Album Review: The Blind Staggers – Doing Alright… Considering

Blind Staggers hail from Chicago and at the last count a 5 member band that play what is touted as Alt-Country, so our reading audience of 3 might be wondering how this qualifies for Punk site review, well lets say that having played sometime in the past with Tiger Army and being from the same city as Against Me in our book that gives them all the right to be listened to.

So Alt-Country, how does this shape up when played by these totally exceptional musicians, well actually this reviewer is gonna start right off by sticking out my neck and using instead, Bourbon Soaked Rock’N’Roll with all the down and dirty that gives this album so many facets that it becomes one you can go back to on a number of occasions and still be finding songs that might not have grabbed you first time around, but on second or third listen, make you so happy you didn’t throw it to the bottom of the listening pile and forget about.

Songs that fill this album with moments that are found only in the reality of life and played in a way that hits your soul like music should, emotional and heartbreaking in places, beautiful and wild in others.  The combination of vocal from Laura Zielinski and Damien Christian is sublime, they bounce of each other, combine to create amazing power and then knock you out with solo’s that are huge!

 This is how country music should be played, exciting guitar riffs that explode when they need to, but still have grounding in the roots of its past.

Throughout the album there are so many variations of tempo, but it also flows together with amazing ease, “Used 2 Party” and “Once or Twice” are perfect examples of country that rocks, filled with melody and snappy vocals that take you right into a downtown club, then your whole being is transported to the depths of the emotional beauty that is “Grandma” holding back tears as you listen to a vocal that quite simply tears your heart out and an eerie guitar that lifts you through to the end somehow.  Oh and just to complete the feel of this eclectic filled slab of wonder “Snakebite” hits the down and dirty button like a sledgehammer.

Enter this album with an open mind and you will come out the other end having experienced every emotion that makes music great!!

To Purchase this Album, check out Seven Dead Arson Records

Their Facebook is HERE