The Dead Fingers play Asheville during their national headlining tour celebrating the release of Big Black Dog on sister labels Pipeandgun and Communicating Vessels.
Since 2012’s eponymous debut on Big Legal Mess Records, Dead Fingers have had some time to take a step back and take stock of all of the dynamic changes their lives have undergone over the past few years.
As new parents, Kate and Taylor have added a whole new perspective to their road weary travelogues and broke-beat folk/country/blues hybrid, that speaks as much to their growing maturity as artists as it does to their innate ability to put their lives squarely in the fabric of their songs.
“The album features lush instrumentation (blues guitar! harmonica!) behind pretty harmonic duets and alternating solos. Husband and wife each play guitar and sing, forging a more collaborative air than that of, say, She & Him. The melodies and lyrics aren’t surprising, but the beauty and emotion they carry certainly are. Much of the album recalls the collaborative work of John Prine and Iris Dement.”
~ Oxford American
From Taylor’s earliest days as a lo-fi axe slinger — shredding J. Mascis by way of Johnny Thunders riffage on You Know That Summer’s Coming — to his time spent touring with Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, to wrangling cosmic American music out of Mexican moorings, it’s easy to see why they needed some time away from the stage to think about a life removed from rock and roll.
Kate’s skills stem from her lifelong tutelage in one of the most gifted musical families the Magic City has ever produced alongside her siblings Maria and Macey Taylor.
From penning acoustic remedies for heartbroken scribes like the elegant “Pomp & Circumstance,” to the playful pretzel wordplay of “Twisted,” and the metaphysical longing of “Still Haven’t Been Satisfied,” there’s enough existential wisdom for people twice their age to revel in. Listeners will be struck by the standard Dead Fingers six string whiplash, making this one of the most exciting albums in either of their respective catalogs.
Documenting their peculiar form of domestic bliss in tracks like “Shoom Doom Babba Labba” and “Free Tonight,” Big Black Dog stands as a new chapter in the careers of two of Birmingham’s most talented musicians and their struggle to find a balance between their art and home life and all of the mixed up semiotics that lie between the two.
Listen to tracks from Big Black Dog at www.deadfingers.com
Dead Fingers perform live, Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at Jack of the Wood, 95 Patton Ave. in Asheville. For details call (828) 252-5445 or visit www.jackofthewood.com
