Mickey Lamantia - Every Bad Habit (2018)

I first came across Mickey Lamantia’s music thanks to the 2017 Tumbleweed festival lineup. I was not present last year, so I did not see him live but I am the type of person who digs into artists based on being on festival lineups. I liked what I heard on his Outlaw Life EP and I was excited to find out that he had a full length LP out in early 2018.

Mickey Lamantia is the definition of modern outlaw country. Raw, real and he has a sound that respects those who came before him. On Every Bad Habit, Mickey Lamantia aka ml750 provides his fans with their first deeper look to his brand of outlaw country. After one listen, there is no question where he comes from and what cloth he was cut from.

Songs like “Take Our Country Back” express how Lamantia feels about current politics and the current state of country music. The title track, “Every Bad Habit” dives even deeper and gives you an idea of his musical influences. “When I Get On A Roll” is my favorite track on the album and was actually not written by Mickey Lamantia, but by Tony Stampley. This track could be a hit on country radio if they played songs like this. It has amazing songwriting and Mickey Lamantia nails the execution. I’ll have this cut in my own rotation for a while.

There is an acoustic portion to this album that kind of takes the album to its core which is Mickey and his guitar singing these amazing songs just like he’d perform them at a solo acoustic gig in some random bar on a Saturday night. These 3 acoustic tracks are just as hard hitting and amazing as the rest of the album. I wish more artists stripped it down like this as a regular part of the album and not as bonus tracks of a deluxe edition or B-Sides on an EP.

Mickey Lamantia has released one hell of an album in Every Bad Habit. If you’re a fan of outlaw country or just real country music, this one’s for you.