Let Me Introduce The Yawpers
The song “Doing It Right” kicks off the album American Man, which will be released on October 30 2015 (Bloodshot Records).
The Denver trio doesn’t mess around, lyrically they recount tales of the forgotten and the down-and-out, as well as staring down some legends. Musically, they rip it up, using their full-on sound selectively, and with dramatic effect. The use of slide guitar suggest a blues and/or noir country foundation, on top of which they erect a structure of their own spirited making.
The Yawpers are frantic slide guitarist Jesse Parmet, punishing drummer Noah Shomberg and energetic and hissing lead man Nate Cook.
By the way, I should have commenced this article with a definition of the term yawp, this is from thefreedictionary.com:
Yawp (verb)
1. To utter a sharp cry; yelp.2. To talk loudly, raucously, or coarsely.Yawp (noun)
1. A bark; a yelp.2. Loud or coarse talk or utterance.
It’s an apt name.
American Man is the band’s second full-length release, having previously self-released an EP (Savage Blue), a full-length album (Capon Crusade), and a bootleg covers record (Good Songs/Shitty Versions). The Yawpers formed in 2011 when Parmet and Cook played together at the only speakeasy in Boulder, Colorado. They added a drummer to the mix and a new trio was born. The band’s name is a nod to Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”: “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”
The album has many highlights, the opener featured above “Doing It Right”, the title track which has it all – a slow soulful beginning, a stirring crank up, Cook’s searing vocals, a creeping interlude and a somewhat sardonic chorus: ‘Praise The Lord I’m An American Man‘. Also, worthy is the high-speed banjo and fiddle melded “Beale St”, together with the wonderful power hook shuffle of “3 am”.
If you like The Replacements, chances are you’re going to embrace American Man.
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