DETROIT, MI (Top40 Charts) Rowdy nights, a small town, a dirt road….hell, even a pickup truck. Sure, these are all things that may come to mind when listening to Longneck Strangler. But, assuming you can slap a simple "country" label on this band could lead to a bar fight and your own demise.
There's no simple way to label the Longneck Stranglers' sound. Their grungy, sometimes psychedelic, guitar riffs paired with hard-hitting drums and that good 'ole southern harmonica yield a rockabilly-roots rock that would be just as at home at a honky tonk as it would in a grimy hole-in-the-wall in downtown Detroit.
Their hodge-podge style is no happy accident but is very likely the product of the boys' hometown of Hazel Park, Michigan - aptly dubbed "Hazeltucky" because of the several residents, transplants from Kentucky, that brought with them their love for southern music. Pair that with the influence of neighboring
Detroit Rock City and you've got the Stranglers.
As lead singer, Ricky Lentz, explains, "We're at a crossroads where fans of both rock and country can meet." Their name is, in fact, a euphemism for drinking a beer. A name that became so associated with grabbin' a cold one that the boys have their own limited edition brew for fans to "strangle."
Give one listen to their upcoming full-length album, Home (release date 12/12/2014), to see how far the boys have come since their first EP, My First Rodeo, in 2007. Guitarist Rick Browarski, the predominant songwriter of the band, writes his best stuff when pulling from real life, and there's no doubt this album is shaded by mature themes like family and real love, while keeping just enough of those rambunctious beer-bar tunes the band was founded on.
Perhaps the most country-sounding thing about the Stranglers' music is Lentz's deep, pure baritone vocals. His lyrics ooze from the speakers, creamy as velvet, with moments of contradictory gruffness that are only more alluring, like a recently-shaved beard on an otherwise smooth face. The rest of the band, including drummer Jeremy Kanouse and bassist
Kevin Davis, form the backbone of the music, delivering gospel-tinged blues,Opry-licious americana, beer-soaked ballads and everything in between. Working with the band was producer hip to the
Detroit scene, Tino Gross (Uncle Kracker, Kid Rock, R.L. Burnside, Howling Diablos), and featured on the album
Detroit native,
James Wailin' on harmonica (The Reefermen) and Jimmie Bones (Twisted Brown Trucker Band) on keys.
The Longneck
Stranglers sit comfortably at their crossroads, a genre-spanning group, that can relate to fans on both sides of the tracks. When struggling to define their sound, just call them American music.
