Recording >
Justin Beckler: Oh! My Troubled Mind
Justin Beckler: Oh! My Troubled Mind | |
| Desc: | CD REVIEW: ARTIST: Justin Beckler |
| Label: | self-released |
| Format: | Album |
| Media: | CD |
| Genre: | Recording |
Just when you thought roots-rock was spent, along comes this local musician with an invigorating album that sweats with steely swagger and big soul. Some now know him as the guitarist for Thomas Wynn & the Believers, but this young traditionalist is a considerable force on his own. In muscular strides, the commanding gait of Beckler’s music stomps with a humid, dusty kick. His hot-blooded rock brew is sweetened with touches of digging blues (“This Mountain”), full-throated gospel (“Deliver Me”) and Southern twang (“Oh! My Troubled Mind,” “Freedom”). The record has a heat that makes it believable, a rare thing nowadays with all the cheap blues jockeys flooding the bar circuit. With feeling, heft and a triumphant sense of tune (“Cold Cold Rain”), his music has plenty of mainstream appeal, but it’s way gutsier than much-ballyhooed but way overrated artists like Rocco Deluca. Turns out it is possible to do without having to trade in your testicles.