Star News - Wilmington,
NC (www.starnewsonline.com)
07-29-2004
Classically trained Athens band Tishamingo learned
its style from the best
If Tishamingo's name sounds vaguely familiar, it's
because it's borrowed from the scene in O Brother,
Where Art Thou where the three protagonists meet up
with a black guitar player and the lot of them head
to Tishomingo, Miss. to make some music.
When the four transplanted Floridians of the then-fledgling
Athens band first saw the movie together in the house
the group shares, they thought Tishomingo would make
a great band name but jotted it down wrong. Oops.
Chalk their name up to a happy accident, but the
band's building momentum is more the product of hard
work. They began working a weekly stint at an Athens
dive, using their own material during one set and
filling the other out covering Hendrix, Allman Brothers,
and even Black Sabbath albums in their entirety.
Guitarist-vocalist Cameron Williams likened the experience
of learning 50-odd songs in a short time period as "band
camp."
Since then, Tishamingo's been slowly but surely
gaining attention in Athens' impenetrable scene.
They've worked with local hero John Keene (R.E.M,
Widespread Panic, Indigo Girls) on their self-titled
debut album and finished up the follow-up with David
Barbe (part of Bob Mould's band, Sugar, in the '90s)
producing and Mr. Keene mastering.
Among the debut's songs, Whiskey State of Mind is
as apt a description for the Georgia band's sound
as any. All that Jack Daniels, Southern rock goodness
surrounds every note: Mr. Williams' gravelly Big-Guy
voice, songs equal parts bluesy and rocking, lyrics
a little darker than the feel-good arrangements would
have you believe, guitar solos serving the song and
not the guitarist's virtuosity.
"None of the songs run together, none of the
sounds are taken out very long," Mr. Williams
said. "I don't think we're as jam-oriented,
we're much more of a song-oriented band than we are
just taking extended jams. But when that magic happens,
we love it too, you know what I mean?"
There's a refreshing what-you-see-is-what-you-get
forthrightness in the band's presentation, ideal
for those still seeking rehabilitation from overbaked
'90s irony.
But what keeps the band sounding classic but not
dated is how well they seem to understand the inspirations
from which they draw their sound.
Yes, Tishamingo plays bluesy and very Southern rock,
but they capture what was best about them. There's
a subtle melancholy at play amid all the fun-loving
music, and yet Tishamingo gives listeners the beer-buzzed
feeling that everything will be OK.
One doesn't work nearly as well without the other.
By Russ Lane, Star-News Correspondent
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