Today Atlanta-based duo Andrea & Mud, known for their mighty blend of surf-western music has announced the release of their new album Bad News Darlin’ (out June 12). Surf-western is a vigorous elixir – blending spaghetti westerns with rough-edged, honky-tonkin’ classic country. Andrea & Mud draw upon genre stalwart Junior Brown, who coined the “surf-western” term, into their own special mix, tossing in heartier blues stock ala Shovels & Rope. Their songwriting is uniquely potent, and with their new album, Bad News Darlin’, they extract parts of themselves to cope, mend, observe, and grow.
The duo co-produced the record with Damon Moon at Standard Electric Records in Decatur, Georgia, and the roster of musicians is impressive. Players include Tre “Danger” Watts (upright bass), Adam Higgins (electric bass, organ), Will Derr (drums), Bradley Daugherty (drums), “Smoking” Brett Resnick (pedal steel), Liz Sloan (fiddle), Chad Paulin (trumpet), Jim Ivy (saxophone), and Matt’s Blues (Matt Jordan on piano).
These 11 tracks are ragged, transportative, and electric. “Birmingham, AL 8:30 AM” is a bluesy, late-night swiller, as they tie together a real-life story about a debaucherous night in the Yellowhammer state that carried on well after sunrise. Then, a song like the boot-scootin’ “Used Car Salesman” depicts a tale about a greasy, sleazy salesman and his hooker. With “I Ain’t Home,” they bite off their most straight-arrow country tune, a thick pluck reminiscent of Loretta Lynn with a smooth Conway Twitty charm.
Glide is proud to premiere “Hellhounds” a glorious kickback that struts with a riveting fervor of a Tarantino soundtrack with the ageless of voices of blues and soul luminaries Muddy Waters, Dusty Springfield and Nancy Sinatra.
“This song is inspired by Andrea’s fascination with Robert Johnson and early blues musicians,” says Mud. “Johnson was my earliest influence and caused me to fall deep in the blues when I was a teenager and just learning how to play guitar. Memphis Minnie gets a mention and is another of my guitar heros. I heard a story about when Memphis Minnie and Muddy Waters played in a guitar competition and the winner got a bottle of gin. She was the winner. She’s a total badass and we cover a lot of her songs. One of our favorites to cover is an uptempo version of “Bake My Biscuit”.
Photo by Chandler Galloway
