One Liner: Excellent local musician and songwriter doing bluesy rock
Wikipedia Genre: AmericanaHome: Austin
Poster Position: 6
Day: Sunday at 7:00
Both Weekends.
- Austin High Maroon (like fellow ACL'er Gary Clark Jr. Loyal Forever, baby!).
- His stage name came from a campout with friends when a drunk/high dude and muttered something like "spooky wagons." The guys on the campout then made their own campout scary names, and this guy's was Shakey Graves.
- But his real name is Alejandro Rose-Garcia.
- He does this rad thing on stage where he just plays every instrument by himself:
Simple and tight, but raw and feral. His debut album (And The War Came) got positive reviews and looks to have gotten some good listening on Spotify as well, with several songs over a million listens.
Here is the first video I ever saw of this dude, when a brother-in-law showed it to me to see how insane it is for him to play everything. I would hurt myself. Seemed totally impossible to me:
Wild, right? His most streamed track, by far, is "Dearly Departed" with almost 40.3 million listens.
Here is the first video I ever saw of this dude, when a brother-in-law showed it to me to see how insane it is for him to play everything. I would hurt myself. Seemed totally impossible to me:
Wild, right? His most streamed track, by far, is "Dearly Departed" with almost 40.3 million listens.
This music is fun rock and roll, that just skirts my sweet spot. I think a full band would help him flesh out the songs a bit more to really capture the fun of these songs. A tight bass line, someone really playing the drums instead of just kick and tambourine, and I think these could be even better. That being said, I still dig what he's doing here.
He released a second album in 2017, which is mainly notable for the length of the album title. Shakey Graves and the Horse He Rode in On (Nobody's Fool and The Donor Blues EP). Wins the award for longest, weirdest album title of anything I've heard recently. Weird stuff.
I saw Graves play the AllATX benefit show last year, and he was fantastic. Such a cool sound, all alone on the stage, playing the kick drum and guitar parts himself while still managing to sing lyrics on time. I feel like I can barely chew gum and walk, and this guy can somehow sing complicated lyrics as three of his four appendages do different things at the same time.
For the most part, this album sounds like he is still doing that same thing, with electric guitar, kick drum, and his voice as the only sounds. Oh, and some tambourine too, which I suspect he is also doing. A few other additions here and there, but they are few. With only those instruments, the sound is spare throughout. "If Not For You (Demo)" has crept up and won the top streamer from this album, at 7.8 million streams, even though it is a song that was already on that first album...
Strangely enough, his most popular track on Spotify is a single from 2016 that isn't on any of the albums. "Tomorrow," with 25.9 million streams.
Finally, a 2018 album that I hadn't heard yet. 2018's Can't Wake Up. Has a bit of a psych rock vibe - the album opener chimes like a My Morning Jacket tune. Good. And although that one ("Counting Sheep") has the most streams on the album, I'm going to give you the second place tune because its another really solid song. "Mansion Door," with just over 2 million streams.
I'd absolutely go see him. Sunday night is pretty bare on my list of exciting bands, so this one is a definite yes during that time slot.
1 comment:
We saw him at Stubbs and enjoyed it. But my takeaway was this:
Great voice
Great charisma on stage
Very good musician
Needs some co-writers
His songs tend to meander too much and seem unfocused and unfinished too often. I feel like if he got the right producer he could be huge. He's like a young starting pitcher who strikes out 200+ a year but has a 4.50 ERA because he walks too many people. He'll put on a good show...I just think he's got the chance to one day put on great shows.
His stage name and story behind it are awesome too.
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