Ed Dupas
TENNESSEE NIGHT
Road Trip Songs
Honest and Heartfelt Blue Collar Country For The Heart.
Ed Dupas’ debut album A Good American Life took as not just by surprise but by the throat in 2015, such was the power and beauty of his songs; and it’s been far too a long a wait for the follow up.
Pretty much recorded ‘live’ over three days in a studio in the middle of a Michigan heatwave, that claustrophobic and often baking hot feeling comes across from start to finish.
Now with a band and a Telecaster in tow opening track Too Big To Fail kick starts the album like turning the key in a ’69 Camero. Punchy? Feisty? Articulate? Plus some searing guitar and a band fuelled on adrenaline and coffee are a perfect combination around these here parts.
It’s all too easy to compare Ed’s road worn voice and writing style with early Steve Earle and even earlier Bruce; but remember those guys haven’t lived this life for 20 or 30 years…..and Dupas is living and writing about the small town feelings of Heading Home Again and Two Wrongs NOW and from the heart too; and he makes it sound as crunchy and complicated as it ever did…..so he probably sits more nearer to Sturgill Simpson and Sam Outlaw than those elder statesmen.
I love the hot red-brick Country sound of Promised Land and Anthem; especially the socio-political sentiments of the latter which proves even a ‘Good Ole Boy’ can be a Liberal too.
I’ve played this album at morning, noon and night….in the living-room, the office and of course in the car and it works well in every scenario; so I don’t really know where to start in picking a favourite track.
The lovely swinging duet with Cole Hanson on Everything In Bloom is obviously a contender; as is the tightly wrapped and sultry title track Tennessee Night; but my heart must go for the darkly simple delights of …..Do It For Me. I say ‘simple’ because that’s how it sounds at first; but listen again and again and it unfolds line after line; revealing more and more each play.
What more can I say? This is Americana Music, Country Music, Ameripolitan and/or Alt. Country…..whatever you want to call it; it’s a keeper.
Released July 28th 2017
The Rocking Magpie 