Album Notes

“This some of the most truthful/soulful music I think I’ve ever heard.”
Corey Herman

Adjectives from the same review include “dark, powerful, graceful, introspective, beautiful, expressive, honest and heartfelt.”

Where can you find music matching all of these descriptions?

The songs on the new album Tradition range from driving rockers like the title track and Lead Me On, to the sweet ballads of Come Home To Me and Left Behind to the intricate finger-picking of Good Night and Leota to the front porch stomps of Spoken Word and Tides. There is not a single sleeper on the whole album. Each song is crafted and shines and stands alone as an affirmative musical testament.

In the past year a growing audience has surfaced for the eclectic mix of rock-folk-blues-soul music of Wes Tucker and his newly formed band The Skillets in the Washington D.C. area. With intricate guitar work from Bryan Washam and the driving backbeats of David Rutkowski, the band continues to fill small DC venues with powerful demonstrations of musicianship and raw emotion. With the release of their first record “Tradition” the band is receiving great reviews and the audience continues to grow. With songs ranging from delicate harmony laced ballads like Left Behind to the head nodding-beat of the title track it is clear that these gentlemen thrive on diversity. They shift from honky-tonk stomps to Latin infused instrumentals, to soulful crooning and back again in the space of a setlist. Bryan Washam is a student of blues, jazz, and funk on guitar and also shares duties on the bass. Dave Rutkowski has been schooled in Latin and Afro-Cuban beats and easily handles the responsibilities of straight rocking as well. Wes attributes his song-writing and vocal styles to growing up in Southern full Gospel churches and being introduced to the music of Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix at a very young age and later discovering song-writers like Ben Harper and Ani DiFranco. If the influences sound scattered, what unites these musicians is a love of good music as well as good taste. They appreciate the opportunity to make music together and they listen to each other. This is apparent from the first notes you’ll hear at a show and rings clear on their debut release “Tradition.”