Video: Geronimo Getty, ‘Devil’s Theft’

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Los Angeles is blessed to be the home base of a handful of artists who make country music that doesn’t sound like it came out of a food processor, and with the April 10 release of “Greyhound Blues,” Geronimo Getty ascends to the top of that heap.

The 10-song tour de force marks the crest in a long road for singer-songwriter Aaron Kyle, who once fronted the underappreciated swamp-blues outfit Le Switch before going full-on country under his new moniker’s “Darkness Hides” EP in 2012. “I learned a lot about my singing/songwriting voice while making the ‘Darkness Hides’ EP,” Kyle explains. “Country music has always played a role in my songwriting. I teetered around it in Le Switch, but the moment I fully embraced it, it just felt right.”

And so it does on “Greyhound Blues,” with Kyle’s rich, man-in-black baritone framed by tasty licks from bandmates Chris Harrison, Seb Bailey and Brian Soika. Produced by Jeff Halbert (Nick Cave, St. Vincent, Rickie Lee Jones), the album also features guest turns from local luminaries Brian Whelan (the former Dwight Yoakam side man who has his own solo opus on the way), Jonathan Price, John Graney and Valerie McCann.

Kyle describes the new work as “a loose concept album telling the story of a man easily given to violence,” and his narratives are enriched by an ambitious series of visuals — there’s a video for each song, directed by a host of filmmakers. Besides Bryan Kramer and Craig Bauer’s “Devil’s Theft” (above, which stars Alyssa Beth Mata and Nicholas Polley), directors Ryan Jackson-Healy, Ruben and Allison Anders, Diane Zilliox and Jay Bennett, David Phillips, Dominic Ciccodicola, Dave Merson-Hess, Tom Provost, Ashley Kramer and Travis Flornoy contribute. (Note: At Geronimo Getty’s album-release show April 10 (info below), the band will perform the album in sync with all 10 videos.) Meanwhile, get these guys on tour with Sturgill Simpson; we’ll bust out our boots.

||| Stream: “Devil’s Theft”

||| Live: Geronimo Getty celebrates the release of “Greyhound Blues” with a show April 10 at the Downtown Independent Theater.


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||| Previously: “Darkness Hides”