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[email protected]The Dennis Boys Band is one of the best things happening in contemporary Australian country music: An important breath of fresh, authentic, country air. In a time when every half-arsed ex-rocker is donning the hat and boots and trying to get themselves on CMC ('Jimmy Barnes sings the hits of Earnest Tubb' must surely be on somebody's whiteboard...), the Dennis Boys are the Real Thing.
The band, comprising three brothers, a sister and a close family friend, have been making music together in one form or another for something like twenty years. In 2006, after years of each of them doing other gigs, they joined forces and seriously got their act together - doing a lot of shows, writing a bunch of songs and using the head start that sibling understanding gives them to turn the band into a formidable live outfit: In 2008 they won the Tamworth festival Battle of the Bands. By miles.
The beauty of the Dennis Boys sound is their originality and their irreverence. The band take classic sounds and put them in a modern context. It makes no sense in the modern era, no matter how red your neck, to pretend that punk and reggae (for example) didn't happen, and the Dennis boys don't, incorporating everything they've been relevantly influenced by into the sound of the band while retaining certain core country music making values, which I suppose would be something like 'let's actually play it and sing it and use clean guitars'. The result is solid earthy songs but with big variety in the rhythmic feels and sophisticated chord changes. Basically, you could hate country music and still really dig the Dennis Boys Band. Conversely, it makes the old school country music lovers happy to hear brand new stuff of the old quality.
All this is made blatantly evident on the Dennis Boys' new recording, 'No Story To Tell'.
Recorded at Col Joye’s Glebe Studio and with the band occasionally augmented by Jeff Mercer (dobro), Jason Walker (pedal steel) and Tim Byron (Hammond) all the sounds that make up the Dennis Boys bag are there: Lyle’s left-handed-upside-down guitar western swingingness; Shane’s syrupy crooning; the lovely Leah’s pure contralto and a rhythm section (Erle and Dave) of startling dynamism. These put to work on skillfully conceived thoughtful songs... This band is going places.
Fast.
Listen to the album. Go to the gig. You won’t be hearing the same old three chord beers and tears shit. This is modern country as good as it gets.
Bio by Marty Burke.
Debut album 'No Story To Tell' will be released by Rack Off Records through Green Media/MGM distribution. Release date the 9th of June 2010.
"I'm very tempted to write the word ''wow'' 160 times in place of the usual review for this one. It's the one word that kept coming to mind throughout this debut long-player. Simple fact: these guys are smoking hot.
The three brothers Dennis, and sister Leah, offer a slice of real honest country, with nods in many a different direction. Via 12 self-penned tracks they serve up a sound that takes influence from various genres and creates something extremely exciting to an often-tired set of ears. At times it rocks and rumbles, while at others it’s just plain sweet, but at all times it’s an exciting ride.
The majority of the tracks were penned by guitar player Lyle. Shane accounted for two of the tracks and Leah wrote one. For those in need of clear classification, THE DENNIS BOYS BAND are best deemed alternative country, with definite appeal to fans of the contemporary and the traditional".
Matt Lawrence, Country Music Capital News - July 2010
"Arrives today on our CD-player the Dennis Boys Band, it is likely that our parts are very few people know, but worth giving a listen: the ambassadors of a way of understanding the country music drawing on rockabilly fervor and expansiveness rock know how to express themselves with freshness and energy without being nostalgic or free-range Passat".
(English translation) Claudio Giuliani, Beat bop a lula magazine.
