Way back in October of last year, I wrote about Austin-based quartet Salesman. The band blends together the starkness of folk, the raw emotion of the blues, the lonesomeness of country, and light it all on fire with some raw, electric rock 'n' roll. They recently recorded a session for Daytrotter with a special guest. Who you ask? Oh, just Wayne Kramer, guitarist for legendary protopunk/garage rock band MC5. The band has continued to mature since the last time we checked in with them, as you'll hear in their session. And the addition of Kramer on second guitar makes for some truly great, deep, and magical music.
LISTEN: Salesman - Daytrotter Session
Salesman also recently recorded a new song for NDSessions. Check it out below.
Salesman - "Four Legs"
What's most intriguing about Salesman is their ability to instill their music with a lonesome chill and still manage to howl like a wolf right against your ear. "Four Legs" rolls along with a bluesy swagger and haunts with its murder ballad feel. It's rock 'n' roll that shines like moonlight on the dry, cool sands of the desert; it radiates even in the encompassing dark of night.
As for how Salesman hooked up with Kramer, Singer/guitarist Devin James Fry says,
I reached out to Wayne last spring about throwing a benefit for his charity Jail Guitar Doors. Their mission is to put instruments into the hands of prisoners, encouraging music as a rehabilitative outlet. The fact being that over 95% of all people incarcerated will one day go free, and this country's flawed prison system does all it can to produce citizens without passion, meaning, or creativity in their lives. These people will be our neighbors someday. Jail Guitar Doors gives them music and shows them another way.
I'm passionate about this cause because of where I grew up. Canon City, CO and its neighbor Florence are home to thirteen federal, state, and local prisons including a SuperMax facility, one of the most abhorrent means of reducing personal freedoms this country has devised. In a prison town you see people on both sides of the bars ruined -- people I grew up with are guards and wardens now, and it's ruined some of their lives, marked them with cruelty and withered their innate compassion. Those incarcerated are even worse off. The entire system is dehumanizing and destructive.
Wayne's stature and skill as a guitarist makes him a legend, but his passionate humanity makes him my hero.
Please keep this meaning in mind while listening to us do what we love to do. We had a lot of fun together that day.
Salesman
Official Site
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