Austin Lucas - Collection

You can't swing a dead cat around JS-NYC without running into an accolade for Austin Lucas. Since the good folk of Southern Lovin' dropped Somebody Loves You in the lap of JS-NYC, the proud son of Bloomington, IN has received the volume of spins commensurate with a man who has perhaps the best tenor in contemporary country music. While that may be a little much, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone this side of Ricky Skaggs who brings more to the table in the Top 40 country era. I'm sure there is probably a bluegrasser out there who might top AL, but know that competition is slim.

Collection compiles the import At War With Freak Folk 10" with a handful of split and comp tracks. At War is demo versions of material that would eventually be released on Somebody Loves You. Not radically different from the later versions, but well worth the listen. The comp stuff is from the Takers and Tim Barry splits, along with the Dolly Parton cover and an unreleased track. And it's like $9, so why not high thee thither with the quickness and put an end to the hyperbole. Here's a a link.

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Live: Austin Lucas @ Bar Nine 6.9.10 late

There's an interesting phenomenon going on in music, where the youth of today are maintaining footholds in genres that were once considered far too disparate to attract the same fanbase, much less artists. Hank III comes quickest to mind, with his Damn Band/Assjack incarnations, but Austin Lucas deserves an equal amount of notoriety. His father Bob Lucas is a player of some renown in the bluegrass scene, and while Austin most often performs acoustically, he performs semi-regularly with Czech Republic/Oregon grind franchise Guided Cradle. No one with working ears would confuse the two, but the level of quality exuded in both units is conspicuous.

Austin has been performing these dates with the vocal help of Christina Wagner and multi-instrumentalist Brad Garrett. They were not the first acoustic franchise visit to Bar Nine, nor even the first acoustic act to play Bar Nine that night, but feedback proved to be a big issue for the early part of the set, prompting the trio to unplug and decamp to the floor after the first song. This was a good idea in theory, save for the fact that there was no PA and a decent size drinking (and talking) crowd, prompting a Jason Anderson-esque audience gather-around that was a little closer than I bargained for. No one else labored under such issues, save for a drunk dude who wanted to hear some Stones, and Austin was in his usual good voice, playing a couple new tunes along with a handful of old favorites and a cover of Give My Love To Rose. Wagner was a formidable vocal foil, with a decent voice and good range in addition to being somewhat easy on the eyes. I don't believe she has anything out, but she and Austin were selling a joint tour demo CD-R set to get label attention. She deserves it and I believe might be playing solo opening sets at some of the shows. Here's her Myspace. I'll get a review of the demos up in a bit. Austin has a new comp of his vinyl stuff out that you need called Collection on Suburban Home. You can get that here. While you're at it, stay up to date with all things Austin and Lucas here.

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