The Dirty Ol’ One Man Band Scott H. Biram is gearing up to go screaming and howling all across the United States in 2019, and he’s dragging a cadre of cool performers along with him that should get dark roots and underground country fans salivating. The Urban Pioneers and The Goddam Gallows will be joining him.
We’re finally coming out of the drought for new music that accompanies the winter holidays, and heading into the season where the releases of highly-anticipated new music will be coming at us hard and heavy. In preparation, Saving Country Music’s official Top 25 Current Playlist has been provisioned with some new selections.
The new Urban Pioneers album ‘Hillbilly Swing Music’ is true to the title, filled with fun ditties and infectious reels that reawaken the simple joy of primitive American string music in a way that is invigorating and fun, yet still enriching with intelligent turns and deceptively-smart songwriting.
Just east of Austin, TX in the tiny map dot community of Garfield sits the semi-historic Waterhole Saloon. A long-standing local watering hole, it was the scene for the inaugural Roots Under the Texas Sky Festival on November 4th and 5th, which made use of much of the local and regional country and roots talent.
word has come down that Jayke Orvis has decided to suit up once again with the Goddamn Gallows on their upcoming nationwide tour. Stepping aside for the moment is banjo player Joe Perreze. “I will be back with them onstage in the future and look forward to enjoying the show from the audience in the meantime,” says Perreze. The Gallows will be touring behind their latest album “The Maker.”
This isn’t any slick and polished nouveau bluegrass with lilting runs and brazen compositional poise, this is Stringbean and Grandpa Jones slapping away at strings while sucking on corn pipes trying to entertain folks on back porches and beyond. Unpretentious and fun, and fairly authentic to the Appalachian traditions, The Urban Pioneers will make you chuckle and strut, and see the timeless value in the old traditions of primitive country.
Call them the underground roots house band or the underground roots All-Star Band, either way the super couple of fiddle player Liz Sloan, and upright bass player (and banjo player, apparently) Jared McGovern have comprised, and do comprise the backbone of so many hard-working, road-weary roots bands, it’s a wonder they have any time to breathe, let alone record their own album.
Jayke Orvis & The Broken Band crashed their small tour bus Sunday night (1-12) while traversing the snowy Colorado roads in the midst of a 6 week Winter tour. Nobody was seriously injured, but members of the band suffered bumps & bruises and the bus was totaled. Anyone willing to sell, loan, barter, or otherwise procure a touring vehicle for the band is encouraged to contact them.