At their best, Soledad
Brothers recall the Rolling Stones when Mick and Keith were fresh-faced
bluesheads in the mid-Sixties: The prolific Detroit foursome
kicks out solid, harmonica-laced blues riffs without sounding
derivative or cheesily nostalgic. Meet the Motor City's newest
hitmakers. - Lauren Gitlin / Rolling
Stone (3 star review)
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The Soledad Brothers
offer up some cool tunes based in hard rockin' rhythm and blues
with a healthy dose of attitude along the lines of the early
Rolling Stones. Think "Little Queenie", "Rip This
Joint", or more relaxed hits like "Little Red Rooster"
with a modern update and a little more edge. Several times I
found myself being reminded of the Stones double album classic
"Exile On Main Street", which I consider one of the
consistently best releases of all time (and no, I'm not in my
sixties). There's a little more to them than just that of course
but as a cultural reference point it might help explain their
sound a little bit to first time listeners. There's a certain
loyalty to traditional blues based rock n' roll that can be tricky
to pull off but the Soledad Brothers do so in spades, with all
the extra instrumentation you'd demand from any band bold enough
to go back to the well from whence other greats sprang. Bleary
harmonicas, buzz saw slide riffs, juicy pedal steel guitars,
and earthy organ parts are tastefully included and wisely placed.
They even use something called a "vibraslap". I don't
know what the fuck a vibraslap is but apparently I like that
too. The songs are already solid but the extra icing on the cake
kicks the material up another notch to great effect. They stray
out into dreamier psychedelic regions a bit, some swampy banjo
stuff, and there's some nods to 70's era rock too on this release
but again, this ain't just a classic rock retread, it's new rock
with both feet solidly planted in traditional roots. Good stuff
and worth a listen. 8 on a scale of 1-11. - The Swede / Culture
Bunker
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Originally a Detroit
neo-blues twosome that was inevitably compared with the White
Stripes, the Soledad Brothers have expanded significantly, and
not just in personnel. The band's new album, "The Hardest
Walk," features four players -- only three officially Soledad
sibs -- and a style that employs the blues as a foundation rather
than as a straitjacket. The album opens with a brace of bluesy
rockers, "Truth or Consequences" and "Downtown
Paranoia Blues," but these days that's not all the Brothers
can do. Thanks in large part to singer-guitarist Johnny Walker's
soulful delivery, the Soledads are just as convincing when they
stroll as when they chug, and such psychedelic numbers as "Loup
Garou" and the sitar-meets-pedal-steel "True to Zou
Zou" show that, despite a major debt to Jagger-Richards,
the brothers have also paid attention to Brian Jones's contribution
to the late-'60s Stones. (The brief "White Jazz" suggests
that the band has even been listening to Albert Ayler, or at
least the first MC5 album.) Such eclecticism isn't enough to
reinvent the blues-rock genre, but at its best "The Hardest
Walk" does reanimate it. - Mark Jenkins / The
Washington Post
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If the Stones are
a touchstone for most great music to have come out of America
in the last 30 years, the Soledads carry a torch than burns brighter
than most. Like Mick 'n' Keef, they have an innate "loose-tightness"
and ingrained blues hue that can't be transfused. Johnny Walker
(guitar-vocals) and Oliver Henry (organ. sax. vocals and seemingly
anything else he can lay his hands on) are at the heart of proceedings,
but drummer Ben Swane's work around the kit is particularly tasty.
Think of this as an album that tackles the same varied stylistic
turf as "Exile" and you won't be far off the mark.
(...) There's blues and there's soul and the Soledads do a great
line in soulful blues, with the downright whisky-drenched R &
B groove of "Truth or Consequences". It's the opener
and sets you up for the rest of the trip. It's a varied one.
Rippling guitar, congas, vibraphone and sitar are amongst the
aural supplements these medicine dealers prescribe. - The Barman
/ I-94
Bar
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I first heard of
the Soledad Brothers from John Peels record box - it was a collaboration
that they did with Jack White - 'Sugar & Spice' and 'Johnny's
Death Letter', although he did produce their debut album self-titled
2000 album. Once I'd heard these I couldn't resist looking into
them. Sugar & Spice still is VERY much a favourite of mine.
So I find they're on Alive and it seems like an ideal place for
these detroit (although they're from Ohio) style rock 'n roll/blues/psychedelic
people to rest an album. The Hardest Walk is a mix of all these,
some efforts blending from their previous releases but building
onto new boundaries. 'Truth or Consequences' is a soft rock-ballad,
'Downtown Paranoia Blues' is the track that grabbed me from the
Alive/Bomp! sampler - a paranoid blues-rock track 'I'm afraid
I'm gonna find you down town ... I can see you layin' in half
a million beds ...', 'White Jazz' takes them into unexplored
territory, and is done extremely well - freaked out, fast paced,
fast thumping psychedelic-jazz which moves onto 'Good Feeling'
is kinda power-pop, 'Mean Ol' Toledo' is another favourite -
kinda tribal, fuzzed guitars to a slow low-thumping bass drum
with flutes, 'True To Zou Zou' does another Black Lips - starts
off kinda slow and lonely fingerpicked on the way - then a massive
silence - delving into a secret track being a more dancier, blues
track - a great way to finish the album off. Although a track
probably only the curious would hear as there's such a large
gap - but definitely a treat for those paying attention. - Velvetgrooves
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Countrified blues
and uptown rock & roll slam headlong into each other on the
Soledad Brothers' latest album, The Hardest Walk. The
Motor City combo set their ritualized roots grooves and lurking
fevers stomps to full jangle with filtered-&-fuzzy vocals
that move from lazy drawling to Bob Dylan/Lou Reed-style sneerin
: It's all quite snazzy. - Falling James / LA Weekly
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The Soledads' new
album, The Hardest Walk, comes two years after the much acclaimed
Voice of Treason, a record that displayed not only Walker's garagey
love of the Blues but also his militantly-held political beliefs.
Walker's taken critical heat on both fronts, particularly from
detractors who see him as a white-boy Blues rocker co-opting
the form.
"The only time I really care what anybody thinks is if I
know the people and know and respect their tastes," says
Walker. "And those people would never tell me to my face
if they didn't like my record. I don't care what critics think.
It's nice to get a good critique, but I don't know the people
doing the writing, so I don't know if they're putting an Enya
record on right after they put ours on."
Read the interview for the Cincinnati
Citybeat
__________________ |
The Soledad Brothers'
latest acid blues release, "The Hardest Walk", not
only affords listeners with a Harvard-equivalent Ph.D. in 21st
century blitzed out garage rock, but once again offers them a
minor in modern controversy. "There's an under-represented
point of view that needs to be heard," front man Johnny
Walker says. - Metro / New York City
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Youth-fronted garage
blues broke out like an HPV on the music industry when the White
Stripes issued White Blood Cells. There's no insta-cure
for greasy-haired bands named after imaginary auto parts and
presumably from Motor City. They might fall off from view gradually
like the Von Bondies, but if you like rock music, you'll have
to live with a gang of them. The Soledad Brothers exceedingly
realize hype is a silly thing. They were too unpolished
when the press rode their drool onto the Whites' charisma, but
The Hardest Walk is the reason why Detroit's sound snapped
at you in the first place. Take this lyric: "But the
fear felt like a mother's tears on that goddamn day/ Soldiers
on the way / But the way was wrong and we sing our song through
the driving rain/ Hey you're mean ol' Toledo."
This isn't a political record, but the band naively captures
a generation's pent-up aggression with a knife in their teeth. Music
is the medium to vent resentment, and often, those who connect
the dots are the ones who never get the spotlight. - Zach
Stephenson / Ignore
Magazine
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SOLEDAD BROTHERS
are easily one of my favorites of the latest crop of garage rockers
and in the top 3 of the ones from Detroit. They throw a whole
lot more into the mix, i.e. deeper blues mixed with a bit of
jazz. This isn't necessarily an upbeat party record, but a heavy
duty one to listen to in the dark with headphones on and the
refreshment of your choice. - JC / Loud Fast Rules #4
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The Hardest Walk
is equal parts voodoo bayou boogie, sweltering swap-beat Rock
n' Roll, and rhythmic Garage Folk as might be created on a shotgun
shack's back porch in the Mississippi Delta during a lingering
July sunset. Each of these 12 songs is a spiritual sojourn into
the belly of the devil enshrouded in a billowing haze of bootleg
whiskey, homegrown herb and mad-dog cotton field dust. Although
the Soledad Brothers hail from the urban razzmatazz of Detroit
town, their musical soul is blatantly ingrained almost entirely
in the Deep South. - Moser / Under The Volcano #92
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A stomping hard-blues
riff unravels into a fun, filthy boogie-woogie, and by the one-minute
mark of the Soledad Brothers' latest, singer Johnny Walker is
already trying to decide who he's going to be: Mick Jagger or
Iggy Pop. While there are nods to Pop's Stooge, the Stones seem
to be the dominant influence. On the lead-off track, "Truth
or Consequences," Walker even pronounces "pain"
in the same vowel-stretching way Jagger does "name"
in "Sympathy for the Devil." Plenty of other Stones
comparisons are possible - mostly to tracks on "Exile on
Main Street" and "Beggars Banquet" - but there's
more going on here than a Glimmer Twin rehash. There's Big Star-style
power-pop ("Good Feeling"), neo garage ("Loup
Garou"), atonal noise ("White Jazz") and one song
that even sounds vaguely like Sly Stone's "Everyday People"
("Sweet and Easy"). On "Dark Horses," one
of the disc's standouts, the band moseys through a dusty, cowboy-drifter
landscape, using echoing guitar chords and brick-sturdy bass
to reinforce the narrator's plight: "I do the hardest walk/as
I'm falling down." As for the Soledad Brothers, they may
well make the hardest walk of all - one that starts deep in famous
footprints but ends up in glorious, unexpected places. - Kenneth
Parttridge / Hartford Courant
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The Hardest Walk
is a mesmerizing blend of blues-drenched swagger and primal garage-rock
catharsis, with percolating rhythms that can swing like a party
one moment and turn darkly baleful the next. Despite spiking
the mix with þutes, harmonicas, saxophone, fuzz piano,
congas, and sitar, the Soledads managed to make a record that
has few unnecessary frills or fancy bells and whistles clogging
up the arrangements. - Jonathan Perry / Stuff
At Night
__________________ |
The Soledad Brothers
are in a league of their own. The band's latest release
on Alive Records, "The Hardest Walk" introduces us
to a more mature rock and roll band and is the group's most definitive
piece of work yet. The band comprised of guitarist/front man
Johnny Walker, Pianist Oliver Henry, Percussionist Ben Swank,
and the man simply known as Dechman on various other instruments
rise above their previous albums that were characterized by the
blues, opting for a fuller sound taking inspiration from the
likes of Syd Barrett, the Rolling Stones, early Neil Young as
well as the blues heroes they honored in their earlier work.
The album stands out as perhaps one of the year's best releases
thus far with solid songwriting, unbelievable instrumentals,
and the ability to surpass their previous work (...) make sure
not to miss the hidden track, a ten minute long psychedelic instrumental
freak out featuring sitar, what more could one ask for in a rock
album? - Paul Borchert / More Goat Than Goose
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The gradual musical
evolution of the Soledad Brothers from that debut to The Hardest
Walk may not seem that significant if you've followed them all
along, but, in six years, they've come from being a gruff and
gritty blues-rock band - wow, what a shock that their lead singer
is named Johnny Walker - to a nicely-produced bunch of boys who
aren't afraid to do a bit of musical experimentation now and
then. There's still a definite resemblance to the Rolling Stones
at times, as on the horn-powered opener, "Truth or Consequences,"
but, then, Walker's occasional similarity to Jagger doesn't hurt
that comparison any. (Wait 'til you hear him Mick it up on "Crying
Out Loud (Tears of Joy).") The backwoods boogie of "Downtown
Paranoia Blues" and "Crooked Crown" make for an
instant party, but the head-bobbing "Good Feeling"
is a pop song, plain and simple. Don't listen to the purists
who want to bitch about how "they haven't been the same
since they cleaned up their act"; it's not like it happened
overnight. - Will Harris / Bullzeye
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"Dark Horses"
and "Let Me Down" are slow, soulful tunes that pack
in a bunch of emotion. "Dark Horses" sounds like a
sad and frightening midnight walk down a lonely, dark and unknown
street. "Let Me Down" has a cool downplayed country
vibe that sounds like a soundtrack to a duel. While the rest
of the album is decent, these two songs blow the others away.
- The Playlist
__________________ |
There's a very good
reason that rust-belt rock 'n' roll has galvanized listeners
and concertgoers across the globe. The stomp blues made
in these parts by two-piece bands such as the White Stripes and
Akron's Black Keys blends right in with the post-industrial
pollution and brutal, tragic beauty of a thousand rusty
bridges leading nowhere fast. In the capable, travel-worn
hands of the Ohio-based Soledad Brothers, the 12 bars of the
blues make up the guitar jail doors, slamming shut and
putting grooves from as far and wide as swamp jazzbo Dr.
John and the British Invaders on lockdown.
If you could have
seen the brothers Soledad performing back in the late '90s,
when they were a two-piece and still a regional act, you
would have thought that they hailed from "y'all country"
down Southaways, that Johnny Walker was a lunatic preacher with
one foot in the nuthouse and the other in the gutter. Their
Estrus releases from that period proved that psychosis
played by a psychiatrist (Walker has a medical degree)
is scary but fun, like a Stooges funhouse horror show. After
adding ex-Greenhorne multi-instrumentalist Oliver Henry to the
mix, the Soledad Brothers have gotten better with each tour and
record to the point that some argue that the song "Cage
That Tiger" off 2003's Voice Of Treason is the best live
bruise-blues-rock song to come out of the Detroit area
in the last decade.
The new release,
The Hardest Walk, puts all the puzzle pieces in place and
still retains the glorious spontaneous spirit of a revivalist
service. For the new recording and tour, the band has added
yet another multi-instrumentalist member, whom Walker calls
"The Frenchman Dechman," to their lineup, so be prepared
for a full, four-piece band where once there were two. - Brad
Kenney / Cleveland
Free Time
__________________
|
::: Potent Stones-influenced
garage-blues :::
Grown in the same Detroit firmament as The White Stripes, this
three-piece offers a similar blend of garage rock and blues,
but without the two-piece minimalism. Their fifth album, the
first for the California-based Alive Records, gains its intensity
and blues heaviness more from the British Invasion (particularly
the Stones, Yardbirds and Pretty Things) than directly from the
Mississippi Delta or Chicago bars. The potent rhythm guitar interplay
and the punk-tinged vocals are particularly remindful of mid-60s
blues reinterpreters. The band's originals add touches of psychedelia
and glamrock swagger, and on "Good Feeling" a taste
of the Memphis soul that Big Star brought to the rock 'n' roll
party. The band's fascination with the Stones hasn't subsided,
but it's definitely evolved, as though their debt has been paid
but not forgotten. - Amazon.com
__________________ |
The ex-Greenhornes
guitarist has been making his living for the past four years
as a multi-instrumentalist with the Soledad Brothers, another
blues and R&B-rooted garage-rock band from Ohio with a transatlantic
profile, and has adopted a somewhat transient residential situation
along the way.
Read the interview with Oliver Henry for the Cincinnati
Enquirer
__________________ |
The Soledad Brothers
were early participants in the great garage-band gold rush of
2002. The Toledo band's soulful, gritty take on blues and rock
became lost, however, in a sea of greasy dudes with vintage guitars
trying to re-create the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street.
But the Brothers have been a consistent hit in Europe, where
they pack houses. Their latest, The Hardest Walk, is 12-bar raunch
blues heavy on bends and slides. - Columbus Dispatch
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Although still officially
a trio at this point, featuring the usually larger-than-life
presence of frontman Johnny Walker (vocals, guitar, harmonica),
Oliver Henry (piano, sax, organ, and more), and Ben Swank (drums
and other percussion), the guys are joined by the singularly
named Dechman, who rounds thing out with some serious multi-instrumentalism
in the form of organ, sitar, lapsteel, bass, banjo, cello, and
maracas. While the Brothers still directly channel early Rolling
Stones, The Hardest Walk finds the group finally breaking free
of garage-rock and moving into a new territory that is more controlled
and less over the top than anything the band has done before.
- Delusions of Adequacy
__________________ |
Critics of this
century's garage- and blues-rock revivals like to remind everyone
that it's all been done before, that the line between homage
and rip-off is now as porous as the Mexican border. True, folks
aren't exactly reinventing the wheel here; they're merely adding
their own flourishes to the original blueprints. But we've been
having this discussion about originality since rock's adolescence.
Take, for instance, Lenny Kaye's 1972 Rolling Stone review of
'Exile on Main Street' : "The Stones have never set themselves
in the forefront of any musical revolution, instead preferring
to take what's already been laid down and then gear it to its
highest, most slashing level."
The bottom line generally comes down to honesty and chops; if
you're gonna talk it, you'd best be able to walk it. And the
Stones have been an acknowledged influence on Toledo's Soledad
Brothers since the group's 1998 inception. The Soledad Brothers'
reviews almost invariably invoke the Stones, and Soledad records
-- including the latest, 'The Hardest Walk' -- are awash in the
liquored-up, fuzzed-out blues rock the Stones made their own
in the '60s and early '70s. No one's suggesting that the Brothers'
fourth full-length is the equal of the Stones' seminal work,
but there is context enough to suggest that The Hardest Walk
might just be this band's 'Exile on Main Street '. Just as the
'72 classic expanded the Stones' sonic palette, 'The Hardest
Walk' finds the Brothers mutating their roots to include soul,
Britpop melodies, psychedelia, and even a touch of avant-garde
jazz. - John Schacht / Clevescene.com
__________________ |
Detroit's Soledad
Brothers started life as one of those bluesy guitar-and-drum
duos that seem to spring up like weeds in local garage-rock scenes,
and though they've since added another guitarist and the occasional
guest player, Soledad Brothers still cling to the raw, rootsy
sound that stripped-down duos do best. The band's new album,
The Hardest Walk , traffics in swamp-bound sounds in an urban
setting, as on "Downtown Paranoia Blues," which is
all tin-shack choodle and uncontrollable jealousy, set in the
dank atmosphere of a coldwater flat. Even "Sweet And Easy,"
the Soledads' stab at a sultry midtempo R&B moaner, doesn't
sound too far removed from their cello-aided, dissonant creep-out
"Let Me Down," and when they launch into the surging,
poppy freak-beat exercise "Good Feeling," lo-fi rust
keeps the song from sounding fully positive. The Hardest Walk
's key song may be the minute-long avant-noise fragment "White
Jazz," which acknowledges the differences between Soledad
Brothers and the musical primitivists they borrow from. The Soledads
grapple with self-consciousness, and overcome it whenever they
slip music past their own heads and into their bones. Soledad
Brothers: B+. - AV
Club / The Onion
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Soledad Brothers
are sorta kinda Detroit, but really from Toledo, Ohio. They trade
in the garage-blues thing to an almost too traditional point,
like an alt-country album is visible for them down the road,
if you squint. But they've got the suitably scruffy knuckles
and sentiments. - Eric Davidson / The Stranger
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"The Hardest
Walk" begins with "Truth and Consequences" a track
that surpasses the band's blues stereotype with the addition
of both tenor and baritone sax. "Downtown Paranoia Blues"
stands out as the albums hit with licks and lyrics that tell
the tale of love and unfaithful women. The album showcases the
band's musical talent and marks a change in direction as the
Soledad's incorporate non traditional instruments including a
sitar, banjo, and cello. The album stands out as perhaps one
of the year's best releases thus far with solid songwriting,
unbelievable instrumentals, and the ability to surpass their
pervious work. The album is a must for any fan of rock and roll
music. After listening to the album make sure not to miss the
hidden track, a ten minute long psychedelic instrumental freak
out featuring sitar, what more could one ask for in a rock album?
- Paul Borchert / Mote
Magazine
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Last week, the Detroit-based
trio Soledad Brothers (a quartet in the studio) delivered "The
Hardest Walk," the band's fourth record since forming in
1995. An earthy, gritty, live-sounding collection of songs, the
disc invites listeners to take an aural walk on the wild side.
The group lists influences as diverse as Dr. John, Albert Ayler,
Syd Barrett and early Neil Young. To that list I would emphatically
add '60s-era Rolling Stones and the Velvet Underground. The Soledad
Brothers' primal, adrenaline-fueled approach, combined with its
penchant for unexpected instrumentation, follows squarely in
the footsteps of these seminal rock outfits. And lead singer
Johnny Walker's voice sounds precisely like the bastard child
of Mick Jagger and Lou Reed -- all deadpan cool and braggadocious
at the same time. Nowhere are these influences more obvious than
on the disc's opener, "Truth or Consequences." With
its nasty, funky, horn-laden R&B groove and insistent snare
cracking away like a crazed metronome, this tune sets the tone
for a disc full of old-school rock re-visitations (...) With
the help of studio cohort Dechman, the Soledad Brothers adds
all kinds of instruments on these songs: guitars, drums, keys,
brass, flutes, percussion, sitar, harmonica, lap steel theremin.
It's all here. As a unit, the musicians of Soledad Brothers prove
on "The Hardest Walk" that they've done their rock
'n' roll homework. Give these boys a gold star on their report
card and send 'em home to mom for some cake. - Cole Hons / Centre
Daily Times (PA)
__________________ |
The Hardest Walk is equal parts voodoo bayou boogie,
sweltering swamp-beat Rock 'n' Roll, and shimmering rhythmic
Garage Folk as might be created on a shotgun shack's back porch
in the Mississippi Delta during a lingering July sunset. Each
of these 12 songs is a spiritual sojourn into the belly of the
devil enshrouded in a billowing haze of bootleg whiskey, homegrown
herb, and mad-dog cotton field dust. Although the Soledad Brothers
hail from the urban razzmatazz of Detroit town, their musical
soul is blatantly ingrained almost entirely in the Deep South.
- Moser / Under the Volcano
__________________ |
These Detroit-by-way-of-Toledo
garage rats share a name with the famous prison letters of revolutionary
George Jackson, and a prowling panther adorns the bass drum of
the kit played by Ben Swank. But all that the band's music has
in common with the agitprop of the MC5 is a rootsy respect for
their forefathers and a commitment to social equality. A closer
comparison might be what could have happened if Bob Dylan had
dropped in to sing a few cuts with the Stones when they were
recording "Let It Bleed." "The Hardest Walk"
manages to incorporate both stagger and swagger thanks to aptly
named vocalist and harmonica player Johnny Walker, who provides
rock-star frontage for the unapologetic craftsmanship heard in
songs like "Downtown Paranoia Blues" and (yeah, we
get it) "Mean Ol' Toledo." The basic blues-rock attack
of Swank, Walker and keyboardist-saxophonist Oliver Henry is
colorized by the contributions by someone named Dechman who adds
lap-steel, sitar and cello. Even the instrumental hidden track
is worth waiting for. - Terry Lawson / Detroit
Free Press
__________________ |
While The White
Stripes have developed lo-fi as a skilful art of maximising profit
margins, doing the sums of multi-million-selling album revenue
minus tiny recording budgets, the laudably named Johnny Walker,
Ben Swank and Oliver Henry haven't quite escaped from the trenches.
Expanding their outlook to turn 'The Hardest Walk' into something
of a concept album might help change that, and the resulting
tough stroll is, like the emotions it's based around, a real
roller-coaster ride (...) So 'Truth Or Consequences' - which
echoes The Damned's primal 'New Rose' - begins by asking for
straight talking to get to the bottom of perceived lies, before
'Downtown Paranoia Blues' investigates the possibility that Walker's
woman has strayed repeatedly. At one point he even imagines her
"laying down in half a million beds". Dude, she wouldn't
be able to walk downtown if that was true. From there on things
go from bad to worse, although typically not in terms of the
record Walker's misfortune catalysed. And though this seems to
have offered him the best possible medicine, the extremes of
human emotion always produce perversely fascinating artistic
outcomes; 'The Hardest Walk' is no exception. - Adam Anonymous
/ New Noise
__________________ |
When it comes to
making deliciously greasy, gutbucket garage rock, the Soledad
Brothers are the Kentucky Fried Chicken of the genre. Except
that the nonrelated trio is from Detroit, a city that may know
less about fowl than Colonel Sanders but has a pretty fair tradition
of grease and fried amplifiers. Like their Detroit predecessors
(Stooges, MC5) and contemporaries (White Stripes, Greenhornes),
the Soledads' subscription to the axiom that less is more yields
terrific results. On their fourth album, they ladle piano, cello,
flute, and sitar into their blues-boogie stew but still somehow
strip everything to bare, rump-shaking essentials. The lean guitar
riff that slices like a rusty dagger through the opener, ''Truth
or Consequences," will make you want to crank the volume
up on the hi-fi and hip-shake with your honey, among other things.
''Downtown Paranoia Blues" and ''Crooked Crown" roll
the Kings of Leon, Pretty Things, and Bo Diddley into one big
primordial quake. Save for the disposable ''White Jazz,"
''The Hardest Walk" is a tough-as-nails trek through
rock's grimy juke joints. Tip to listeners: let ''True to Zou
Zou" play through to get to the hidden track, a basement
jam that sounds like an after-hours party, the Soledads' next
cool idea, or both. - The Boston Globe
__________________ |
The lineup changes
are a good representation of the Soledad Brothers' style - fluid,
unpredictable, exciting, and expanding. The group plays with
a fuzzed-out blues-rock energy but at the same time creates an
inexplicable mix of brute power and artistic sophistication.
Read the interview in the Toledo
Blade
__________________ |
Finally shaking
free of the clutches of the garage-rock world, The Soledad Brothers
find the room to grow and mutate their roots on The Hardest Walk
. Although a couple tracks ("Truth or Consequences"
and "Good Feeling") feature enough garage snark to
tie this album to the band's back catalog, most of The Hardest
Walk finds the act looking far past the garage. "Loup Garou"
mixes doses of British pop and psychedelia on top of a blues-rock
rhythm section, while "Downtown Paranoia Blues" checks
the roots-blues-rock format of the Stones into the trio's jagged-edged
aesthetic. "Mean Ol' Toledo" miraculously finds a way
to make "Lynryd Skynyrd-like" a positive description.
"Let Me Down" and "True to Zou Zou" are as
downtrodden and lonely as any tunes to waft off a sharecropper's
back porch on a Sunday afternoon in July. The blues are all over
The Hardest Walk , but the Brothers don't skin the genre and
hang its hide up to tan, dry up and get stiff. The blues, whether
its garage-blues, psychedelic or roots-flavored ones, are alive
and well in The Soledad Brothers' hands - regardless of how much
local blues preservationists want to choke the style into the
history books. - Matt Schild / Aversion
__________________ |
The Soledad Brothers
are veterans of the Detroit scene that spawned the White Stripes
et al, and have been perfectly content to avoid the spotlight
and just get on with the business of rockin'. While the quartet's
roots are certainly in R&B-based garage rock, its tree has
branches that stretch to psychedelia, pop and even free jazz,
giving The Hardest Walk has a range and depth most groups of
this ilk never touch. The closest analog is the 60s Rolling Stones,
not because the Brothers sound like them, but because they apply
the same spirit of adventurous experimentation to traditional
roots. - High
Bias
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The hot new item
on rock & roll's menu is a tasty platter from the Detroit
trio Soledad Brothers entitlted The Hardest Walk. On it this
radical collective incorporates some of the strongest and most
essential ingredients of rock music, such as the bluesy, drunk
swagger of early Rolling Stones, the stinging vinegar of the
New York Dolls and the sloppy, implosion of Iggy & The Stooges,
which the opening stomper "Truth or Consequences" liberally
and successfully borrows from the lot. - Tony Bonyata / Concertlivewire
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With a chain of
association that spans from the MC5 to The White Stripes, Soledad
Brothers aren't just from Detroit, they are Detroit. Having clawed
an esteemed niche with their murky blues stomp, the clean lines
of their latest record will evoke lots of double takes. But don't
ruffle, baby, the burnish doesn't gentrify the music. Rather,
it brings a sharper focus to the songwriting and broadens their
scope of mood. Things are still lean and mean, but the strength
their sound gains through clarity shows that they're more than
just stylish patina. Instead of strictly replicating old recordings,
they've taken the spirit and channeled it into something more
muscular. - Bao Le-Huu / Orlando City beat
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Swamp-rock veterans
Soledad Brothers have always written great tunes (...) Though
they've had a righteous political edge, they have lacked emotional
depth. Then sometimes recently frontman Johnny Walker was left
heartbroken by his long-term love - suddenly he had absolute
focus for an entire album. It runs from the discovery of betrayal
- the Dylanesque 'Downtown Paranoia Blues', through tears and
recrimination and into the f**k-you resolution 'Mean Old Toledo'.
The touchstones remain the same - the Stones, The Stooges and
dusty old blues - but there is a new truth. This is a great break-up
album, Soledad Brothers' 'Ladies And Gentlemen ...'. It's their
best and most complete yet. - Paul McNamee / NME (rating 8)
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On their fourth
studio recording, the Toledo-bred/Detroit-reared Soledad Brothers
come out swinging with an introspective and politically-charged
rock and roll record. With the augmentation of lap-steel guitar,
organ, cello, flute and saxophone, The Hardest Walk has a more
mature sound and feel than the Bros' past records. That doesn't
mean they've forsaken their stripped-down blues-rock sounds;
the Soledad Brothers can still pack a punch. What makes The Hardest
Walk stand out from the rest of the blues-influenced garage bands
is that the Soledad Brothers aren't afraid to show their emotions.
They rock out on "Downtown Paranoia Blues" and "Truth
or Consequences." They stay close to home on traditional
blues-based songs "Mean Old Toledo" and "True
To Zou Zou." And, you can almost feel their heartbreak on
"Dark Horses" and "Let Me Down." The Hardest
Walk is an easy listen.
- Willy Wilson / Real
Detroit Weekly
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A late-'90's Detroit
version of the mid-'60's wave of British garage blues bands like
the (very early) Pink Floyd, Stones, and Yardbirds, the Soledad
Brothers embody a unique sound in a couple of ways; they've got
the distinctive Detroit grit and obvious appreciation for the
tradition, but most of all, they've got chops that are catchy
as the dickens! Spawned from the same school of industrial Midwest
blues lovers as the White Stripes, Detroit Cobras, Blanche, and
The Greenhorns, the Brothers stay true to their school - their
My Space profile reads: "We're too proud to exhibit what
is presented as the norm in today's music. We want to contribute
to the development of an idiosyncratic genre of music that we
believe will always be vital." Friends, welcome to the fourth
generation of the blues tradition. - Toledo City Paper
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Q&A with Soledad
Brothers on
Aversion.com
Fighting the good fight isn't always easy. In fact, it's usually
back-breakingly hard.
Despite the hurdles,
The Soledad Brothers return for another dose of inspired, left-wing
rhetoric and progressive blues-rock on 'The Hardest Walk'. This
time out, the act branches out from its blues-garage hybrid to
explore wider sonic avenues, though, as singer/guitarist Johnny
Walker tells Aversion, the socio-political inspirations haven't
evaporated with the tweaked direction.
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The Hardest Walk feels more like a return to form than
anything else. "Truth or Consequences" kicks off the
record in style; with its rock-solid beat and frontman Johnny
Walker's Jaggeresque drawl, it's probably their best Mick Taylor-era
Stones impression since "Teenage Heartattack." "Downtown
Paranoia Blues" and "Crooked Crown," on the other
hand, sound like they could have fit in just fine on the Brothers'
stripped-down, blues-oriented debut - and that's a good thing.
- Zach Hoskins / Blogcritics
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"The Hardest
Walk sees them ditch revolutionary rhetoric altogether for powerhouse
boogie. The band tears into ancient Stones riffs given added
sleaze by Oliver Henry's sax, while Walker exorcises his demons
in public.
- Paul Moody / UNCUT (4 star review)
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The Hardest Walk
is by all means a product
of the band's raucous rock past. The addition of instruments
like sitar, flute, and theremin provide the ambitious edge on
""True To Zou Zou" the band are seeking, but the
root of everything is still dusty blues and fuzzy garage rock
- the slow shuffle of "Mean Ol' Toledo"; the wailing
harmonica of "Crying Out Loud (Tears Of Joy)"; and
the dirty-boot stomp of "Loup Garou." Soledad Brothers
may be itchin' to move on stylistically, but lucky for us, they
also know what they do best. - Illinois Entertainer
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'You wanna relish
that bad feeling!'
How do you play the blues in 2006? Laura Barton finds out from
the Soledad Brothers
Read the piece in The Guardian
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The sludge-fi approach
enhances the record's handful of somber acoustic songs, highlighted
by "Mean Ol' Toledo," which laments a swing-state-gone-red
through a haze of factory smoke and treated banjo. - Philadelphia
Inquirer
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The Soledad Brothers
have been a fixture in the rough-and-tumble Detroit music scene
since 1995. The band's raucous, ramshackle blend of blues and
garage rock had a big influence on The White Stripes, so much
so that Jack White, the Stripes' mastermind, produced a single
for the band. The Brothers' new album, The Hardest Walk , its
fourth, is by some measure its best - a feverish disc that is
long on attitude, ambience and scruffy appeal. The influence
of the early Rolling Stones cannot be denied. Singer Johnny Walker
conjures the moaning ghost of Jagger past, and a number of songs,
particularly those rooted in blues, swagger, swing and stomp
with offhanded charm. The band's garage-rock roots remain in
play - perfect musicianship remains less important than creating
and sustaining a vibe. Some of the band's best solos are little
more than controlled chaos. The spirit of raw-boned rock 'n'
roll, mixed with its country-blues precursor, thrives in The
Hardest Walk . If rock died, nobody told these guys - thank goodness.
- Ed Bumgardner / Winston-Salem Journal review |
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