Category: Off the beaten path

Off the beaten path: Stray Blue

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Stray Blue “Wake Up and Smile”

Nick Anastasakis (vocals, guitar), George Athanas (bass guitar, vocals), and George Papazoglou (drums) make up the Greek trio Stray Blue. With its catchy “Hey!” and subtle country strum and blues rhythm, the lead track “Wake Up & Smile” immediately grabs your attention. “Allow me to tell you a story…” and the plot revolves around a man who leaves his overbearing wife but can’t help but long for her presence. As the stanza delves into his emotions, the constant tone is set by the acoustic strumming. The chorus comes after the third verse as he sings “Wake up and smile I feel fine Walking’ around still don’t know why” and it has a little Beatles-like cadence to it. It reminded me of one of Ringo’s songs. Nick’s vocal is unconventional, but you get accustomed to it very quickly. The other side, “Moody Sky,” is a beautiful duet with Nick Anastasakis’s acoustic guitar and Yoed Nir’s electric cello. The cello playing by Nir makes for a soothing, although melancholy, melody.

Visit The Stray Blue Website to learn more.

Off-the-beaten-path: Bicentennial Drug Lord

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Mike Delevante

Bicentennial Drug Lord “You Are Never Alone”

Bicentennial Drug Lord is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based band comprised of longtime friends and songwriters John Daniels (Soda, Maki), Rick Donner (Punchdrunk), and Alan Weatherhead (Sparklehorse). Their imaginative sound combines different elements of both Americana and indie rock.

The gentle alt-country opener “This Pabst Blue Ribbon” evokes the small country bar with its layered guitar and shuffling rhythm. The long organ chords of “Caught Wishing” combine the slow, roots-driven balladry with indie rock fuzz guitar, a little like Tom Petty, and Daniels’s vocals give it sadness and weight. The style of “The Ballad of Snooki the Pit” leans more into alt. pop with electric fiddle and synths. However, the guitars come out for the tribute “Iggy Pop,” which is a mini bio for the musical legend, and it’s a big highlight. Some songs lean into country more (“Rock Bottom”) but the tempos are relatively slow and the themes are generally downbeat. A final highlight is the closer, “The Gates of Headley Grange,” with its growing, layered synth and guitar chorus. The production here is multi-layered, bordering on psychedelic new wave. If you are looking for something different, I’d give this a try.

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Off-the-beaten path: Wonderlick “Goes to War”

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Wonderlick “Niagara Falls, 1969”and “Rhinoceros”

Woody Guthrie famously scribbled “This machine kills fascists” on the back of his acoustic guitar in 1943, but can musicians truly offer any effective resistance to rising political strife in 2025? ‘Wonderlick Goes to War’ is an attempt to answer this topic by the California duo Wonderlick (Jay Blumenfield and Tim Quirk). The 11 songs investigate the incredible true stories of human accomplishments, as well as the terrible depths to which they can descend, and attempt to connect the dots between the triumphs and tragedies. The album is due in early August.

Produced by Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Built to Spill), it opens with the pounding rhythms of “Niagara Falls, 1969” about how the famous Falls were drained for five months to allow engineers  to remove unstable debris. Visitors flocked to observe the falls in their dry form during this event. The song chugs along, the quirky lyrics include the things people found (coins, skeletons, etc.) and it all feels a bit like a lost Taking Heads tune with its repeating chorus.

Next, “Rhinoceros” is a deliberative analogy about how people who know can harden their political opinions against others, and charging like an animal against others that aren’t “one of us.” The song plods along with the duo harmonizing in distinctly different tones. The lead vocal is almost a warble, but the duo makes the song work with it’s harmonies and a very straight forward guitar line that reminds me of REM. Both songs have hooks that catch you and overall, these two tracks showcase the musical skills of Blumenfield and Quirk, and if you are looking for pop off the beaten path, check out the album!

Amazon (Rhino) | Amazon (Niagara Falls 1969)

Off-the-beaten-path: Alwyn Morrison

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Alwyn Morrison “Chained”

I don’t have too much info on New York native Alwyn Morrison, but he’s got three songs to his credit so far. His latest is “Chained” written by Alwyn and co-writer Michael Ales, and its an emotional ballad that caught my ear. It’s a complex story about wanting to leave a stale relationship, but fearing the unknown. He feels trapped like a prisoner, or metaphorically “chained to a dark room every night and day.”

The song is an introspective plea for assistance, and Alwyn is able to convey it with his controlled vocal delivery and strong guitar strumming. The chorus is straightforward and appealing, and the middle eight provides us a beautiful key change as well as some “ooh, ooh” backing vocals. Overall this is some solid pop balladry, and the production here sounds very professional as well. Check out Alwyn’s other songs “The City” and “Lenox Hill” for more melodic adult pop. I look forward to a full album at some point. Learn More and visit his Linktree

Off-the-beaten-path: Duane Hoover

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““Duane

Duane Hoover “Wayward Path”

Duane Hoover has been playing in bands for a while from Atlanta to New York City, where he excelled in the influences of T-Rex, Bowie, and Lou Reed. Duane frequently balances his roots in contemporary rock with his influences from classic 60’s rock.

His new album ‘Wayward Path’ starts with a sneering vocal in the solid opener “Sorrow,” and next he does a glam version of the Donovan hit “Jennifer Juniper” with a lot more energy than the original. Hoover’s dominant guitar riffs are very similar to Pete Townshend (The Who) on “Go Away From My World,” and the classic Choir single “It’s Cold Outside.”

Hoover stumbles a bit on “Dreaming My Dreams,” and “Over The Years” where the compositions are a little too ambitious for his vocal limitations. But there are plenty of good rockers here, like the rollicking “Wishing Well” and the complex bedroom harmonies on “Come On.” His vocals are best when he uses a Lou Reed styled approach like on “Fool’s Paradise” with just enough cool delivery to sell it. The album concludes with “All Over Again” another Who-styled guitar-bass epic, and you’ll hear Duane’s songwriting strengths. My advice is to lean into the vocal stylings found on “Sorrow” and “Fool’s Paradise” which sound the best to me. For fans of the band’s mentioned, it’s a worthy effort that deserves to be heard.

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