Blues Rockers Daddy Long Legs Get Ready to Boogie Around the World with ‘Street Sermons’ (FEATURE)

Photo credit: Sumner Dilworth

Primitive blues and rock and roll played with real instruments is not an easy sell to American youth conditioned on a digital landscape that incentivizes the following of trends. The members of New York band Daddy Long Legs have always known their sound – consisting of Brian Hurd on harmonica, Josh Styles on drums and Murat Aktürk on guitar – is a tough sell. For the band’s harp-wielding front man, hipping audiences to a style of music that takes a traditional blues foundation and twists it together with punk, rock and roll and country roots music has always felt like preaching. This manifests itself in scorching performances that capture the soulful intensity of the blues while also turning any venue into a boogie woogie party. 

“People have always envisioned us as preachers and that’s what we [are] doing is preaching our gospel,” says Hurd. 

On March 17th Daddy Long Legs will release Street Sermons via Yep Roc Records (PRE-ORDER). If the name doesn’t give it away, the ambitious concept album captures the band’s decade-long journey of putting their raw and wild blues in front of any audience that will listen, converting fans one by one through rock and roll sermons. But it is also more literate than that, as the concept came about when the band was pulled off the road in 2020 and, as a form of release and a way to bring their community together, took their music back to the streets. Though these sidewalk sessions were spurred by pandemic lockdowns, they also proved to be a welcome way for the band to get back to their roots and ultimately get inspired to write what became Street Sermons.

“The first performances we ever gave were at house parties, on street corners, just like busking. The blues was a new avenue for us to express ourselves and all the best players started out that way, so we just started playing on the street. So when all of this happened ten years into us being a band, that’s what we went back to doing,” says Hurd, who found that people desperate for entertainment and social interaction embraced the performances. “We just started doing these impromptu streets shows and people in New York just flipped and loved it because they needed the energy, and it was good to see folks and dance in the street. There’s no venue, sound guy, clubs or promoters to deal with – we completely cut out everybody and took it to the streets.” 

In their early days as a band, Daddy Long Legs caught a lucky break when they were signed to Norton Records, the highly revered New York label run by the late Billy Miller and his wife Miriam Linna. Norton was and still is known for putting out long lost gems and oddball recordings from country, rock and roll, soul and blues acts, but they have also been known to occasionally sign new acts. One of those acts was Daddy Long Legs. Getting the Norton deal meant not just the opportunity to put out records, but it also came with a healthy dose of cred. 

“When we [signed to Norton] and went to Europe for the first time, it paved the way for us. We were an unknown band but we were on Norton so we would show up to play dates and we had lines going around the block because people were super hip to Norton over there. It was like we had this built-in fanbase,” reflects Hurd. 

Their association with Norton, along with the notable DJs like WFMU’s Toddophonic Todd and Jonathan Toubin spreading the gospel through airplay and gig bookings, gave Daddy Long Legs plenty of street cred in the hip rock scene of New York City. Bringing beer-soaked blues performances to South By Southwest (SXSW) also let them connect with new fans. This writer first caught them in their early days opening for Black Oak Arkansas at a Hotel Vegas SXSW wrap-up party and was immediately blown away. But Daddy Long Legs have found their biggest success in Europe, where they continue to tour regularly. Audiences in countries across the continent have long possess what one might call a more refined musical taste, going crazy for acts that play traditional American music like jazz, country, blues and rockabilly.

“Rock and roll is America’s greatest export and Europeans romanticize this culture in a way that we think about certain aspects of European culture. In these modern times, kids these days are not listening to music made by people anymore. It’s all computer and digital stuff like that, but Europeans want the authenticity and we’re happy to bring it to them,” says Hurd. 

This whole journey has led to Street Sermons, which that captures the evolution of Daddy Long Legs. While Hurd’s signature harmonica playing is still at the core of their sound and the foundational influences of jump blues and chain gang and prison work songs are fully in-tact, Street Sermons finds the band incorporating the socially conscious soul and pop of acts like the later-era Temptations and Sly and the Family Stone as well as their love for primitive country music and the 70s British pub rock of Stiff Records. Some of their influences even make unexpected appearances on the record, including Wreckless Eric and John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful.      

“Wreckless Eric grew up around some of our influential groups like Dr. Feelgood, Lou Lewis, Eddie and the Hot Rods. He was mates with all of these guys in the 70s and he was like, ‘you guys remind me of all my friends growing up.’ We really became pals and we stayed in touch. Him playing on the record came about because we recorded the album in Catskill, New York where he lives. We told him to stop by the studio and say hello. He really came just to hang out with us, and we were like ‘hey, since you’re here you might as well just jump in the booth and sing some backups,’” recounts Hurd.  

“With John Sebastian, we’re big fans of the Lovin’ Spoonful. They didn’t really fit in with the hippie bands and they were also influenced by jug bands and old time blues and folk music, which we’re all big fans of. [We reached out] and he was like I’m a big fan, send me what you’re working on, and that was really the end of it. I didn’t expect him to come and show up, I just knew he was pals with the studio owner. He listened to a song we were doing and he was like, ‘I would love to get involved.’ We actually left the studio for a few hours to get some lunch and it was a surprise when we came back and there was a strange car in the driveway. We go in and John Sebastian is sitting there playing banjo to our track, so that was a complete surprise.” 

With Oakley Munson of the Black Lips producing and playing keys, the band cut an album that is a rambunctious foray into blues-drenched rock and roll madness that also reflects the uncertain time it was made. 

“It’s our end times party. We weren’t sure where things were going to end up so we were like, we’re gonna boogie down with the ship because that’s all we know how to do,” says Hurd, pointing out that the band liked Munson’s musical contribution so much that they officially added a fourth member to the band with longtime friend Dave Klein. He has spent the last year touring with them and lending his skills on keys, percussion and whatever else might come his way. 

According to Hurd, 2022 was a “record-breaking” year for Daddy Long Legs in terms of the amount of shows played, the various countries they hit, and the size of their audiences. He even landed an endorsement from lauded harmonica company Hohner.

“This entire time we have existed as a group, I’ve basically been chasing an endorsement deal from Hohner Harmonicas. It’s basically a feather in the cap because all of my heroes were on Hohner. All the best harp players in the world of all time were endorsed by Hohner, so it’s been a lifelong dream,” he says.  

With their most accessible album to date – and a bonafide party at that – on the way, Daddy Long Legs is getting ready for another big year of barnstorming the world with their fiery blues. There are plans to “U.S., Canada, Europe and beyond,” and it’s clear that Daddy Long Legs will only continue to preach their rock and roll Street Sermons to bigger and bigger crowds. Ten years in, Hurd is looking forward to continuing the journey. 

“We’ve been through a lot and this wasn’t an easy record to make but I think it’s one of our finest moments as a band. All the new songs have taken our live show to the next level.”

Street Sermons is out March 17 via Yep Roc Records. Daddy Long Legs will play a record release show at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn on Friday, March 10th.

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