BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES - Tucson Weekly

Something hot, humid and nasty blew up from the South when the keyboards-and-drums duo Black Diamond Heavies shook the rafters at Plush last Friday, with deep blues, cold-sweat soul and swamp R&B.

From East Nashville, Tenn., the Black Diamond Heavies played for only about 50 minutes, bookended by excellent sets from local acts Chris Black and Tom Walbank.

John Wesley Myers, a Texas-born son of a preacher man, looked a tad like the long-lost younger brother of Steppenwolf's John Kay, but sang like Howlin' Wolf--all bark and bite, his growl was the real deal. On the keys, Myers kept up a hypnotic rhythm with his left hand, while molesting his piano and organ with layers of fuzz and other effects, building a monstrous groove in which the lack of bass or guitar was never an issue. His partner was rabble-rousing drummer Van Campbell, a scion of Kentucky whose energetic style helped propel the momentum into overdrive.

Myers and Campbell worked devilishly to bring the backwoods juke joint to Tucson with immediately appealing, flame-throwing numbers such as "Fever in My Blood" and "Bidin' My Time." But they really killed on interpretations of soul classics such as Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits" and Nina Simone's "Oh, Sinnerman," both of which are on the Heavies' latest album, A Touch of Someone Else's Class. - Gene Armstrong / Tucson Weekly

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES - Concert Wire

Primitive, ass-shakin' rock

Points East Pub
Milwaukee, WI
June 16, 2008

With no more than a Fender Rhodes 72 with fuzz pedals and drums complete with tambourine attached to a hi-hat, the Black Diamond Heavies treated Milwaukee to a grass roots southern-rock fan fare on Monday night. The Nashville based duo are currently in the midst of their Midwestern tour, hypnotizing everyone in their path with infectious, ass-shakin' rock and blues.

Being the son of a preacher has definitely made its mark on John Wesley Meyers, the duo's keyboardist and scruffy voiced frontman. Wearing a wifebeater and jeans with his long tangled hair covering most of his face, Meyers wriggled and writhed on the piano bench as he launched into a preacher-like spectacle with plenty of references to the devil, women, drugs, and loneliness. With a cigarette dangling from his lips he testified about what seems like every man's struggle with the highs and lows of love, temptation, and self control. And almost too perfect of a fit is the other half of the duo Van Campbell, on drums, whose southern family roots just happen to lye in bourbon distilling.

Traditionally when you think of a garage/blues band you picture wailing slide guitars blaring from too-loud amps, but such is not the case with the Black Diamond Heavies. Meyers' fingers worked magic on the Fender Rhodes creating the illusion of both an electric guitar professing the blues while the fuzzy organ-bass lies steadily underneath. Meyers' deep scraggly vocals were evocative of a soulful and sweet Joe Cocker crossed with the maniacal psychedelic spewing of Arthur Brown. The result is one of gospel/blues persuasion leaving the listener longing for redemption and a shot of whiskey at the same time.

Black Diamond Heavies new album, A Touch of Someone Else's Class, (2008, Alive Records) continues in their gritty, down & dirty style with Meyers' swampy vocals and Campbell's meticulous drumming. Such can be heard on the fast paced assault of "Nutbush City," while a lingering brass section accompanies Myers' soulful love-struck lyrics on "Bidin My Time." As the summer festival months approach, Black Diamond Heavies have proven to be a welcome attraction on both the blues & rock scene with their primitive, stripped down approach to Motown, Gospel, and Soul. - Concert Wire

TWO GALLANTS - New York Times

Bonnaroo: Saturday Bands So Far
By JON PARELES

The Wood Brothers
Two Gallants
Mason Jennings
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Against Me!
Little Feat
Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet
Ozomatli
Gogol Bordello
Two Gallants performing on Saturday. (Christopher Berkey for The New York Times)
I was happy to see for the first time Two Gallants, a San Francisco duo; singer/guitarist Adam Stephens and drummer Tyson Vogel. The inevitable White Stripes comparison applies to the way the songs get all worked up from calm openings to a pounding beat and a serrated edge to Mr. Stephens’s voice. But trade the White Stripes’ blues for Irish folk roots, throw in a gift for Dylanesque imagery and replace bravado with self-loathing and regret–though not enough regret to prevent his next transgression–and Two Gallants end up someplace entirely different. In their songs, insight and well-turned phrases are no match for human flaws. - NY Times

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES live in York

The Black Diamond Heavies played at a venue called The Junction last night in the Ancient Cathedral City of York. They are an American two-piece, comprised of a drummer, and a lead vocalist who plays over-amped, heavily distorted Fender Rhodes electric piano. They basically make a sound which is like all the best bits from any good Detroit garage / RnB / southern soul band with an organ, with all the shit non-organ bits taken out and replaced by nothing but organ & drum breaks for an hour, and the organ is cranked up 100 times louder and uglier than any sound you've ever heard, and the drums are thunderously loud and funky, and you wonder after about 5 minutes of watching them why anybody would ever bother having any other instruments in a band, especially an electrified guitar, which the screaming Fender Rhodes does a fair impression of at times anyway, only better. The lead vocalist / keys player sings in the Louie Armstrong / Howlin Wolf / Beefheart gravelpit style, and plays simple bass lines on the lower end of his piano like The Doors used to do, thus erasing the need for bass players. When they hammer away at max. tempo, they sound like The Stooges, with the Ashton brothers replaced by a really really loud Fender Rhodes piano. When they slow it down and groove, they sound like a broken down Booker T & The MGs / the theme from 'Taxi' being run-over by a taxi. They are, in parts, genuinely funky, and as jazz as a rock concert gets these days. They swing. I preferred them when they were on this low-slung groovin' tip, but whether they were careering wildly through a crazed punk-blues or lazily loping through a Al Greenish soul number, they were pretty much better than anything else I've heard this year. If Black Diamond Heavies play anywhere near you, go see 'em, unless you've got something else on, in which case they'll understand and the gig will probably go ahead anyway. I mean, you can't get to everything right, people lead busy lives and there's the credit crunch to contend with, shit, I almost couldn't be bothered to go to this gig myself just 'cos it had got to 9.15 in the PM or whatever and I was watching 'Men In Black' on video (Tommy Lee Jones' character 'K' is a White Album fan, and there's a good Elvis gag too, what, like I'm menna be watching 'The Trip' or 'Apocolypse Now' or 'The Last Waltz' or some shit just 'cos I'm a Hip Rock Journalist?) but 'cos I'd promised the local support band (98 Pages: early 70s Sabbath / Hawkwind proto-metal, v, good) I'd go see 'em I dragged my sorry ass out the house for a couple of hours. All in all, Black Diamond Heavies are the best band in the entire history of last night in York, they've got a myspace or you can probably Google them or whatever. - Electric Roulette

LEFT LANE CRUISER - Lawrence.com, Rhapsody, Revue Magazine

Sounding like a meaner North Mississippi All-Stars or a more boogan Melvins, the duo that composes this Fort Wayne, Indiana, band Left Lane Cruiser purveys a wicked brew of electric slide guitar and Zeppelin-sized drums. Both members sing like pissed-off truck drivers in desperate need of an adult superstore, summoning a turbocharged brand of swampy southern rock, juke-joint blues and garage punk. With a new album titled "Bring Yo Ass to the Table," this is one band that won't be bothered by the passing trains outside the Gaslight Tavern. - Lawrence.com



Place Muddy Waters, AC/DC, The Black Keys and ZZTop in a blender and hit frappe, the resulting sound might come close to the music Left Lane Cruiser grinds out on stage. On April 20, The Boathouse in Saugatuck continues to showcase diverse acts when this rugged whiskey fueled duo hits the stage in a show sponsored by New Holland Brewery.

Unfamiliar with Left Lane Cruiser? Check out their newly released album Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table. Immediately, the head bobbing begins as the sweet twang slowly builds to a blasting garage-band sound. This driving hard rock, blues is the simple combo of Joe Evans on lead vocals and guitar and Brenn Beck on percussion. I say percussion only because Beck makes his sound on any instrument he can get his hands on, ranging from the harmonica to trash cans found in the back alley. Not sold yet? Listen to the track “Big Mama” on your porch with a beer, and you’ll be inspired to check their live show at The Boathouse.

Beck adds his gravelly voice to the mix as backup and sometimes lead vocals. Joe, on lead vocals, takes the song “Big Mama” and transforms non-enthusiasts of Southern Blues into immediate fans. His voice, although gritty and rough, still has that down home smoothness reminiscent of Elvis with the scorching slide guitar beckoning all to dance.

Although Joe originally hails from Ann Arbor don’t expect that to affect his Mississippi musical style at all. LLC comes to play, and they play hard and won’t stop until every person in the room in stomping their feet to the sweat-drenched duo on stage. “Too many towns, people are afraid to get their feet moving, and cut loose. We would definitely like to see more people shakin’ their [bottoms] and having a good time.” says Brenn. “More than anything, we love it when people get rowdy and have a good time.” - Ian McLellan / Revue Magazine

Left Lane Cruiser hail from Fort Wayne Indiana, and create their harp-augmented, blues-sludge-trash swamp stomps in the now widely accepted duo format. They’re more Keys-like than Stripes-like, and while I can’t guarantee actual guitar players will agree with me, I detect more personality and songs-that-seem-like-songs-not-merely-riffs on their third album Bring Yo' Ass to the Table than any on Keys album I’ve heard. Though admittedly somewhat monochromatic (an EP could've sufficed), it’s highly percussive nonetheless, sporting a thick and hardy Billy Gibbons slide tone and some convincing ZZ haw-haw-haws. The most memorable songs are the one where they discuss pork and beans and mashed potatoes and the one where Amy's in the kitchen (which has the closest thing to an identifiable melody, plus a good Dr. John-style vocal grumble). Mashed taters make an appearance in "Big Mama” as well -- so clearly, eating is a priority. - Rhapsody

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES - High Plains Reader

Bound For Glory : Black Diamond Heavies
She crawls upside down and backwards down a flight of stairs, growling from somewhere in her bowels, drooling blood--and later facing a priest, skin a corpse-like pallor and eyes like white marbles, head spinning all the way around--disgorging split-pea soup in his direction. She is not responsible for her actions, but rather must be cured of a fate granted by the likes of Satan. The demon has possessed her, using the body to channel evil works for its own desire, the exorcism of no consequence to the girl. What exactly has the demon taken possession of? Is it the soul of the human being, the body, or the mind--and for what purpose?

“Demon-possessed” may be stretching the metaphor. True, a certain amount of an artist is supernatural, suppressed in the daily art of conversation and surfacing only in the tender moments of creativity, the soul of which is poured into real art. Some even describe their artist-self apart from their everyday demeanor, calling it a stranger you can’t ever quite get to know, something magical and sacred. He put his heart and soul into that. That song is so full of soul. Does the artist possess the art? Or does the art possess the artist?

The purpose of soul seems clear in Black Diamond Heavies art, steering tunes in the way of a “pentecostal” feel--that is, possessed by a spirit that drives a man to speaking in tongues. They’ve covered songs of artists also known for soulfulness, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, from an art defined by its essence. Blues music, in any sense of the word, evokes the feeling just as it sounds-the emotion gathered well enough to survive a century, for the ultimate soul-seeker.

The Heavies, at first listen, sound like a mix of Black Keys fuzz and Tom Waits vocals-their latest release “A Touch of Someone Else’s Class,” was recorded with the Key’s Dan Auerbach, and both bands share a label with ALIVE records. The band are a fan of Tom Waits also, and tribute a cover to the punk-blues artist as well. Appropriately, the members of Heavies attest to their soul by their roots. Of the two members, John Wesley Myers is the “left hand of rhythm, right hand of soul. The son of a Baptist preacher…[he] has been shaking his testimony all over the south.” The drummer, Van Campbell, “comes from a family of bourbon distillers.” Nothing says blues and soul like the south.

Absent from the duo’s instrumental quota is a favorite blues, rock, and rhythm utensil, the guitar. Instead they decide to go a more classical route, using the piano to convey the message. The electric Fender Rhodes is anything but classical however, and paired with a barren, stripped-down drum modernizes the blues era to something indistinguishable from its predecessor, new and strange, spirit-possessed.

While it may seem dangerous to copy the originators of the raw duo of the White Stripes, the distinctive vocal genius of Tom Waits, and the fuzz rock signature of the Black Keys, the Heavies manage to combine all with elements of their own gospel instinct and electric piano skills to breed something completely nuanced.

The energy from the band is enough to convince one of demon-possession. Reviewers liken them to steam engines and evangelistic yelpers, sometimes exorcists. Extracting the essence and soul of a number seems to be first priority for them, completing songs with the fervor of a fanatic priest. The melodies of Black Diamond Heavies erupt as the true soul of the artists creating them. - Jeanne Gette / High Plains Reader

Thomas Function - Time Out New York

Time Out New York / Issue 654 : Apr 9–15, 2008
Live music show
Thomas Function

Photograph: April Novak
The Annex (LES); Tue 15

Joshua Macero, guitarist and vocalist for Alabama’s Thomas Function, sings in a register somewhere between whine and squeal. In contrast with Southern stereotype, he generally sounds agitated. On Celebration (Alive Naturalsound), his band’s full-length debut, Macero chirps and quivers and, mostly, the music corresponds. The quartet openly flirts with an array of genres—garage, country, old rock & roll—but the driving force seems to be tasteful ’70s punk from both sides of the Atlantic. On “A Long Walk,” the group throws guitar daggers familiarized by Television; “Snake in the Grass” has a bratty anthemic bounce akin to the Buzzcocks. (Both songs also echo Thomas Function’s West Coast contemporaries, the Old Haunts.) While these influences are uniformly thin and guitar-centered, Thomas Function places a menacing keyboard drone behind its every yelp—a sly gothic touch, burbling up from Alabama.

—Jay Ruttenberg

NATHANIEL MAYER - Sailor Jerry

Nathaniel Mayer is at the forefront of a (sadly) dying breed and tonight he and his band proved why. From the first song the entire club started dancing and continued to do so for well over an hour. Nate repeatedly asked the crowd to "shake what your momma gave you" and they did not let their mommas down.

Nate and Company played the classics with a renewed vigor and the new tracks like this was their last show ever, stopping on a dime when Nate's arm raised to the ceiling. I can honestly say that this one was one of the best performances I've ever seen. The set ended with a 30 min + jam with Nate going through the crowd to grab some highlifes twice and putting a smile on faces more times than anyone could count.

This was an evening that everyone in attendance will remember for a long, long time. - The Sailor Jerry Blog

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES - Houston Press

SXSW: Black Diamond Heavies at Fado's Patio

Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 08:08:04 PM

Last night at Fado's Patio, I caught Louisville's Black Diamond Heavies. Saying "caught" sounds like I sat at an intimate show and quietly took notes. This wasn't one of the shows. This was a trip into the heart of the Dirty South. And not the South of the medicated syrup and extremely ostentatious jewelry variety. This was one of burned out cars driven by burned men, fueled by the treachery of sordid women.

The organ and drums duo sat in the backyard of the Irish pub and preceded to damn near Americanize the whole block. Port Arthur native John Wesley Myers, on keys and vocals, comes off as the bastard child of Iggy Pop and fittingly enough Janis Joplin, raised by Tom Waits, who then gargles with gravel each morning for breakfast.

On songs like "Leave It In" you get twinges of a guitarless ZZ Top, all scuzz with no fuzz. Hot off a UK tour and about to head into the studio with Austin's own Scott H. Biram (who sat in attendance, fist-shaking on the sidelines the entire set) for a collaboration, BDH bring to mind a more grizzled Black Keys. Not as polished, but all that more biting with an almost religious ferocity.

The highlight towards the end of the set was the cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" that rightfully swayed right into the Stooges "Search and Destroy." All was right with the world for those five minutes. -- Craig Hlavaty

LEFT LANE CRUISER - Live reviews

Live reviews :

-- Live Blues World
Well, they don't come around very often, but it was great to catch them as Black Diamond Heavies and Left Lane Cruiser stormed into New York. Left Lane Cruiser hit the stage first, and played a fantastic set that ripped through a combination of rockin blues covers and originals. I was amazed at their intensity, and at the power of the riffs throughout their set. They pulled the crowd out of their chairs and filled the room with their punk blues sound.

Then came the Heavies. I haven't actually seen John and Van play as the Heavies since Mark Holder left the band. Suffice to say, John plays those keys like a man possessed, with Van keeping a strong, pounding beat that drives through each song. They rolled out a few new songs off of their upcoming new album, and they fit right in with their older material, with some great grooves to keep the crowd moving.

This is one of the best one - two punch shows I've seen in a long time, and I'm looking forward to catching both of them at the Deep Blues Festival in July.


--Brightest Young Things
Ever since Ghost World I have trouble watching white dudes play blues without picturing Blues Hammer, the horrifying electric Down Home Delta Blues band that kicks the authentic blues singer off the stage and out of memory.

Of course they were more Kenny Wayne Shepard than Jon Spencer, but somehow that parody haunts my enjoyment of even the hairiest acoustic freak-folk or punkiest garage band that uses slide guitars and flattened fifths. So even though I enjoyed both bands on record, I went to the January 15th show at the Red and the Black prepared to be skeptical of Left Lane Cruiser and Black Diamond Heavies. Can there be anything authentic about modern honky blues-rock? I’ll skip the suspense and just say Yes, Like Duh, Obviously. If the music is good who cares how authentic it might be? Blues Hammer is terrible because they play hackneyed over-produced and cluttered garbage, not because they have shaved chests and unbuttoned shirts. Though the guys in Left Lane Cruiser certainly didn’t look like poseurs. Lead singer and guitar player Joe Evans’ scraggly long hair and beard paired with his low-brimmed hat and baggy jeans made him look plenty familiar with the ass-ends of America. He and drummer Brenn Beck come from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and their purely primitive stomping and growling reminds me as much of early Stooges in their industrial clangclangbangbang phase as it does RL Burnside. Though they do cover a Burnside song or two, Evans sitting down on a stool and leaning way over the mike, his thumb plucking distorted bass notes and playing slide riffs with his index finger. Beck played one song with one hand while blowing a harmonica solo in the other, and used enough cowbell to kill a Saturday Night Live sketch, but essentially all their tunes blend together, though not in a bad way. I could seriously watch them play Big Momma by itself all night long over and over, though preferably I would be grinding on a BBW while listening to it. See, because, Blues is not like sex. It is sex. Most popular music is based on inserting hints of the blues into other contexts, sexing it up. There weren’t many people there that night, but when Beck stopped the song on a dime and roared “Go on drop it Joe, make these bitches bob they heads bro!” and Joe whipped out a slow funky-ass line, it clearly made everyone within earshot hot enough to hump a rusted-out tractor.

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES - NME