GravelRoad - Mississippi Time (2018)

For the those of you who dig sludgy landscapes of reverb-oaked guitars and hypnotic rhythms that challenge your senses, prepare to be satiated by Mississippi Time, the seventh studio album from Seattle based heavy blues rockers Gravel Road. The new tracks were recorded and mixed during the fall of 2016 at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, hence the title. This is an important point because this is not a delta blues album in the traditional sense, but rather a reflection of the new Memphis underground and the very far left of center world of the movement deemed “Deep Blues.” The quartet delivers a full on symphonic garage rock sonic that explores all the sounds possible with two guitars, bass and drums.

The opening track “My Baby’s Tryin’” is a rumbling one-chord boogie that evokes images of Howling Wolf mashed up with The Velvet Underground. The greasy “Roll Me Like A Stone,” works over a Jimmy Page inspired guitar riff until its beaten into bloody submission. The first of two tracks that weigh in at over seven minutes “Demonstar,” is a thick paste of psychedelic wallpaper, that bookends two minute quickstep tracks, the fuzz rocker “Get It Right,” and the scorching Hill Country Blues “Left Me Twice,” before the Black Sabbath goes to Clarksdale stoner jam “149 Delta.” The almost conventional tome of lost love “Bleeding Well,” closes the set with some very tasty slide guitar and sorrowful vocals. ~Rick Bowen