Haley and The Hard Way Stir Up Punk, Country and Rock on Self-titled LP (ALBUM REVIEW)

For decades now, punk rock and country have made an odd combo. On the surface it shouldn’t work but as a generation of bands like Jason & The Scorchers, The Meat Puppets, Drivin N Cryin, and Dash Rip Rock have shown, the mix of pretention free music, a DIY ethos and a “fuck the trends” attitude have made for a slew of remarkable albums. West Virginia’s Haley and The Hard Way is just the latest to show that formula still works remarkably well.

Fronted by singer/guitarist Haley Slagle, the band bring the best of both genres on their self-titled full length. From the opening track, “Needles & Pins” with the Ramones-esque “1-2-3-4” lead in, the band lays the groundwork – mixing rock steady drumming with bursts of distorted guitars backing Slagle’s sturdy, confident vocals, sounding remarkably like Rosanne Cash fronting Social Distortion. A lot of the appeal here is how swiftly the band seamlessly switches in and out of genres. On songs like “5^th of December” and “Back Seat” the band plays more in an Americana/Folk mode, where songs like “Pistol” and the stellar “God And The Devil” finds them firmly in the rock camp.

First picking up the guitar when she was just nine and writing songs just a few years later, Slagle played guitar in The Frustrations before finally going out on her own in 2013 with her self-titled EP. Her latest project, with Adrian Larry on bass, David Cochran on drums and Mark Poole on guitar, is her strongest effort yet. Poole also produced the record. There is a confidence and a ferocity to these new songs, (especially “When I Was Brave” and the vibrant closing track, “Bucket Full of Dynamite”) that makes this album hard to ignore. Though far from a household name yet, it’s obvious why musicians like Tyler Childers, Sarah Shook and The Disarmers, Charles Goodwin Wesley and Jason Isbell have all shared the stage with them.