Darkened, story-driven lyrics set to a beggar's banquet of rock n' roll, country blues, and honky tonk.

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Americana, COUNTRY: Honky Tonk

Show all album songs: Bury Your Problems Songs


Details:
Thereâs just no getting around it. Music done simple, honest, and heartfelt is music at its most efficacious. Put another way, most people tend to reject a lot of useless BS, unless theyâre twelve years old and easily swayed by the ever-changing trends of pop culture. This is possibly why right smack dab in the middle of the Technicolor, psychedelic, flower power scene an American-roots act with the unadorned name The Band made such a significant impact on listeners and musicians alike.

To my ears, this fact is what sets Joe Fletcher and his band The Wrong Reasons apart from the rabble. They possess a pure, unadulterated sense for rock & roll, and feel little need to patronize the listener with superfluous embellishments. To the contrary, they attack the material with a palpable integrity that conjures up names like Cash and Dylan. Their new CD release âBury Your Problemsâ exemplifies these abilities with eleven songs that reintroduces the meaning of American roots music to a public desperately in need of a refresher course.

Joe Fletcher has been cutting his teeth for the better part of the last decade in various New England based outfits including The Sinners Club and the highly-acclaimed Deterrents (which contained former Amazing Royal Crowns frontman Jason âKingâ Kendall.) However in 2005 he finally concentrated his accrued knowledge into one coherent project.

Accordingly, The Wrong Reasons are really a vehicle for Fletcherâs expansive songwriting skills. Thus, the bandâs lineup is an ever-revolving roster of musicians, with the 32-year-old singer-songwriter remaining its one constant presence. He is the groupâs musical heart, bringing to the table his lifelong appreciation for blues, rock and country, and thus creating a unique style which he describes as âAmerican roots music, that's kinda my passion. With each song I try to keep that element in there and make the songs have some sort of timeless quality. Not too up-to-date, but not too archaic either."

The music that makes up âBury Your Problemsâ can aptly be called folka-country-billy; kind of a Johnny Cash meets Eddie Cochran meets Woody Guthrie meets... well you get the idea. However itâs the lyrical content of these tracks that makes the listener perk up and take note. As is the tradition in folk, Fletcher tells colorful stories, often set in historic periods. He explains this penchant for the past as âa thing of dealing with feeling like you were maybe born at the wrong time.â

Yet unlike folk he puts the whole thing to a rockabilly rhythm replete with doghouse bass and a slapping brushladen snare drum. One great example of this style of upbeat yarn spinning is the discâs kickoff track âThe Port of Seven Vicesâ. âIn the Port of Seven Vices on a five drug night, Little Blackie Vasquez he crashed his motorbike - As the gasoline and blood crept down the cobblestone street, I knelt down over his body and he stared right through me .â

One of the discâs darker offerings has the deceivingly lighthearted title âPiggy Bankâ: âPick up your piggy bank and Iâll pick up my piggy bank, Cock your arm way far back and let that sucker go ⦠You got shot and I got shot but eventually the pain will stop, Weâll spend our lives forgetting all we know.â

Joe Fletcher is one of the most uniquely talented singer-songwriterâs out there today. The fact that he uses roots rock & roll as the backdrop for his lyrics makes his style all the more alluring. The Wrong Reasons are the perfect outfit for an approach that is rootsy, honest and sometimes not so simple. Yup, thereâs no getting around it â this is true roots rock at its best.

Don Dimuccio, Motif Magazine