, though. It's catchy and very effective whatever you call it.
Shake This Feeling Now, this is old school rock and roll merged with country music.
Two Wheels Down A Lost Highway There is still a bit of a Southern rock edge here, but overall this lands more in modern alternative rock territory. It's a solid tune and a nice change. Beyond that, though, it's a little pedestrian and generic compared to some of the rest of the music here.
Down to Memphis The guitar part that opens this is about as old school and down home as you can get. They bring some crunchy modern textures to it after the intro. This is a great traditionally based hard rocker with blues and country at its heart. Again, this makes me think of the Allman Brothers quite a bit, but perhaps with a bit of ZZ Top added to the mix. There's some great guitar work on this thing.
Call Me A Doctor A bluesy rocker, this is old-school. It's also very strong. I love the guitar work on it, but the blues-rocking vocals are worth mention, too.
Drama Zone More of a pure mainstream rocker, this has some great retro elements at play. The guitar soloing is on fire, too.
Shackles & Chains Very much in line with the kind of things Lynyrd Skynyrd would create, this is classy Southern rock. I love the guitar work in particular, but this is generally an effective cut.
Rock Salt & Nails Here we get a downhome acoustic guitar based country ballad. This is very much old school.
