SENATOR OBRIEN  
When I was first turned on to Senator O’Brien, I got to see them live at Virginia Tech in a favorite local nightclub that had the best sound system in town and with two levels of decent seating. From my perch I had a full view of the stage that was about to take a thrashing, literally. The dimly lit lounge below covered in plush red curtains and white polished wood through-out was a good setting for the neatly dressed crowd that packed themselves in for the first of two shows that night.

Just as I was drawing off my second highball of the evening, the lights were turned out and on came the band. Senator O’Brien’s lift-off was the Whole Worlds Is Jones’n from their Primary album and it was explosive. No warm-up song. No greeting the crowd. No early warnings. Just 168 beats per minute from the tightest rhythm section pulled by a three-way of guitars, the singer on top of it all, going at it and under the influence, the words exotic and an immense amount of love-touches to the audience of co-eds and working stiff fans. Together and in unison the crowd sings along “ won’t you lay on this / I can live on this / when I’m down on fire… / I’m Jo Jo Jo Jones’n.” And just like that, right on the dime, the entire band rat ta tats to a complete halt.

With barely time to catch your breath Senator O’Brien slides into another classic from the R&B Punk originators with the sped-up, politically tinged blues shuffle, Worthless. By this time it is apparent that the stage flooring below the band’s feet was starting to move and not in a good way. But that did not stop this band. Hell no! The more it swayed and moved, the more they played….and with exacting, album quality precision to boot. Some bastards just work better under fire.

After five smacks in the musical jaw, Senator shifted into a blue-eye soul ballad that this singer is best recognized for….at least in my book of choices. True to its source, Your Baby Lies was sung out over the hull of the crowd, now packed to capacity, like a moment of prayer where just one voice speaks with clarity of a tale of true lost love and of deep searching. The song I’m told is drawn from the epic poem of Evangeline by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search across an untamed America for her life-long love. In homage to the Longfellow’s poem, Your Baby Lies was written as a duo with just a singer and a bass guitar but a full live band like Senator O’Brien completes the song with an array of instruments, adding space and colour throughout. It is seriously an excellent original song and quite moving in its entirety.

How is it that five punkish songs are suddenly stopped and then quickly followed up by a gorgeous ballad like Washington, I’m Leaving California off of the Primary album or Too Soon and I Wanna Dance from the Punk In My Soul Lp…. and then Senator O’Brien is right back at it with even more power punk and blues songs to start the cycle over again? The answer is this is the form and process that goes into playing a set of R&B Punk. It takes more than great songs, self-assurance, talent and stamina and knowing how to pace yourself for two shows a night, it takes a band such as Senator O’Brien to play it through to another encore…that’s for sure.

CH Stevens – HYDISC
Copyright ©2011. Senator O’Brien. Stateside Blues Rebellion. American Release Tour.  

THE STATESIDE BLUES REBELLION
It’s coming up on ya and the rebellion has just begun. Out of a response to a call for better and deeper blues comes a band called the Stateside Blues Rebellion. They play the blues the way they were meant to be: delivered as wide-open, honest and proud as can be…. and in all its roughness and soul. Where Detroit, by way of Mississippi, once spake of this truly unique and quintessential music of the blues, the Stateside Blues Rebellion has come into being as a full throated and earnest band that is exacting with the use of their craft and their own newer kind of blues, dimensions and sound-scapes.

The Stateside Blues Rebellion in their timeless and lively approach is a hard punch delivery with the same kind of experience that hits you where you live. From a sonic depiction of the game of Baseball to Gospel, and all points in between, the Stateside Blues Rebellion performs live with their best concerts still to come. If there’s arena rock then this is arena blues.

The Stateside Blues Rebellion American Release Tour for North America is in support of the release of their double album the Stateside Blues Rebellion Baseball and The Gospel. They will perform all of the album(s) in its entirety in addition to many hidden gems and even some highly regarded and smartly played hits. The band will consist of upwards of 12 members, backed by a horn section and a trio of back-up singers for larger venues, blues festivals and halls but they will also perform several special shows in smaller venues and select clubs with just a sextet of their mainstay artists.

The American Release Tour will take us deep into 2013 and beyond with live concerts of all shapes and sizes and there will some new songs that will be birthed along the way with some exciting and blazing live recordings to boot.

Stateside Blues Rebellion is a sweet brew of Americana delivered in bold hues and artful colourings that brings you closer to the straight ahead, the craft of the Word, the heart of the blued eyed balladeer, the soul of the punk, the blending of the rhythms and thick-boned rock that only these genuine bluesmen and women can offer.

The Rebellion is on.

It’s a bigger and broader sound than expected and Stateside Blues Rebellion is bringing all it’s got to the American Release Tour. A full ensemble with over three sets of material will perform on stages throughout and at university campus and festivals alike. The Stateside Blues Rebellion is truly an unforgettable show for all ages and one that will be long in our music memories and accessible in our music files for years to come.

Stubby Jones – HYDISC  
Copyright ©2011. Senator O’Brien. Stateside Blues Rebellion. American Release Tour.