Album Notes

Mud, Blood & Beer is a New York City-based alt-country, roots-rock, twang-core (and other hyphenated words) band that has been kicking around since early '07 playing at some of the best dive bars that Gotham has to offer, including the Knitting Factory, the Lakeside Lounge, and the R-Bar. The band carries on the spirit of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, and Jason & The Nashville Scorchers.

The name “Mud, Blood & Beer” is cribbed from a line in Johnny Cash’s classic “A Boy Named Sue”: “Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer” and is a perfectly apt description of who we are and where we derive.

Our self-titled debut disk is simultaneously loose in vibe but tight in musicianship, giving the feeling that it poured from the band like a satisfying cold draft beer chaser to a shot of Kentucky bourbon. We aim for these wise and weary tunes, born of hard suburban living, to be the soundtrack to your drinking, fighting, and lovemaking, and all in the same night. We have endeavored with the crack production skills of Wayne Dorell of the Pigeon Club in Hoboken, NJ, since November 2008 to meld the roots-rock chocolate to the punk-rock peanut butter in a collection of songs that you could imagine either Hank Williams or Joe Strummer wanting to cover, were they not pre-occupied with their dirt naps.

Mud, Blood & Beer is made up of New York City music scene veterans Jess Hoeffner (guitar, vocals), Stephen Swalsky (bass), Jason Fine (guitar, vocals), and Stephen Sperber (drums). They deliver the rock, the twang, the harmonies, and the songs.

Check out these great reviews of our new album:

http://www.hickorywind.org/002054.php

http://popheadwound.blogspot.com/2009/08/introducing-mud-blood-beer.html