The development of my musical tastes seems to have stopped in about 1994. The last new band I discovered was Green Day. Since then, I’ve been less and less interested in new music and have spent more time looking backwards. Never really been a big deal.
Fast forward to today and I’m an amateur musician who writes and records my own music in my home “studio.” I’m not much for writing lyrics or singing, so I seek out other artists to help me. In my search for collaborators I get asked two questions. Q1: What kind of music do you do?
A: I don’t know how I would describe it.
**Q2: What are your influences? **
A: From across the internet, I can hear they eyes roll when I reply the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Journey. But I don’t really think what I do sounds like ant of them anyway.
So I turn to you. Can you tell me what kind of label you would put on this music? And secondly, can you point me towards any modern bands that make music in this style? I tell myself I just need to dive in and go on a Spotify binge, but I can only get so far. A bit of guidance would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I’ll be able to attract a more diverse group of collaborators and find new music to enjoy.
I would place your sound somewhere in the realm of Red Dirt / Alt-Southern Rock / Grunge, with a bias toward electric guitar. Let’s call it Southern Grunge.
You have some overlap with the following artists:
[ul]
[li]Drive-By Truckers[/li][li]Cross Canadian Ragweed[/li][li]The Connells (circa 1994)[/li][li]Jason Boland[/li][li]Three Doors Down[/li][/ul]
Song 1 has a little Yellow Ledbetter in the beginning.
You definitely have 90s influence. More recent versions of this lineage might be artists such as Shovels & Rope, Dawes, and The Wild Feathers.
Keep up the good work. I think your choice of drumming will have a big impact on the final feel.
Seconded on Drive by Truckers, 3 doors down, Dawes, and a little Black Keys.
Not sure what, but something in there made me think of Audioslave.
As far as classic influence, I hear Neil Young.
Just for the hell of it, let me plug Jason Isbell, formerly of the Drive By Truckers.
He’s got less of a grunge feel and more variety than DBT in my opinion, and is an excellent songwriter and performer. His last album won Americana Artist of the Year of something similar (best album, best songwriter, something like that), and he’s got a new one coming out in a couple months.
Neko Case
the newest Conor Oberst album (upsidedown mountain)
Beth Orton
a dash of Clout Cult (Love and Light Chasers era)
a little Damien Jurado
Mark Lanegan