Album Notes

Closing in on the 10th anniversary of their "new" name, the Tipp Hillbillies (the name a nod to their Tipp Hill roots) are releasing their second CD of original music, "Lucky". Ten years may seem like a long time to keep a group of six ornery men working together, but to these guys it may not seem all that long at all. You see, the members of this venerable Syracuse original band have been together, truth be told, for more than thirty years. It was during the late eighties (no one seems to remember the exact year) that they began performing together at Dooleyz Tavern on Tipperary Hill, performing
their now legendary Thursday and Saturday night shows as the Casual Dog Band. But let's not get into all that-better to let sleeping dogs lie...

The Tipp Hillbillies have a vision and their vision is simple: play and record original music. This is not always the easy road and they'd be happy to tell you just that. Playing original music in any town is often an uphill climb. Ask any original band in the area about it and they are bound to tell you that that they'd probably be a lot more successful if they had "Mustang Sally" or "Brown Eyed Girl" in their repertoire. But to get to the top of one's craft one cannot coast downhill: even in a mustang, Sally.

The Tipp Hillbillies have always found it hard to narrow down their musical style into a one or two word description. The term they seem to use the most is: "y'allternative". This term seems to fit the best because it represents both the country sensibility that is at the heart of their songwriting and the indie rock edge that is at the soul of their sound. "Lucky" brings all of those elements together in a completely homegrown package written, produced, and recorded completely by the band in their own studio.

The new album may be a little less country than their previous album "Recipe". The band feels that it is not really a departure from the style of music of their biggest influences, The Band, but more an excursion further into the dark and dangerous woods of American roots music.

The album "Lucky" starts out with a rousing pub sing along of the song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", featuring a true Syracuse treasure-The Tom Dooley Choraliers. Then it crashes into the pub-crawl anthem "Box of Wine", which recalls a night of drinking and debauchery on Syracuse's Westside. "Lucky" ends with the jumping country two-step, "White Trash", a "Johnny Cash on RedBull" number that intones the sentiment "I'm just a honky with no cash, I'm white trash". In between the opening and closing tracks you'll hear well-written and well-crafted American songs. "Lucky", the original
y'allternative music. Well worth a listen.