Patrick Sweany: That Old Southern Drag (Nine Mile Records, 2011)
I probably know more about underwater rugby than I know about blues music, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Patrick Sweany’s soulful blues rock is just damn brilliant. That Old Southern Drag is Patrick’s fifth album. I haven’t heard the earlier ones. A couple of them were produced by Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys and even on the new album some of the songs fall around the same neighbourhood as The Black Keys. However, Patrick’s blues-rock is often more old-fashioned and soul-tinged and therefore someone like James Hunter is a closer match at times. The key thing is the variety. 50’s rock’n’roll, old blues, soul, indie rock and country. It’s all there and everything sounds extremely convincing. Every song is a winner. Check out a couple of samples below and stream the album at Bandcamp or Spotify.
Patrick Sweany Website
Patrick Sweany at Bandcamp
And a big thank you to Now This Sound Is Brave for turning me on to Patrick Sweany.
2 Comments
Did a Google search and found your review. Glad you enjoyed this album, for sure! Since the time you wrote this, he has two more albums – “Close To The Floor” and “Daytime Turned To Nighttime.” Both are excellent in their own right.
Wanted to mention also that before this one, he actually had already put out four albums, making this his fifth. The titles are:
“I Wanna Tell You”
“henryfordbedroom”
C’mon C’mere”
“Every Hour Is A Dollar Gone”
All his albums are available on YouTube, or of course you can buy them… I encourage supporting such a great talent!
If you ever have the chance to see his live show, I highly recommend. I saw him in support of his “Daytime Turned To Nighttime”album in late 2015, and will be seeing him again in about 1 1/2 weeks. He is a gifted performer and a talent like only comes around every so often.
As an aside – check out The Steepwater Band and Lincoln Durham. Two other excellent original American acts I believe deserve great praise.
Cheers!
Thanks for the comment and correcting my little mistake. I’ve followed him since this album and have bought Close To The Floor and Daytime Turned To Nighttime and really like those as well. I still haven’t heard the older ones. Thanks for the other tips as well. I’ll check them out when I have the time.