The Atomic Duo
Remember the Bad Livers? The über-ironic oldtime-country duo who recorded songs with names like Git Them Pretty Girls and Shit Creek? Fiddlefreak has tracked banjo shredder Danny Barnes over the years, but what happened to that big guy on tuba? Well I’m happy to share that big boy Mark Rubin has come up for air, in an Austin-based combo with his buddy Silas Lowe, and their second LP is slated for release with a street date of March 28.
Broadsides
Broadsides from the Atomic Duo is a Dixie-drenched southern-fried blue plate special heaped high with country blues and hillbilly twang. I hear the angry drunken wail of a displaced American working class that’s ready to stick it to The Man, but laughing and singing as they go down. With their National resonator guitar and mandolin, Mark and Silas have recorded new songs that could have come straight out of the Great Depression and Prohibition. This darkly fun record was produced by Lloyd Maines, who also contributes some dobro, and blues master Steve James joins in on slide guitar as well. On Broadsides, the Atomic Duo prove the old adage: the blues are songs about sad subjects that make you feel good.
LISTEN: Innocent Man
LISTEN: Whitey’s On the Moon
