Scrapomatic
Sidewalk Caesars
Landslide Music
visit the band's website
and on myspace
also available on amazon
Mike Mattison, vocals, and Paul Olsen, vocals and guitar, have recorded their second Landslide disc in as many years and they take their blend of rural and citified blues to new levels. For this disc they include their touring band that includes Ted Pecchio on bass and Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell on drums, both are members of Susan Tedeschi’s band, and also Dave Yoke on guitar. There is some additional guitar by Derek Trucks, Mattison is the lead singer in the Derek Trucks Band, and some percussion by Count”’Butu. Of the 13 tracks only 2 are covers; “Drunken Spree” by Skip James and “I Just Wanna Hang Around With You” by R. Hazard, the rest are written by one or the other or in some combination of Olsen and Mattison. It is the state of the music business now that these two products of the Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN, who began playing
together in the 1990s, and received recognition as best R & B Group had to leave to get success, but with the move away and solid individual endeavors they are achieving their dream. There is a special blend in the two voices, one kind of scratchy and worn and the other a cleaner tenor that matches the songs, which are a combination of old blues and the modern world. It is the strength of the songs that drives this disc. This is a group that has that wonderful ability to take the humor of the old bluesmen and set it in the modern world, a very satisfying disc that has eaten up many otherwise boring miles.