Moreland & Arbuckle CD Release & Livestream On May 6
“Raw, dirty, primal and infectious…sizzling guitar, sturdy vocals and rude harmonica”
–USA Today
“Deeply satisfying...gritty soul and blues with garage overtones and fire-and-brimstone vocals”
–Living Blues
Wichita, Kansas' blues rockers Moreland & Arbuckle, whose Alligator Records debut CD Promised Land Or Bust will be released on Friday, May 6, perform live in Philadelphia that same day on NPR tastemaker radio station WXPN's Free At Noon concert series. The show, taking place at 12:00pm EST at World Cafe Live, will be video streamed live by music discovery site VuHaus.com. Through its website and mobile app, VuHaus aggregates performance videos and interviews from leading public radio stations from markets across the U.S.
Last month, Moreland & Arbuckle released a video for their original song, When The Lights Are Burning Low, the first single from Promised Land Or Bust. Of this song, Arbuckle says, "The track is an unabashed, celebratory rock 'n' roll stomper. "[Guitarist] Aaron [Moreland] brought the dirty guitar riff into rehearsal and the tune came to life very quickly. The vibe of the song really screamed for lyrics in tribute to one who drives you crazy in all the right and wrong ways. The energy that gets generated on the big crescendo at the end always makes this tune one of the highlights of the night."
Later this week, Popmatters.com will host the video premiere for the original song Mean And Evil. According to harmonicist/vocalist Dustin Arbuckle, "There are people in this world so bad that even the Devil himself wants nothing to do with them. The heavy, menacing cigar-box guitar riff called for lyrics about someone or something evil, so the song all but wrote itself and came out as a bit of a modern bad-man ballad. As one of the first songs written for this album, Mean And Evil got a lot of road-testing. It quickly found a place in the set as one of our favorite ass-stompers."
Moreland — co-founder of the groundbreaking Kansas-based trio — describes their music as “gritty blues and roots rock from the heartland.” On their recording and live on stage, Moreland, Arbuckle and drummer Kendall Newby bring fierce electric fury and unrelenting punk rock energy to their original songs, inspired by raw Delta and Mississippi Hill Country blues.
Their songs are expertly executed with musical muscle and fifth-gear urgency. When they perform more traditional blues, they play with the same decisive command. With each of their six previous releases, the band has grown musically and lyrically, creating a signature sound while earning a large and loyal worldwide fan base. Their legendary raw and raucous live shows are played with wild abandon. The New York Post says Moreland & Arbuckle have “a raw juke joint exuberance with a dirt-under-the fingernails garage band attack.”
Promised Land Or Bust (available on CD and vinyl) was produced by Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Botch, The Sword). From the howling cosmic opener Take Me With You (When You Go) to the stomping Mean And Evil to the plaintive Mount Comfort, Promised Land Or Bust is a far-reaching musical showcase. The instantly-memorable, slice-of-life songs paint scenes of double-crossed lovers, women meaner than the devil, and isolated loners beaten down by careless love. According to Moreland, “The new album is consciously traditional but still has the signature drive and power that we have crafted over the past thirteen years.”
Over the course of their career, Moreland & Arbuckle have played hundreds of shows and have logged hundreds of thousands of road miles (recently replacing their van after driving it over 400,000 miles), performing in the United States, Canada and across Europe. In 2008 they spent 10 days in Iraq, playing for the troops. They’ve shared stages with ZZ Top, George Thorogood, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Los Lonely Boys. They’ll return to the road in support of the new album, with dates in the United States, Europe and beyond. No Depression says, “These guys have kegs full of talent. Their songs will keep you driving fast and long.”
Now, with Promised Land Or Bust, Moreland & Arbuckle are ready to bust it all wide open. Arbuckle calls the new album “our best yet,“ and says, “we continue to evolve musically outside of the box we started in, but the bedrock—the blues —is always there.” Moreland adds, “We consciously went back to where we started and it took us to a brand new place.”
