Ghost Ranch

 

Sometimes it is unbelievable that there is band 20 years on duty and releasing records after records and I didn't got any notice from them. This thoughts went through my head when I got the new of the latest record by Son Of The Velvet Rat, a band formed by Georg Altziebler and his wife Heike Binder from Graz, Austria. Their sound has nothing in common with music I was used to from my neighbors. It is reasonable because they left their homeland and moved years ago to Joshua Tree, close to the Mojave desert, Southern California. Their sound could be described as a very Townes Van Zandt magnificent version of Americana or desert rock. Altziebler's rough voice sounds perfect to songs with great (county-)guitars. And a song like Rosary where Marc Ribot adds a guitar performance can't be bad. A record I will sure listen more than once this years.

Son Of The Velvet Rat

When this band crossed my way for the first time I thought by myself what a weird name for a band and was curios what kind of music they make. My first thought was that it will be another heavy and noisy band but I was surprised that is wasn't that way. Son Of A Velvet Rat is a long going project by Austrian musician Georg Altziebler and it leads to Americana. He shares his live living in California and Austria and the whole record has a big touch of music made in the desert. Blessed with a voice that is something between Cash, late Dylan and Cohen makes these songs worth listen to.