Photo by David Bean
If you’re looking for gritty, heavy rock ‘n’ roll music, just head down I-40 until you hit Nashville, Tennessee. Sure, Music City, USA is known primarily for country and folk music, but the alternative and blues scenes have been flourishing over the last decade. It’s why the likes of Jack White, The Black Keys, and Kings of Leon have all been attracted to stake claim in the great city. Like KOL, The Delta Saints are local boys making electrifying guitar rock steeped in Nashville’s long history of sound.
The band’s forthcoming third LP, Monte Vista, is out April 28th, and once again finds The Delta Saints finding ways to bring Bayou-blues stylings into modern rock music. Produced by Eddie Spear (Jack White, Arctic Monkeys), the album is filled with churning tracks like the latest single, “Are You”. Fuzzed out guitars create hints of psychedelia over pounding percussion, building to a manic sensation that well matches the confusion of the lyrics. “Are you who you say you are/ What will become of me?” singer Ben Ringel begs the shadowy figures of his fading dreams. “You come out when it’s soft and dark/ What will the daylight bring?”
According to Ringel, the track is “about that moment when you wake up from a dream that felt impossibly real, and you question which reality you’re actually in.” As he explains to Consequence of Sound,
“I had a period of time where I was frequently waking up and having to figure out if what I had just experienced was just in my head, or if everyone around me had seen and experienced the madness as well. Our keyboard player, Nate came up with the chorus line and melody, and eventually it just attached itself to a story that was lurking in my head. There’s a manic feeling to the song, which I really like. I think a big part of that is our producer Ed’s treatment of the vocals. I had to immediately replay to the song after my first listen, just to make sure that my brain wasn’t shorting out.”
Listen below.
The Delta Saints will support Monte Vista on a freshly announced run of May tour dates. Find their itinerary below.
The Delta Saints 2017 Tour Dates:
05/05 – Cincinnati, OH @ Motr Pub
05/06 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
05/08 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
05/11 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
05/16 – Washington, DC @ Gypsy Sallys
05/18 – Charleston, SC @ The Pour House
05/19 – Raleigh, NC @ Pour House Music Hall
