Album Spotlight: India Ramey - Snake Handler

India Ramey's third studio album Snake Handler takes listeners on a very personal journey through Ramey's formative years and beyond.

The songs on Snake Handler explore the domestic abuse of Ramey's mother by her father, the angst of having her father's blood in her, Pentecostal church experiences, a dead end town; murder, sex and corruption in a small town; a town ruined by flood, and finally, a visit to her estranged father in a coma on his deathbed.

None of it is light fair. It's all pretty heavy and heady. I don't want to put words in her mouth, but to this listener, it seems like an album bent on exorcising demons and coming out the other side in a better frame of mind.

As any regular reader here knows, I usually don't spend that many words on the the lyrics/themes of any album. For me it's mostly about the music. However, once the music draws me in, and the subject matter is worthy, I like to point it out.

Snake Handler has been described as Southern Gothic because of some of the darker subject matter. Mostly it's just a swampy record describing real things, exploring grown up subjects, It leans country, sometimes more than others, but it's real instruments played by real people.

Here is the title track "Snake Handler":



And here is a live acoustic version of"Devil's Den", probably my favorite song:

Album Spotlight: Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown

Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown's self-titled album is their fifth release and second full album. It's an eleven song piece of real hard rock, swampy, groovy, bluesy and guitar-heavy.

Tyler Bryant grew up in Texas and moved to Nashville during his senior year of high school. The Shakedown is comprised of drummer Caleb Crosby, bassist Noah Denney and guitarist Graham Whitford (son of Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford).

With this self-titled release, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown seem to have found their niche, deftly combining the blues, swamp and heavy rock with a touch of Alice Cooper creepiness and Aerosmith (of course, right?). Sonically the album is great.

Vocally, well, Bryant doesn't have the best voice in the world, but it works. See the Alice Cooper reference above. His voice exudes the right emotion and passion on every song.

This is another great example that rock isn't dead if you want to find it.

Here is the official lyric video for "Heartland":



And here is a live acoustic version of my favorite song from the album "Ramblin' Bones":

New Video: The Swamp Music Players - Crowd Pleaser

Never heard of The Swamp Music Players before but kinda digging this song, "Crowd Pleaser".