Dave Charles Shuford (aka D. Charles Speer) grew up in Georgia and after moving to New York in the early 90s he became a member of the long-running and gloriously ramshackle underground collective No Neck Blues Band (NNCK).
Here, he is joined by Hans Chew (keys), Marc Orleans (pedal steel), Ted Robinson (bass), and Steve McGuirl (drums) and largely eschews the weirder realms of free folk and avant-rock in favour of recognizable songs.
Nevertheless, the unpolished sound (recorded by Jason Meagher at Black Dirt Studios) is clearly not tailored for mainstream consumption and they could easily pass for a house band in a seedy downtown bar.
On the opening track, Wallwalker, the combination of Speer's Iggy-ish baritone drawl and the raw blues-rock backing has the rough-edged charm of an early Stooges tune.
Piano driven boogie numbers like Bootlegging Blues and Tough Soup rub shoulders with some token psychedelics via a rambling 10 minute instrumental Mandorla At Dawn.
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Other times it's as if they can't quite decide whether to stick with variation of old time country (as on Red Clay Road) or old time rock'n'roll (see The Heated Hand).
Just to blur the lines still further the Greek instrumentation (bouzouki and baglamas) on Cretan Lords gives a certain Mediterranean flavor.
In genre terms it's all over the place but if don't mind going with the flow the loosely structured album comes with a pleasingly devil-may-care attitude.
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