You have to respect a musician who, even with a potentially lucrative “hired gun” job on the go in a world-class band, still feels like he needs to express his own muse, without asking any of the all-star assistance he has access to or otherwise standing on the shoulders of his “other job” to do it; that's exactly what Chris Shiflett is doing now with his Dead Peasants and listening to the band's debut is a fantastic exercise.
For those that don't know, Shiflett secured the guitarist's seat in the Foo Fighters seven years ago which was a massive coup for him but, on the off-chance that a listener wasn't aware of that walking into this album, it'd still be a mystery after having experienced it; there is exactly no similarity.
Using just a simple, roots-rock-inspired backing band (the sound is similar to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers or maybe John Mellencamp and Bryan Adams with a hint of The Stones all at once), Shiflett sets to proving he's capable of standing on his own right away with “Helsinki” and will pleasantly surprise listeners with his strong and refined songwriting chops that favor folk delicacy over pop and rock cliches. Further, listeners will be even more surprised as Shiflett steadfastly refuses to reach for the easy brass ring or bend to expectation.
On Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants, the singer expresses an obvious taste for all forms of country music (trad, “new” and “alt-”) as well as an affinity for Heartbreakers/Bryan Adams rock that doesn't hit hard but does creep into the toe-tapping classic rock spectrum – particularly on songs like “An Atheist Prayer,” “Not Going Down Alone” and “Baby, Let It Out.” In each of those cases, Shiflett rolls out sets of lyrics that aren't exactly groundbreaking in their subject matter (themes of love lost, times gone by, the obligatory “it's hard” plaint and so on) but are impeccably refined in their craft and delivery as lines like “You were just a ghost of a bad habit/what did you think was gonna happen?/I got lost in a bad reaction to you” (from "Helsinki”) promise to hit listeners square in the guts but will also have them bouncing right back up again for more each time. Those kinds of hits keep coming throughout the record and, by the end, listeners know they'll press play again to lap up anything they may have missed the first time and, if they reach the end the second time and discover there was nothing they missed, they'll just hit play again because the sheen hasn't faded from the songs; they're just that good.
Such praise begs the question of what's to come next from Chris Shiflett – after all, he does have that other job with Foo Fighters so there's no telling how much time the guitarist might have to promote or place The Dead Peasants where people will hear it. It's criminal, really, because this record does deserve attention – all it needs is a chance. Here's hoping that it gets that chance, eventually.
Artist:
www.chrisshiflettmusic.com/
www.myspace.com/chrisshiflett
Download:
Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants – “Get Along – Chris Shiflett &The Dead Peasants
Album:
Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants' self-titled debut comes out through RCA/Sony Music on July 13, 2010. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
