Delta Spirit’s ‘History From Below,’ in the making
Kevin Bronson on
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[Delta Spirit’s sophomore album “History From Below” is one of the strongest releases by a SoCal band in 2010, combining tender folk balladry with urgent anthems such as “Bushwick Blues” (performed live, above, at the IFC Crossroads House at SXSW in Austin). Two weeks ago, I did a story on the Long Beach-based band for the print edition of LA Weekly. Here it is:]
With six decades of rock & roll in our slipstream, music fans are used to the notion that the future is sounding more and more like the past. Spend some time with Delta Spirit, though, and you get the feeling the city is starting to sound an awful lot like the country.
- ||| Download: “Bushwick Blues”
- ||| Live: Delta Spirit headlines the El Rey Theatre on Friday night.
Like the indie blues of their Long Beach brethren Cold War Kids, the tender folk of Malibu-bred Dawes and the roughed-up twang of Deer Tick (from Providence, R.I.), Delta Spirit’s soulful, bluesy Americana finds its antecedents in musicians who played on rustic back porches, not suburban lawns. But if that suggests a creative disconnect, Delta Spirit singer Matt Vasquez doesn’t see it.
“Even if you hail from suburbia and not the middle of America, you still see and feel the same things,” says Vasquez, who was living in Orange County and busking in San Diego when he hooked up with bandmates Kelly Winrich, Jon Jameson and Brandon Young in 2005. “If you love that kind of music and that’s what you want to play, can’t that be enough?”
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