It was just a little over a year ago that the Wrinkle Neck Mules released what I believe was one of the best records of 2006 with their sophomore album, Pull the Brake. Pull the Brake, in retrospect, almost seems like the record the band needed to make. Pull the Brake picked up considerable radio airplay and helped raise the band�s profile as the Mules toured extensively up and down the East Coast while making appearances at last year�s SXSW in Austin, as well as festival stops at Summerfest in Milwaukee and Rhythm and Roots in Bristol, Tennessee. Now as I listen to The Wicks Have Met, I get the feeling this is the record the Mules wanted to make. With a new record label (Lower 40 Records) and miles of hard earned touring behind them, this is without a doubt the strongest and most assured Mules record to date.
With a sound that falls musically somewhere between that of Blue Mountain and the Gourds, the one thing that the Wrinkle Neck Mules have no problem doing is banging out stomping, country tinged rockers. The five piece ensemble featuring front man Andy Stepanian on acoustic guitar, Chase Heard on guitar and banjo, Brian Gregory on bass, Mason Brent on mandolin and electric guitar (just to name a few), and Stuart Gunter on drums kick off The Wicks Have Met with a rumble on the album�s opening cut "Bells and Whistles". Stepanian�s vocal is a growling, rawer version of Jay Farrar�s if you�re looking for comparisons and Brent�s mandolin and electric guitar work are simply stellar from start to finish.
The album�s best cuts come in the form of a trio of songs beginning with the steel guitar-infused "Cadillac Limousine" with banjoist Chase Heard on lead vocals. It�s one of those dusty road, leaving songs with a taste of country-shuffle heartache added for good measure. Lyrically it�s one of the record�s strongest numbers with Heard�s vocals giving the song a troubadour feel in the vein of a Robert Earl Keen or Hayes Carll. Chase is back on vocals for the outstanding back porch pickin� groove of "Cumberland Sound", which highlights the band�s bluegrass leanings as the mandolin, guitar, and banjo take the center stage for a toe tapping beauty that bounces around the brain long after the final refrain has died away. And finally, we come to the album�s biggest highlight within the swagger and sway of "Ringing in the Days". The steel guitar returns to whine and wail, the drum beats crash and fall, and the band just rolls it out in a way that makes you close your eyes, raise your beer, and stomp your feet. But that�s not where it all ends…suddenly there�s that moment in the song�s final minute that just tops it off as the Mules blend a vocal harmony that is just a piece of magic. It�s reminiscent of a country-rock sound that makes me think of a 60’s era New Riders of Purple Sage or the Flying Burrito Brothers during the Gram Parson�s years. Take a listen yourself…it�s Cosmic American Music indeed!
All in all, somehow the Wrinkle Neck Mules have managed to raise their own bar. Their growth as song writers continues to develop by leaps and bounds and the music and production are as a tight and clean as ever. These guys have found a sound that is whiskey soaked, wrapped in smoke, and kicks up a trail of dust like an old pickup truck hauling ass down a river road. The Wicks Have Met is a brilliant statement for a band that is just startin� to put the hammer down.

The band began playing in 2000 anywhere they could between Richmond and Charlottesville, VA.  Some shows were strictly Bluegrass while other shows were full on electric rock with the bands country and bluegrass sensibilities weaving through their songs.
As they adopted their name, they also began to hone their sound.  Just as their namesake comes from a cross breeding of a horse and a donkey, the music of the Wrinkle Neck Mules is a unique hybrid of rock and Bluegrass.  Influences run the gamut Andy explains, �For me, I�d say that at the baseline there�s a main vein of classic country � Don Williams, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, etc. � jumbled up with the things I listened to growing up: Led Zeppelin, R.E.M., Ralph Stanley, Widespread Panic � folks like that.  Mason grew up on reggae and Led Zeppelin.�  Tongue firmly planted in cheek, he continues, �and Chase, being from Orlando, heavily draws from New Kids on the Block, Menudo and El Debarge.�
In 2002, guitarist Mason Brent moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming while vocalist, bassist and banjo player Chase Heard headed for Austin, TX leaving Stepanian and drummer Blake Gayle in Richmond.  But the band continued to write despite the distance and released their debut, Minor Enough, in early 2004.
Shortly after the albums release, the band members all moved back to Richmond to give it a go as a fulltime unit and Brian Gregory joined the band as bass player allowing Heard to concentrate on vocals and banjo work.  The band continued to tour and in early 2005 entered the studio to begin recording their sophomore release, Pull The Brake, which was released April 4.  �It�s really been finished since May 2005, but it took a long time for us to shop it around and get comfortable with who was going to release it,� says Stepanain.  The band chose to go with Atlanta-based Shut Eye Records to release the album.
Chris Kress, who has works extensively as an engineer with Dave Matthews band, co-produced Pull The Brake with the Mules.  �Chris helped us out with Minor Enough, which we recorded and produced on our own and then searched high and low for someone to clean up the mess we made.  Chris was the only taker.  We became fast friends and after the smoke cleared there was all of this talk about going to a real studio with more than one microphone and trying to clean up the mule a little bit,� Stepanian states, �So, we landed at Haunted Hollow � which is the Dave Matthews Band�s tremendous private facility with many, many $10,000 mics and acoustically perfect sound chambers � and did most of the tracking there along with various houses and holes around Charlottesville.�
Pull the Brake is filled with strong songs which tell vivid stories.  The lead track �Liza� is the tale of a man whose girlfriends� family would rather he left her alone.  After a confrontation with her father and the shooting of her brother the two run off together.  The Mules follow it up with the buoyant �Okachobee� which is about a man choosing his home over his woman � �She said I had to choose/Bet she never thought she�d lose.�
Stepanian and Heard are the group�s primary songwriters drawing from experience and observation to craft their songs.  �For me, basic human experience and family play a big roll.  My mother�s people hail from the southern part of Virginia and farmed tobacco and a lot of the things I got to see and do down there show up in my songs,� Stepanian relates, �And you can�t rule out blatant fiction.  Sometimes I will come across a single turn of phrase in a book or elsewhere that will give rise to an entire song concept.�
Another highlight of the disc is �Lowlight� which features strings from Anne Marie Simpson-Calhoun , formerly of Old School Freight Train, and a guest vocal from Bonnie �Prince� Billy.  The song talks of longing and leads directly into the instrumental track �Stranger/Sojourners.�
With possibilities expanding and a strong sophomore effort to build on, Wrinkle Neck Mule will continue to tour and grow their following throughout the South with an eye to expanding their territory.  �We do have a few long runs coming up in the summer – one out to the Midwest and another with Jesse Dayton and his band that will span from Texas to New York.  Pull the Brake just got picked up by the European distributor Sonic, so hopefully that will lead to another European tour in the Fall or late summer.�