About two months ago, excited as a child on Christmas morning, I bought my ticket for the first live streaming of one of my absolute favorite bands: Shane Smith & the Saints, without thinking that I should see it live and then at 2 in the morning. But, boy, I couldn’t miss the Texans concert from the legendary Exit/In in Nashville. The date was November 3 and on that day you can see that the stars really had a particular alignment with the planets in my microcosm because it is the same date of the legendary concert of Zach Bryan at Red Rocks under the snow. I tell you this because that night/morning in addition to attending a space concert by Shane Smith & the Saints, I discovered this guy, of whom I will talk, who opened the concert. Sitting on my couch with headphones and not being able to jump and sing I felt a bit frustrated, but, friends, after Myron Elkins and his band set fire to the dust, I didn’t think about anything more, except the classic “and where does this come from? How do I not know him?” The next day I did research on research and discovered the story and I was amazed to read his age: 21 years! Crazy. The good Myron has made inroads in the heart and ears, not only of an unknown blogger on the other side of the world, but especially in those of the wizard of production Dave Cobb, that produced by the legendary RCA Studio A of Nashville these 10 pieces that sound as if the Who had made a jam session with the Allman Brothers Band at Muscle Shoals, along with Texans and Motown. It sounds like a meaningless mix, but go, gentlemen, it does! Elkins comes from the tiny town of Otsego, Michigan (4,000 souls) and he had no dreams as a musician, he wrote songs since high school, but until a few days before the sessions with Cobb in Nashville, this guy still worked as a welder. Only his relatives believed that this talent should not remain hidden and convinced him to participate in a “battle of the bands”, he came second, but probably first to the right ears and the rest is history. I think and think back to his age and I can’t help but go back in time, to the years of Swinging London, when guys his age and with the same character and freshness, changed forever the world of rock music. I am not making blasphemous comparisons or that would trigger unnecessary arguments, but the sound, the energy and the artistic fury with which Myron Elkins and his band enter us in the soul and in the heart resemble the way Pete Townshend or Jimmy Page trashed the clubs of the City, certainly today the world is different and saturated with almost everything, but artists like Elkins are like manna from Heaven. This guy has Southern influences in his heart, as a child he grew up listening to the great like Waylon Jennings, but his sound takes a lot from the area where he grew up, Michigan is home to funk and r&b and not disdain deviations, as I said, akin to the most direct rock and the southern. Sugartooth kicks off like the guitars scratching, but it’s Elkins‘ particular voice that gets under our skin and doesn’t let go anymore, like it was already marked by life and as soon as it enters the world that counts. The sound is rock, but a vintage rock, the one that is not dead and every time it comes back into our lives to remind us that it is always there, in a corner of our heart. The title track is a punch in the stomach, fast and rhythmic with a subtle funk character, but it is the text that changes everything: the history of his land, where when you do not find a big city everything is dominated by “Factories, Farms and Amphetamines“. Stories of addictions, close friends falling into a spiral and lives that have nothing to ask but 12 hours in the foundry or exhausting work in the fields. Hands to Myself deals with a theme as difficult as domestic violence, but it does so with a song that defuses tension, a rock with an elegant touch between Tom Petty and soul. Guitars sound so fresh and old at the same time, these guys will have a lot to say over the years, I’m sure. Country influences in the sound explode in all their beauty in Wrong Side of the River, proud of its origins and the education received by its grandparents in its small town. The guitar-voice interweaving is of a disarming beauty and that I solo. Even if we are “on the wrong side of the river”, leave us here to enjoy the beauty of this record. The fury and groove of Ball and Chain are direct descendants of Chuck Berry’s guitars, the backing vocals and clapping in the background are Muscle Shoals, but the electric lashes are rock to play in noisy venues to unleash the audience. The title could be deceiving, no friends, Nashville Money is not a nice country song, but a funk-flavored rock, angry and incisive that in the end makes us think about all the negative that brings the success of the spotlights and important stages. The guitar riff cuts, it cuts. The acidity and electricity of the sounds of the record are diluted by the final ballad Good Time Girl, but the voice of Elkins and the guitar, are there to remind us that the character is that of a rock band and give us another piece of level, the right farewell of a record that has sincerely enthused me. An album full of fury and character, 10 pieces that let us know that maybe the future of this young prodigy will not be to weld for 12 hours a day, but his voice and his songs will act as the flame of the welder on the souls of his fans. A record that reveals a bright future for a young artist whose talent we have just begun to discover, the classic tip of the iceberg. Of course, the best talent scout in independent music, Taylor Sheridan, that has inserted two pieces of this wonderful record in the soundtrack of Yellowstone and this tells you a lot about the skill of Myron Elkins and the beauty of these 10 pieces.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(you can find original italian article at this link: https://www.ticinonotizie.it/musica-myron-elkins-factories-farms-amphetamines-2023-by-trex-roads/ 9
