Grayson Capps & the Stumpknockers

To quote the bio on his Web site: “Rott ‘N’ Roll has come to represent the state of mind needed to play uncompromising roots music as a means for survival in the Dirty South; the yin and yang between the debauchery of life on the road and the come down upon returning home.” His story-songs are littered with tales and desires an characters many of us never experience. In “Psychic Channel Blues” we meet his “honeydew woman,” and learn that

“She’s got the psychic channel turned on in her brain, and if I’m unfaithful that phone line’s gonna ring.”

In “Ike” we hear of a neighbor named Ike and meet one of his women who stumble to the door in a neighborly way:

“Now one of Ike’s women came knocking on my door the other night. She say ‘I stay by Ike’s house, do you have a light?’ ….She followed me in asked me did I live alone…Well goddamn she says, do you like women? Well, yes ma’am I do I says, I like women. Then she struck a pose and looked at me sideways like, and she says ‘Well, do you want one for five dollars tonight?’”

Keeping warm apparently doesn’t mean adjusting the thermostat, as he sings in “Big Old Woman:” “I ain’t got now wood, I ain’t got no gas. I need me a baby with a big old ass..”

The music is as varied as the stories told, ranging from slower country tunes to more straight ahead Americana and finally, at the end of the disc flat out rock (excuse me, rott) ‘n’ roll, the disc ending with a psychedelic instrumental called “Bacon.” This disc leans heavily on support from Grayson’s band, The Stumpknockers, as opposed to his earlier work. The band, featuring Tommy “Ol’ Grover” MacLuckie on lead guitar, Josh Kerin on bass and John Milham on drums recorded the CD live in the studio with most of the cuts coming from first takes. Grayson has even had his hand in the movie business. Writer/director Shainee Gabel adapted the screenplay for the movie A Love Song for Bobbie Long from the previously unpublished novel “Off Magazine Street” by Grayson’s father Ronald Everett Capps. Grayson appears in the film and contributed four songs to its soundtrack, including the title track.

Tags: Grayson Capps, Music, Reviews