Gravel

John McCauley, the singer of Deer Tick must be eating from the same field as Tom Waits, because he too has gravel in his throat. That's the best way I can think of to describe his voice. It is very unusual, yet I find it strangely pleasant. Deer Tick is described as a indie/folk/blue/country band, which sounds about right to me. It's very hard to limit them to even two of those terms, their sound is so varied. One way I can think of to describe this band though is very very American sounding. I half expect to see pictures of the band in front of a giant flag while wearing Levis 501 jeans and white t-shirts.

I discovered Deer Tick on a compilation album where their song Twenty Miles appeared. The song cuts off after about a minute and I found myself longing to hear the rest of the song, so I tracked down their albums. Besides that song my favorites are Easy, Friday Xiii, Ashamed, Standing at the Threshold, and These Old Shoes. These Old Shoes is a super fun old timey song about someone traveling for love who meets up with plenty of bumps in the road.

I am not a huge fan of music that is considered "American", "Country", or "Blues", but I really like this band, so I hope you give them a chance even if you aren't into that type of music either.







-Melissa