Deadman - Take Up Your Mat And Walk (2011)

Deadman knows how to create a nostalgic and clear sound with a variety of instruments (imagine electric and acoustic guitar, hollow body guitar, mandolin, accordion, and hammond). The album is very diverse and no songs are the same, which makes it exciting and fresh. Take Up Your Mat & Walk is a very strong high quality record that will not get bored even for a second, and each song attracts and attracts attention. There will never be enough words of praise for this CD.

Frontman Stephen Patrick Collins founded Deadman twelve years ago and has previously released four studio albums under the title. At the time, the band consisted of four people, including his wife Sherilyn on the keyboards. The band released an EP, and in 2002 their debut album Paramour was released, produced by Mark Howard (U2, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams). Despite being produced by Howard, the album quickly disappeared from the shelves. The 2005 sequel Our Eternal Ghosts, also produced by Howard, was more focused on the couple and also meant a different sound: more alt country and folk. After that, it was quiet around Deadman for a while. It wasn't until 2008, after Stephen Collins divorced his wife and moved from Dallas to Austin, that Harsh Mercy was released that summer. And so, three years later, the fifth studio album Take Up Your Mat & Walk is released, which is played by a new group of six people. Half of Collins' songs can also be found on Live At The Saxon Pub last year, but in rougher, groovy, lively versions with a touch of gospel. Now the songs sound calmer and more melancholy, with southern rock, Texas folk, country rock and old school rock and roll 70s in them. In short, Americana. And Deadman makes America the way it was intended: heart and soul, pure, raw and full of emotion.