The Yawpers, “Boy in a Well”
Available: Friday Aug. 18 via Chicago’s Bloodshot Records on compact disc and standard black vinyl. Be one of the first 500 to pre-order the vinyl for a shot at the deluxe version on Transparent Blue & Black Swirl Vinyl. All vinyl orders come with a digital download in various formats. All pre-orders, regardless of format, include a copy of the “Boy in the Well” companion comic book.
The Yawpers, hailing from Denver/Colorado’s Front Range, return with a doozy of a follow-up to their 2015, Johnny Hickman (Cracker)-produced Bloodshot debut. I’m guessing the majority of their fans would have been just fine had they stayed the course of their unique brand of heavy slide-guitar-infused-psychobilly-headband-soaked Americana rock ’n’ roll. Sonically, the record doesn’t stray too terribly far, if at all, from that. Thematically, the band jukes left while crafting a brilliant concept record that still flexes the muscle of a straight-forward ripper.
On this go-around, the trio of Nate Cook, Jesse Parmet, and Noah Shomberg were produced by The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson (who also contributes 12-string guitar on “Reunion” and “piano freakout” on “Face to Face to Face”) and Alex Hall (Robbie Fulks, J.D. McPherson, Pokey LaFarge, JC Brooks). “Boy in a Well is a concept record about just what its title suggests. Set in WWI-era France, the story follows a mother who abandons her child down a well, where he grows up alone and afraid. The complex and ambitious tale is told both through twelve muscular, unpredictable rockabilly tracks,” wrote Ben Kaye on the website Consequence of Sound. Album cover art and the accompanying comic book feature the artwork of Legendary Shack Shakers frontman J.D. Wilkes. “American Man” made many critics Best of 2015 lists and it would be of little surprise should “Boy in a Well” do the same.
Recommended for fans Deer Tick, William Elliott Whitmore, and The Replacements, or at-times label mates Scott H. Biram, Banditos, Legendary Shack Shakers, or Ha Ha Tonka.
Jon E. Lynch[email protected]
