Latest News:
FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN FOUR YEARS - MOHAVE RELEASES A “CLEAR BLUE TRICKLING”
ORLANDO - Pop-Americana rockers Mohave have released their first studio album in four years. The disc, entitled clear blue trickling, was produced by David Schweizer at legendary Richter Records Studio over the course of four months. The band’s exciting live sound was recorded over the course of two days in February of 2005. Seventeen songs later, the decision was made to release two records back to back, making clear blue trickling the first of a pair.
“It’s like our ‘Kill Bill’,” says singer and Appalachian mountain dulcimerist Bing Futch. “The story that’s started with clear blue trickling continues sometime down the road with turn smoke traffic.”
The story is a loosely looping chronology of events that all tie in to a dusty little southwestern town called Nowhere. Combining elements of African slave chants, Native American rhythms, Celtic folk and latin styles with blues, country, reggae, rock and progressive pop, Mohave’s style-morphing approach to storytelling gets distinctive voicing from its instrumentation. Lead singer Futch is an old-school crooner and character playing an electrified version of a hillbilly instrument; Bunky Garrabrant (vocals, trumpet, Melodica) is a musical dynamo with an expressive, powerful voice and a fluent trumpet vocabulary.
Drummer J.D. Fosse, sponsored by Sonor Drums and having toured with popular groups like Blackbird Abbey and Linda Nunez, is the most recent addition to the band, joining bassist Randy Kemp as one of the state’s most solid and inventive rhythm sections. As M.V.P., Automatic John Coker rounds out the sound on vocals, keyboards and harmonica, giving Mohave one of the most unique sounds in the history of music.
The band worked alongside Schweizer to create a sonic landscape that would play like an audio movie. From sound effects to subtle production techniques, clear blue trickling is a one-of-a-kind listen, one that tells its story with heart, laughter and love. Standouts include the loose and happy reggae-rock steady beat of “The Miner & His Music” and the Melodica-inflected groove “Positive Vibes.” Country saddles a story of relocated gators in “Floatin’ Wally” and a trip to the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas prompts a spooky lounge-rock piece called “Down To Earth.”
Even as the new release begins to generate buzz, there is still a second record that the group will continue to produce for an early summer release. Though they are being viewed as two different albums, Futch suggests that there is a connection between them.
“It’s like a mystery unraveling,” he said. “And only when people hear the second album will they know what that was all about in the first one.”
|