Description:
Raleigh`s Patty Hurst Shifter traffic in spacious, old-fashioned guitar anthems. You just know, though, that they`re going to be escorted to alt.countryville because, face it, that`s where traffickers in spacious, old-fashioned guitar anthems live these days--think True Believers alumni Alejandro Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham. Also contributing to this impending address is a certain rugged ruralness projected by frontman Chris Smith via his old-soul voice and booze-hounded ("And I say damn Kentucky bourbon/All the whiskey in Tennessee"), occasionally snarling ("You`re just another white trash, white powder story I tell sometimes") lyrics. The album also features a Who`s Who roster of guests from other local alt-country outfits (defunct and functioning), such as The Carbines, Tres Chicas, Six String Drag, The Backsliders and Whiskeytown.Like Escovedo and Graham--not to mention local stalwart Chip Robinson, a member of that aforementioned Beestinger Lullebies guest list--Smith writes songs that connect, whether they`re pared down for solo delivery or jacked up by his Shifter mates, drummer Johnny Williams and guitarist/brother Marc Smith (the latter also of the similar but more pop leaning 34 Satellite). It`s easy to imagine a track like the slow-burning "Higher Ground" either hushing a room or summoning tension-releasing hollers, depending on the setting. " - Rick (The Body) Cornell, Durham Independent
