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Life In Mean Season is destined to raise some eyebrows in the near future, not because of the novelty of mixing such apparently different genres as Country and Hip-Hop, but rather because this is no novelty album. Far from it. Life In Mean Season is a full 20 tracks of soulful, gritty, block-rockin' honky-tonk - heartfelt, sincere, and deftly crafted, with a depth and solidity that leaves no room for doubt about just how real this new sound is.

The tracks on this disc are comprised of thumping sampled beats covered by a smooth velvet layer of live bass, fiddle, acoustic and pedal steel guitar and topped with raw, mournful country styled two-part harmony singing. Imagine Gram Parsons produced by Dan The Automator, or Bobby Bare collaborating with Outkast. The album features local talents filling in live country instrumentation, seamlessly integrated with lo-fi sample loops and DJ scratching. Most of the tracks are originals that reveal the depth of Rench’s talent at bringing the idioms of the country tradition to the framework of the funky, break-beat based influence of a hip-hop foundation. Tracks like “All You Need To Know” and “Step In, Stand Clear” are melodically and lyrically soaked in the classic Honky-Tonk format. “Elmira” re-frames the archetypal prison ballad for the era of the Prison Industrial Complex. “Home By December” takes a bleak look at the promise to return of a young groom sent to war in Iraq, in the vein of traditional tear-jerkers.

Track Listing

Chapter 1
2. At Risk
3. It Just Gets Worse From Here
4. Till I Gain Control Again
5. My Crown
6. All You Need To Know
7. Home By December
Chapter 2
8. Cash On The Barrelhead
9. Elmira
10. Dirty Bomb
11. All I Have To Offer You Is Me
12. Step In Stand Clear
13. Fancy
Chapter 3
14. Day By Day
15. Just Crazy
16. Come Back To Brooklyn  
17. Dying Day
18. In Waiting
19. Despite You
Epilogue
20. Don’t Let Your Light Stop Shining