Shakey Graves: And the War Came [DUALTONE]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing comes from Dualtone, who signed Austin's Alejandro Rose-Garcia after several labels came courting. And the War Came carried him onto Conan, Letterman and Seth Meyers, and a year later he took Best Emerging Artist at the 2015 Americana Music Awards.

This edition

• 180g vinyl

About the album

Shakey Graves made his name as a one-man band, singing and picking while kicking a modified suitcase that doubles as a bass drum and a tambourine stand. It was his own solution to borrowing drum kits from everybody, and it landed him a gig as the official busker on the 2011 Railroad Revival Tour. He'd picked up the stage name at the Old Settler's Music Festival in 2007. For his Dualtone debut, Alejandro Rose-Garcia opened the suitcase up to a band.

Multi-instrumentalists Patrick O'Connor, Jon Shaw and producer Chris Boosahda filled out the sound, and Esmé Patterson co-wrote three songs and sings on them. Their duet "Dearly Departed" is a stomping, hand-clapping back-and-forth, "The Perfect Parts" swings, "Only Son" and "Hard Wired" crackle with blues grit, and "Big Time Nashville Star" is a sly bit of country storytelling, and "This Is the Beginning" opens the record quietly before it all kicks in.

The band played Austin City Limits in 2015 and an NPR Tiny Desk Concert that December, and Austin has marked a Shakey Graves Day every February 9 since the mayor proclaimed one in 2012. The suitcase, we're told, is still in work.

Also at Kops: more Shakey Graves on vinyl · browse Folk

Tracklist

Listen

On Dualtone, the 2014 album.