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Article published Oct 12, 2007 Deadstring Brothers climb to the top with 'Silver Mountain'
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
No wonder the Deadstring Brothers have found a second home in London’s Heavy Load club scene — “Silver Mountain,” the band’s new album released earlier this week, sounds like the second coming of “Exile on Main Street”-era Rolling Stones.
Without a doubt, that’s a bold statement. But from the first song, “Silver Mountain” works its way underneath the skin like the head of an imbedded tick, causing a rock ‘n’ roll infection that spreads throughout the body and soul. It’s a monumental achievement for the Detroit-based roots-rock band, and it’s one they’ll celebrate Thursday night at Barley’s Taproom in Knoxville’s Old City.
“We actually started going to London a few years ago — it was the place we went to first when we released this self-titled thing and didn’t have any distribution here in the States,” guitarist/vocalist Kurt Marschke told The Daily Times this week. “The people who put it out had this distribution thing going in England, and we immediately found a home there. They have this scene going on — it’s known as ‘Heavy Load night’ in London — and we found some folks over there who enjoy doing a lot of the same stuff we were doing.
“On Heavy Load nights, the deejay plays all old rock ‘n’ roll and even goes back and does some Delta blues. There’s also Sin City, which is more of an outlaw country night, but Heavy Load is all about The Faces, the Stones — upbeat rock ‘n’ roll. There was an Americana scene going on, but we were always more rock ‘n’ roll than we were Americana from the start.”
Nowhere is that more evident than on “Silver Mountain.” Right out of the gate, Marschke and his bandmates — including new pedal steel player Spencer Cullum, his brother Jeff on bass and fellow Brit Patrick Kenneally on piano and organ — sound like they’re ghosts unleashed from the walls of Nellcote, the famous French studio where Mick and Keith and the guys cut “Exile.”
Marschke credits a lot of that to Cullum and Kenneally, who added the missing ingredients that make “Silver Mountain” such a dead ringer, at least in spirit, to “Exile.”
“In England, they like the rock heritage a little more,” he said. “They like to get into the roots more so than Americans. When Americans pick up a guitar, I think they’re happy playing whatever is popular at the time. It’s more natural for British kids like Spencer to go all the way back to when the guitar first started as an instrument.”
There’s an undeniable passion woven throughout the songs on “Silver Mountain,” an urgency channeled from the vestiges of such “Exile” standouts as “Happy” and “On Down the Line” that doesn’t let up until the title track, six songs in. Even then, the Deadstring Brothers sound so damn good, so spot-on at capturing the genius of the Stones, that somebody should probably drug test them — given that “Exile” was recorded on a binge of heroin, booze and debauchery, it seems impossible for another band, 40 years later, to capture its fire and vitality with such haunting clarity without the use of similar substances.
To hear Marschke tell it, however, it was just a natural evolution for the Deadstring Brothers.
“We got Spencer, who plays steel and guitar in the band, and he and I wrote a lot of tunes together,” Marschke said. “I don’t think it was any kind of really conscious thing — we were just kind of sorting out and working out some tunes, and when we put everything together to look at it, we realized it was a little different from what we had been doing before.
“I wasn’t trying to think of anything specifically except finishing what I started. There was nothing really conscious about it — we just wanted to work on some music and see where it would go from there. There was a little bit more Delta blues and old-school American blues that I was listening to at the time, but I just had my staple stuff handy — American country and old rock, the stuff I got into when I grew up and learned to play guitar.
“That was taught to me as a kid — everything is blues-based,” Marschke added. “It doesn’t matter what kind of rock you’re playing; it’s all based on the scale of American blues.”
The band got its start in 2002, drawing on the storytelling and instrumental traditions of classic country and incorporating the aggression and grit of Detroit rock ‘n’ roll into it. The band released its self-titled debut in 2003 and has only grown in stature since then, sharing the stage with everyone from Cat Power to My Morning Jacket to the Drive-By Truckers. Last year, “Starving Winter Report” was released on Bloodshot Records, the label that also put out “Silver Mountain” earlier this week.
“It was fun for me to make — I had a great time doing it,” Marschke said. “With all the stuff going on in your life — coming off the road, being in the band, being broke as hell — making this record, for me, was a high point. It was a blast.”