“Nifty beat tension and guitar work”
Music/food blogger Eilonwy wrote a great review of our tunes. Here are a few quotes: “What Thirty Spokes are reminding me of is ZZ Top: lots of cyclical guitar picking with an infectious beat… 72 Hours has a dead-soldier song and a trapped-miners song. I’m a sucker for modernized folk motifs. Bought!… Some of what I’m liking about this band is how it aurally foregrounds the guitar work. I’m waiting with surprising eagerness for guitar motifs to resolve… ” Check out the full review here.
Bluegrass Catastrophe Podcast
Chad and Gabe recently stopped by LEO Weekly’s offices to chat with music editor, Mat Herron, about the new album. Check out the 20 minute interview on their blog. Be sure to click the “Listen: Thirty Spokes” link.
Staff Pick
The Louisville Eccentric Observer, a popular weekly publication in Louisville, features a “Staff Picks” section for arts and entertainment. The Thirty Spokes’ CD release party for 72 Hours, was featured in this section of the paper as a destination activity.
“Tuneful Storytelling”
By Ronke Oyekunle (Disc review for 72 Hours in the December ’09 issue of the Louisville Music News)
Louisville group Thirty Spokes’ debut album, 72 Hours, not only displays this band’s artistic range but also demonstrates the level of professionalism needed to create a great album. While each song’s words contain a meaningful and thought-provoking message, one can’t help but to focus on the clean and flawless nature of the instrumentation.
The album begins with the title song, which tells a story about the weekend of a romantic couple, a man in love with his woman. The sound is a continually cheerful, moderately paced blend of guitar and steady rock drums. Released back during the summer, 72 Hours does not limit the storytelling to relationships, but includes a wide spectrum of everyday life experiences from love to a soldier’s duty.
For instance, a “Miner’s Song” tells about the everyday life of a miner who is just working hard to make ends meet. This heart-wrenching song renders one speechless when we learn that the hard-working group of miners becomes trapped beneath the earth in the coal mine. I invite you to listen to the song to find out the fate of those miners.
On a lighter note, the album moves to “Mountain Top,” a song that grooves with the catchy refrain, “Lady on the Mountain Top.” Then 72 Hours moves back to a more serious topic in “A Soldier’s Lament” where the soldier, now an angel, watches his loved one’s sorrow and wishes to comfort them and shows his sorrow for their pain, saying, “I know angels aren’t suppose to cry.” The drums play softly in the background as the singer tells the story of the fallen soldier.
72 Hours ends like it begins with the acoustic guitar, steady drums, and lyrics about love. This album makes it easy to see why the band has such a following; Thirty Spokes’ musical depth and thoughtful composition simply tells tuneful stories about life.
