This is what country music should sound like in 2010. These guys aren’t rehashing 80’s pop like
many Nashville albums do these days, and they aren’t banging out recycled Ragweed and Randy
Rogers Band riffs like so many Texas acts do. They have chased and captured their own
muse…and she’s a whimsical country delight.
Lead vocalist Clayton Landua has a soulful voice reminiscent of singers like Adam Hood and
Sean McConnell. His voice is accompanied by fantastic multi-part harmonies from lead guitarist
Josh Serrato and bass player Ben Hussey. The way their voices blend are a throwback to the
one-mic radio barn show country radio programs of the 40’s…if those guys back then had access
to electric guitars and rolling organ fills. This dynamic is most evident on the track “Silence In Me”,
but is found throughout the album.
“High In Heaven” sounds like the Black Crowes when they want to go unplugged. Again, perfectly
blended harmonies are mixed with rolling banjo, precisely placed fiddle and a tasty melody.
“Terrible Lies” kicks off with a smoky Lindsey Buckingham type guitar riff straight from Fleetwood
Mac’s Rumours sessions, yet it is paired with some of the most typically country vocals on the
album to create a cool genre-bending style.
6MB doesn’t just sit back and deliver laid back romantic musings, they also know how to groove.
This is best displayed on album opener, “A Feelin’” and the Ragweed-esque “Ready to Throw”
that finds the band mining Ragweed’s waters without blatantly copying them. “Stuck in the Pen”
begins with some Pink Floyd style haunting before transitioning into some Skynyrd style groovin’
and then proceeds to bounce back and forth the rest of the song.
Yet, despite the rockin’ joints…it’s when 6MB find themselves in a reflective mood that they shine
the brightest. Songs like “Misery In Me”, which evokes Gary Stewart’s best work, album closer
“Wintertime” that renders itself like a Stoney LaRue acoustic bootleg circa 2003 and “Roses”
which is the type of song that has girls dragging reluctant cowboys to scratch boots across
sawdust signal that this is a young band with emotional depth beyond their years; and a band to
be reckoned with in the years to come.
Six Market Blvd.
