Album Notes

2007 has proven to be a successful year for Dodd Michael Lede and the members of The DML Cartel. The band has just released its debut CD, Word Of Mouth, and also holds the coveted house band slot for The Houston Texans.

Along with playing a regular schedule of shows, the band has recently been featured on local television, performing on the Great Day Houston show, and has also appeared on 94.5 The Buzz's local show, The Texas Buzz.

The DML Cartel was formed out of Bare Necessity, a working cover band based in the Galveston area consisting of a group of friends with a passion for music. Lede joined original members Derek Prather (guitar), Brooks Rogers (drums), & Fred Morecraft (bass) in September of 2004 replacing their previous singer to fill the bands need for a dynamic front man.

The inclusion of guitarist, John Rinkus, led to the creation of a second group — The DML Cartel, which plays original music, as opposed to Bare Necessity’s use of previously written material.

“I had been working with John in the studio recording tracks for what would become Word Of Mouth and performing with Bare Necessity live. I was bouncing back & forth between the two projects, so it seemed like a great idea to join both forces and create something new.” says Lede.

The band has performed under both monikers for the past year attempting to phase out the cover band aspects of Bare Necessity and cultivate a following, with their original music, as The DML Cartel.

“This is a rock & roll science project.” Dodd muses, “It all has to do with chemistry. The chemistry between the players, and the chemistry of combining various influences together just to see what if would have sounded like if they had thought of it first.”

Lede, who has two prior releases, 2002's "Whatever Happened to You", and 2004's "Sophomore Jinx", is no stranger to the business side of the music industry. Lede is the founder of Sonic Smack Records and has also released music from previous bands as well as Myrna Sanders 2003 release, "Riches to Rags" in which he also wrote the song, "Closure".

Each song on Word Of Mouth remains clear and focused. There is a sense of maturity about the songwriting, but there is no mistaking that the underlying influences are very rock & roll.

Melodic chord structures, vocal hooks and harmonies, and layers of guitar driven grace and tone, this catalog of songs should solidify Lede’s place as a songwriter in his own right. The inspirations and personal demons create an autobiography of true stories set to music. The end result is a collection of stirring and evocative songs.

Lede has a knack for stimulating the tired old clichéd sounds that are prevalent in much of today's music. He has stepped outside of the cookie-cutter box trap that most bands fall into, not to invent a new genre, but to redefine an existing one.

For more information, visit the band’s websites at www.dmlcartel.com and www.acousticoutlaw.com, or their Myspace page at www.myspace.com/dmlcartel.