The Delta Saints - Death Letter Jubilee [2013][EAC,log,cue. FLAC]

Artist: The Delta Saints
Release: Death Letter Jubilee
Discogs: 4415660
Released: 2013-02-11
Label: Dixiefrog
Catalog#: DFGCD 8735
Format: FLAC / Lossless / Log (100%) / Cue / CD
Country: US
Style: Rock, Blues, Modern Electric Blues, Delta Blues

Tracklisting:

01. Liar (2:55)
02. Chicago (4:36)
03. Death Letter Jubilee (4:19)
04. Jezebel (3:06)
05. Boogie (4:05)
06. Out To Sea (3:00)
07. Sing To Me (3:04)
08. Drink It Slow (4:08)
09. From The Dirt (3:30)
10. The Devil's Creek (2:55)
11. River (1:53)
12. Old Man (4:38)
13. Jericho (4:17)

The Delta Saints know a thing or two about how to market their sound and personalities. They do exactly that right up front in their bio. On the band’s Facebook page, the Nashville five-piece announce their interests to be “Women, Whiskey and Woes,” while their influences are summed up with “Dames. Working hard. Playing harder.” Under “Artists we also like,” The Delta Saints say, “You name it, we love it.”

Those coming into the band’s debut full-length album armed with that knowledge are likely to be either cynics who view such a bio as hackneyed and reductive, or they’ll be eager audiences invigorated by a band with a like-minded worldview. Admittedly, I’m very much in the latter camp, and I find the workmanlike attitude and lack of irony in the band’s influences to be quite refreshing. When The Delta Saints’ songs support those very interests and influences – even if they aren’t willing to be tied down to a certain genre or specifically name-check the trendy touchstones most other bands do in press releases – it’s easy to embrace the notion of a modest band striving to be accessible.

The band is comprised of Ben Ringel (vocals/dobro), Dylan Fitch (guitar), David Supica (bass), Ben Azzi (drums) and Steven Hanner (harmonica), and they wear their “You name it, we love it” attitude as an informing badge of honor on the debut album, Death Letter Jubilee. Brandishing a sound they coin as “boubon-fueled Bayou rock,” The Delta Saints play a melting pot of blues, folk, country, gospel and roadhouse rock and roll that wears its blue-collar, Prohibition Era attitude on its sleeve but refuses to settle for kitschy revivalism.

Rather than sounding like yet another serious, method-acting Americana band ducking out of the costume department of a small-budget period film irrationally concerned with continuity, The Delta Saints embrace the period garb and traditions without working inside detailed arthouse limitations. The songs on Death Letter Jubilee aren’t remotely interested in being fact-checked for authenticity and accurate period details in their co-opting of gospel and Delta blues traditions, and we’re all the better for it as an audience. There are plenty of stringent revisionists making fantastic music right now that earnestly evokes antiquated times. Death Letter Jubilee is more concerned with you building up a sweat making your legs shaking how they’re known to do down south. The Delta Saints’ impassioned rock and roll songs take delight in being anachronistic while simultaneously dipping into several genres