Description
Label Review.
2020 debut album. Americana. Also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
‘Country Westerns’ is the debut album from Country Westerns. Singer guitarist and Atlanta native Joey Plunkett left NYC for Nashville 10 years ago, after making a name for himself in that city’s rock and roll underground as the leader of Brooklyn legends The Weight and hustling bass for Gentleman Jesse. Nashville drummer and songwriter Brian Kotzur was the star of Harmony Korine’s ‘Trash Humpers’. Kotzur also wrote the film’s score and was a member of the Silver Jews.
Country Westerns started as an outlet for Plunkett and Kotzur to play music almost in spite of being in the middle of Nashville’s hungry music scene. Their idea was to make “depressing songs with fun drums”. Over a year they met up twice a week, made up songs that they liked, and played them to an audience of David Berman in Kotzur’s garage, sometimes they played parties. This period was a kind of a state of grace- they liked writing and playing, they liked hearing Joey sing.
In Spring 2019 their esteemed colleague Sabrina Rush joined as a bass player because she’d never played bass before. Previously she’d played violin in State Champion and was a tour manager. Her melodic approach to bass elevated the Country Westerns sound so they left Nashville to record a couple of songs with Matt Sweeney (American guitarist, vocalist, and producer ) at Strangeweather Studios in New York City (aka Music City) without a label, on their own dime. The idea was to capture the urgency of their live show. Fat Possum Records heard the results, and found them “casually profound” and gave them a record deal. “There’s a rare emotional weight and poetry to Country Westerns’ music that hits the spot so hard for me. Hope you dig.” says Matt.
Tracklisting: Anytime / It’s Not Easy / Guest Checks / I’m Not Ready / Gentle Soul / It’s On Me / Time To Tunnels / TV Light / Close To Me / Slow Nights / Two Characters In Search Of A Country Song