Album Notes

It's the complexion you get from the neon nightly beer lights—a tavern tan. And these boys spend a whole lotta time workin' on it. Yes, Tavern Tan play Live American Music. This is the sound that used to be standard in taverns, pubs, bars, juke joints, dancehalls, and the local dive in every town and city in America...before the Karaoke machine was created and the theme restaurants took their ugly hold. With a tight, inventive rhythm section, two guitarists that are adept at electric and acoustic roots styles, and a harmonica player who keeps everything grounded to the blues, Tavern Tan is one of the best working bar bands in America today...Roots, blues, honky tonk country, R&B, soul, and plain ol' good rock n' roll! Tavern Tan's latest Fez Monkey Records release, 2009's "A Barrel Full" is an epic 17-song collection of diverse roots music tunes once again engineered and produced by the sure hand of former Original Sins member Dan McKinney, who plays keyboards on the majority of the tracks (www.dandshousestudio.com). After the hard-driving openers "Friend of the Band" and "California Cool", the album moves to TT's trademark acoustic style led by the melancholy, country-tinged "Longshot", the slide guitar laced "Blistered", and the hard acoustic blues of "Road I Know"...and then features a series of hard blues and garage rock numbers that are centerpieces of Tavern Tan's live shows. Brother JT of The Original Sins (brotherjt.com)contributes some blistering electric guitar on "You Don't Know My Mind" (dedicated to the late Ron Asheton of The Stooges), and "Forgot to Forget" sounds like a long lost Doug Sahm number performed by a shambling roadhouse rock n' roll band. The lone cover tune (and Tavern Tan always has one cover on their CDs) this time is Roger Miller's hilarious "Dang Me", done in Tavern Tan's unique, rough and ragged fashion...with a new, telling verse written by the band, once again proving that The Tan don't have a clue about what they are doing, other than keeping it fun, true, and honest when they record in the studio...and that's abundantly clear once you give "A Barrel Full" a spin! So dig it now, Pilgrims! Thanks for listening!