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Black Label Summer: Blue Eyes Wild
Josh Hall is a prolific enigma.
He’s the main singer-songwriter behind Thunderhawk, originally featured on this network way way back on Insomnia Radio #39 highlighting his hometown of Muncie, Indiana. Since then he’s released at least 6 albums, entirely self-produced and self-marketed.
In 2008 he started at least 5 new bands, each with fictional symbolic titles representing a certain genre of music. A fake compilation CD (Thunderhawk VI) was produced encompassing these bands: The Krush Kills, Cigarette Lifter, The Dead Westerbergs, Killer Robots from Space, Touch Me Zoo, and Black Label Summer, the focus of today’s Daily Dose.
I get the impression Josh has so many ideas and melodies running through his head on a daily basis that crafting these fictional bands is his way of squeezing order out of the creative chaos. Black Label Summer is a pure blend of Alt Country and Americana, and my god it’s well done. Strikingly honest and emotional with pure melodies and simple flourishes of banjo and steel guitar, Black Label Summer is literally an undiscovered gem by a fictional band from a musical genius who still exists inexplicably in the shadows just shy of exposure.
By the way? His goal was to have released 5 full length albums by October of 2008. We’re waiting on confirmation of that, but we sure dig his motive:
“I got tired of hearing about bands doing EPs of five or six songs, or waiting three years for the next Radiohead CD that only has 10 songs on it. So I’m trying to put 60 or 70 songs out all on the same day, none of it being demos or throw-away songs. My head is a busy and confusing place. I’m just trying to capture what’s going on upstairs on these albums.”
Help us change that. This post has been difficult to write, because Josh Hall has put almost no promotional effort into his latest two albums, despite the fact that they’re brilliant (you’ll be hearing more proof of this on Insomnia Radio proper soon). I couldn’t find a bio, a discography, album art, nothing to aid in my quest to promote his music to the world.
The mission: If you’re reading this, and you dig what he’s doing, email the man: jhall_10@yahoo.com – tell him you want his music more accessible, you want more information, and you want to see him succeed. If anything else, tell the man hi and that he rocks. He deserves to hear it.
Look for more Thunderhawk & Josh Hall here on the network in the upcoming weeks.
[audio:https://insomniaradio.net/audio/dailydose/irdd-blacklabelsummer-blueeyeswild.mp3]
