Fri February 26
Brian McGee and The Hollow Speed
at Town Pump Tavern
8:30 pm
Back, way back, before America was America, there were songs. Songs about drinking and death and regret and fear and anger and love. These songs have been all around the world. Each new generation in each place tinkers with them a bit, changing up the words and melodies, making them louder or softer or faster or slower. Brian McGee hasn't died yet, but has done and felt all those other things in spades. And until he does die, these songs are his. They are in his lungs and in his hands.Having spent the last ten years in Western North Carolina and immersing himself in the rich roots sound of the area, the musician has altered his songwriting palette and taken to fusing his punk rock heritage to some raw country sounds. The result is a blue-collar line in melodic country rock that sounds like the bastard love child of Guthrie and Springsteen.
His self-titled 2008 release, “BRIAN MCGEE & THE HOLLOW
SPEED,” blends old-school country romps (Keep On Going) and doses of country-pop (Clouded Glass) with more hooks than a fisherman’s hat. The album maintains the same gritty, rockabilly speed across its entire first half, with the help of Transylvania County Fiddler, Darin Gentry. Further into the album and McGee's punk root's become more prevalent. It's evident in the music's unrelenting thrust and is equal parts rabble-rousing and poignant. This is music for beer-drinking, hard-living, American everymen and it's a joyful thrill ride from beginning to end.With his band, THE HOLLOW SPEED, Brian McGee is taking parts of punk rock and country music and rubbing them together to ignite his rock and roll which some may call alt.country or folk rock. Call it what you will, Brian McGee & The Hollow Speed pour on the heat and tug on the heart with a live show that has crisscrossed genres. Whether they are playing noisey bars, tourist filled street corners, punk shows or listening rooms, McGee and co. deliver. And this constant consistent delivery is leaving a trail of people talking...and talking alot
http://www.myspace.com/mcgeehollowspeed
www.myspace.com/townpumptavernllc
