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The first time I heard Shawn Mullins (Soul’s Core) his music hit home the way only a local songwriter from your part of the world can do. The language was familiar, the stories were the kind of stories I’d grown up hearing, and still seem uniquely North-east Georgia.

Fast forward to 2008, and Mullins newest offering, Honey Dew. You’d expect Shawn Mullins music and song-writing to have matured over the years, and that it has. But there’s still that sense of reality that’s missing in many mainstream artists’ albums these days.

“All In My Head” starts Honey Dew Off with a bang. This is a radio-friendly introspective song is a great way to start out the Atlanta Georgia (originally from Dawsonville) artists newest album.

“The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston” tells the story of inner-city troubles and a police shoot-out with the elderly Johnston, which left Johnston dead and the police to answer many questions.

“Homeless Joe” is a mix of Skynyrd’s “Curtis Low” and Arrested Devlopment’s “Mr. Wendell” and blends blues, folk, and rock into a unique mixture of Americana

“Cabbagetown” is perhaps the best song on Honey Dew, and represents the best of the “Old” Shawn Mullins and the best of what’s yet to come from this proud Georgia artist.

Its obvious that Shawn Mullins move to Atlanta has affected him as an artist in many ways. I’d dare to say Honey Dew could be an unofficial soundtrack to Atlanta that keeps you coming back to discover new parts of the music, like I discover new parts of Atlanta each time I bring myself to drive inside I-285. He tells his stories with the compassion you expect from someone living in rural America. One listen to Hone Dew will showMullins has not lost his soul.

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.

---

Shawn Mullins On Honeydew

SHAWN MULLINS ON THE SONGS OF HONEYDEW:

“All in My Head”: The song’s theme of self-examination belies the fact that it was written by Mullins and Hansen as a prospective theme song for the sitcom Scrubs. The original 2002 recording was lighter and more uptempo than this powerful new version, in which Mullins delivers an arching falsetto vocal in the chorus. “When we FIRST started the recording, I was having a block, and Gerry said, ‘Shawn, I’m tellin’ you, that shit’s all in your head, just like that song we wrote.’ And I said, ‘Man, we oughta dig that up.’ The next thing I knew, we were all sitting around working it up in a whole different groove.”

“Home”: “The first verse is about my dear friend Melissa Hadley, a musician in Athens and the funniest woman I ever knew, who died at 38 of ovarian cancer. The second verse came to me as I was looking at old pictures of Cabbagetown, a section of Atlanta that was once inhabited by Irish immigrant mill workers. In one photo, there’s a boy sitting in front of a dimestore, looking as emaciated as a POW. I got to thinkin’ that it wasn’t that long ago, right here in my hometown.”

“The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston”: Literally ripped from the headlines, the song is about an aged woman living in a crime-infested Atlanta neighborhood who got a gun to protect herself. When intruders broke down her door one night, the woman started firing, not realizing her assailants were police officers, who, it turned out, had targeted the wrong house in search of drug dealers. “Reading Dylan’s Chronicles inspired me to look for news stories, and this one really grabbed me. So little was said about it because that’s how things are in rough neighborhoods, which is what I meant by the line, ‘everything stays the same.’ But it all changed for me, because I connected with her. Sometimes I don’t feel safe, especially after we got cleaned out last year. But we don’t have a gun in the house. Even though I’ve got a little army in me [after college, Mullins was commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserve], I don’t wanna live that way.”

“Homeless Joe”: “There really is a Homeless Joe here in Atlanta, along with Shorty, Blind Bob, Wolf and other strumming, homeless troubadours. They’re living through their art, even though their lives are tough, without enough to eat or a place to sleep, and they’re viewed as winos on the street. The song is a celebration of those people who are following their bliss, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I’ve always connected with them; I see them as modern-day examples of the wanderer.”

“Leaving All Your Troubles Behind”: “This is the story of a girl who lives in a town in the North Georgia Mountains where there were once textile mills, but now the biggest industry is trailer meth, cooked up by the grandkids of moonshiners. There are a lot of people in small towns in the South that try to escape, and most of them wind up coming back. But not this girl; she’s seen enough to know that’s not where she belongs.”

“Fraction of a Man”: “A modern-day traveling salesman finds himself in Biloxi, and suddenly it hits him — ‘What am I doing with my life?’ That’s a really common thing for a lot of middle-aged American men, who want to follow their bliss and really go for it, but somehow they never do. This one leaves you with a reality check, with the

alcoholism, the loneliness, and the nomadic existence. It’d make a bummer of a movie.”

“See That Train”: “I love trains. My grandfather, father and brother-in-law all worked for the railroad, and I miss all the stories I used to hear. The song is about a hobo whose girl has left him asleep under a water tower and taken the train to Birmingham. I feel so unhip, because all the stuff I’m interested in is old. But there’s something about that America of yesterday that I long for; sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong time.”

“For America”: “I wanted to have something on the record that would express what I wanted to say not as a protest song but more like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger or early Dylan might have written. This song talks about the modern America and that feeling of what’s going on? Where are we headed? Where are our leaders? There’s a longing in the song for something that can’t be felt anymore.”

“Cabbagetown”: “It was a tough neighborhood until the late ’90s; now it’s one of the largest complexes of loft housing anywhere, surrounded by these rows of tiny shotgun houses where the mill workers used to live — now they sell for $400 grand. But this song is set in the late ’80s, when Cabbagetown was overrun by skinheads and junkies. It’s about a guy my age who wakes up one morning, looks around and decides he’s gotta get back to the mountains, where his grandfather came from. My family was full of sharecroppers and cotton mill workers — like my grandmother, who’s 93.”

“Nameless Faces”: “That one has to do with me leaving my family when I first hit the road. I really needed to get out of this little town where my first wife and I were living and play music and be with other people who were creating. I didn’t come home for a long time, and I lost contact with everyone, so it’s about my family trying to call me home.”

“Song of the Self (Chapter 2)”: “I wrote a song called ‘Song of the Self’ in ’95, right after I started going to therapy. I had a great therapist who showed me how to move on from my childhood demons, use them to my advantage and try to forgive. I hadn’t written another song like that since then, until this one. It just came to me early on in the process of writing this record. I sang these words into that little recorder, and it was exactly what I wanted to say. I’m talking to myself, but I’m also hoping that whoever listens can get something out of it. Because with all that’s going on, I feel like a little hope is a good thing.”

“Now That You’re Gone”: “That song is somewhat coming from me talking to my mom, but it’s also about my dad, who’s just had an awful time since she died. He’s remembering those times, especially in the second verse. The first is me imagining them dating, and remembering the stories they would tell about when they were childhood sweethearts in Lakewood Heights.”

(more...)

By Joe Samuel Starnes

When Joe Samuel Starnes, novelist, and friend of The Georgia Jukebox offered to write a review of The Drive-By Truckers Philadelphia show for the jukebox, we were honored he'd use our website to publish thoughts on one of his (and our) favorite bands.

I grew up near Cedartown, Georgia, in a white clapboard farmhouse that had been in my mother’s family for generations, sitting on a low hill at the end of a red dirt driveway about half a mile from the paved road, not too far from the Alabama state line. We were so far out in the country that if anyone drove up our road you knew that they were: a) coming to see you; b) lost; c) hunting for somewhere out of the way to drink and smoke something illegal and/or consummate an illicit relationship that would have brought worlds of hurt down on their heads if they had taken it into their bedrooms at home.

Today I live in a Philadelphia row house where the sidewalk passes right by my living room window and in the afternoon Catholic school kids pass by cussing at each other like demented sailors and expectorating loudly in the street. Sometimes late at night from our third floor bedroom with the windows closed tight and the curtains drawn we can hear drunks caterwauling, either singing if they are happy or cursing up a hell storm if they are not. There aren’t enough letters in the alphabet to list the possible intentions of people walking past my door.

It has been a quarter of a century since I called that house out in the country home. For the past eight years I’ve been in the Northeast, but that vast space of pine trees and hardwoods and fields where in the summertime the whippoorwills and bobwhites called all night still resonates deep inside me. Cedartown was a place where I knew just about everybody and everybody knew me and my parents, and if they were old enough, they knew my mother’s parents before (often that familiarity was a good thing; other times, when people were up in your business, not so much). I think about my home there all the time, the good and the bad. And I’ve never heard a band that takes me back to that place and captures that world, the vivid stories of small town southern lives, as the Drive-By Truckers do in their songs. These two divergent worlds of mine merged happily Thursday night, March 27, when DBT played Philadelphia, packing the spacious Fillmore at the TLA (formerly the Theatre of the Living Arts) on South Street and kicking out a great show of songs both old and new.

I could write a long string of fat sentences about how damn good the band sounded, how tight the guitars, smooth the keyboards and strong the drums, as well as the juxtaposition of Patterson’s high, slightly raspy voice and Mike Cooley’s deep tone, a voice that somehow manages to mix humor, lonesomeness and a little bit of threat into one sound. Shonna Tucker’s sweet voice often comes in and rounds it all out. They are a fantastic rock band with streaks of the best elements of country music; imagine if the Rolling Stones were from North Alabama and had a touch of Johnny Cash. But instead I want to focus on the stories in the songs, the great attention to detail and rhyme that bring these stories to life as much as any poem, fiction or movie. A lot of bands write songs that have lyrics that sound pretty and paint you an image or two—a DBT song, however, takes you somewhere, and you enjoy the ride. They know how to write a line, and they know how to tell a story as well as anyone recording today.

They opened the show Thursday with “Goode’s Field Road,” Hood’s song from the near the end of their new record, “Brighter than Creation’s Dark.” It’s a relentless rhythm in the voice of a man in serious trouble about to meet his maker in a murky deal that has gone bad, or more likely he’s planning to end his life to avoid going to prison, but the listener is never told exactly “what went down on Goode’s Field Road.”

Keeping in sequence from the album, they played “A Ghost to Most,” a Cooley specialty with one of his many unforgettable lines: “But skeletons ain’t got nowhere to put their money/nobody makes britches that size/and besides you’re a ghost to most before they notice/that you ever had a hair or a hide.” Literary critics could write long articles about this one and never quite decipher the ultimate meaning, concluding, if they are honest, that it’s cryptically fascinating, not to mention a little dark but also funny as hell. According to Hood’s liner notes on their web site, he overheard a friend ask Cooley what the song meant and he replied, “It's really hard for me to find a suit that fits me right." Ultimately, asking the band what some of their songs mean is like asking Cormac McCarthy to explain what happens to The Kid at the end of “Blood Meridian.”You got to come to your own conclusion.

Patterson followed with a new song that is getting a lot of airplay in Philly on WXPN-FM, the alternative station at the University of Pennsylvania where David Dye’s show World Café is hosted. “Righteous Path” is about a family man trying to stay on the straight and narrow in spite of all the temptations life presents. It’s a grown up rock’n’roll song. During this tune, of course, was when an overly-endowed young woman riding on the shoulders of an apparently very strong man chose to pull up her shirt and reveal her abundance to the band. If they noticed her, they didn’t act like they did. And she was hard to miss, bless her heart.

The new album which they are touring in support of is the first since the departure last year of Jason Isbell, the talented young songwriter, singer and guitarist who laid claim to a number of songs, including the brilliant “Outfit” and “Never Going to Change,” one song poignant and the other downright defiant. Isbell, who recorded with the band from the albums “Decoration Day” in 2003 through “A Blessing and a Curse” in 2006, was certainly no slouch. But most bands don’t have one songwriter on par with Hood, Cooley and Isbell, and I doubt any band has room for three for the long-term. It sounds unkind to Isbell to say I didn’t miss him because I greatly admire his work, but I didn’t miss him Thursday night. Hood and Cooley who have been playing together since the eighties have more than enough material to crank out long shows like they did, digging all the way back into the albums of the late nineties, “Pizza Deliverance” and, still my personal favorite, “Gangstabilly.”

While Isbell is gone, David Barbe continues to work with DBT, producing, engineering and mixing “Brighter than Creation’s Dark,” as well as playing on a few tracks. Barbe was at one time bass player for Bob Mould’s band Sugar, but for me he will always be the front man for Mercyland, my all-time favorite Athens, Georgia group. Mercyland is easily the most underappreciated rock trio of the last century.

DBT on Thursday played a long, strong opening set of about two hours—you always get more than your money’s worth—and returned after a quick break for their encore, kicking it off with what may be my favorite song, Cooley’s “Marry Me.” This song definitely has what I think is their best opening line: “Well, my daddy didn’t pull out, but he never apologized.” I once saw Maya Angelou on TV say that George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” has more story than most writers can get into a 300-page novel, and the same sentiment goes for many DBT songs, especially this one. “Marry Me” manages to tell one man’s entire life from conception to his own pending unplanned fatherhood and conveys his perspective on the world in only five stanzas, including this declaration on his desire to stay in his hometown: “This old town’s all right with me, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

The encore concluded with Hood’s contrary “Buttholeville,” a song that shows while some folks love their humble hometowns and would never leave, others are dying to get away, are flat out “tired of living in Buttholeville.” Unlike the narrator in Cooley’s “Marry Me,” the dude in this song is one day going to put the town in his rearview mirror and is “never going back to Buttholeville.”

Thursday night’s show was the first time I’ve seen The Drive-By Truckers in my four years of following the band that they didn’t finish with Jim Carroll’s dark rocker “People Who Died,” but instead ended with a medley that wove a souped-up version of Bruce Springsteen’s haunting “State Trooper” embedded in the middle of “Buttholeville.” I thought DBT’s ending each show with Carroll’s song might be a tradition that would last like Willie Nelson’s thirty-year run of starting every concert with “Whiskey River,” but I guess not. It doesn’t matter. Like Springsteen whose repertoire is so intertwined with his home turf in New Jersey that for some it defines the state, DBT has carved out a marvelous body of work over the past ten years that paints a vast canvas of the hardships and joys of life in the modern, rural South. Covering Springsteen, who in my mind Hood and Cooley are up on par with at the highest level of songwriting, seems just right by me.

Buy Sam's 1st Novel "Calling" on Amazon, visit his website, and continue to support those who make Southern culture the envy of the rest of the world.

Zac Brown Band DistributionNo Longer Welcomes Affiliates - Help Us Continue To Offer Our Services

-We love to promote independent music, and artists like the Zac Brown Band are the reason we started this project, but the new distributor for the Zac Brown Band's music does not offer an affiliate program, and his music is no longer available on iTunes, Amazon, or CDbaby. The New Distributors have limited Zac Brown Band fan's options of where they can purchase The Foundation, or other Zac Brown Band music, which breaks the independent spirit of Zac Brown Band's music, and the independent music computer scene.

Help Us by sending an email here - Be nice, ask them to start an affiliate program so websites like The Georgia Jukebox can bring you the best new independent music. Thanks! - Now To The Blog

The Zac Brown Band is a favorite here at The Georgia Jukebox. Sugarland is also a Georgia band, so we were ecstatic when we found out that Zac Brown and his band will be playing two shows with Sugarland, at The Fox Theater on April 3rd and 4th.

If you're not familiar with The Zac Brown Band, check out our Zac Brown Band Blog.

Read Our Zac Brown Band Blogs

Get Zac Brown Band and Surgarland Tickets - April 3rd
Get Sugarland and Zac Brown Band Tickets - April 4th

Zac Brown "Chicken Fried" Video

From Zac Brown's Myspace Page:

Sugarland With Special Guest Zac Brown Band

FRIDAY, FEB 15 10AM! 2008 just keeps getting better for duo Sugarland! “Enjoy the Ride” the latest smash cd from Sugarland has just been certified double platinum and the group has just been nominated for 5 CMT awards! Catch Sugarland live in concert as they kick off their 2008 touring season in their hometown Atlanta! What: Sugarland with special guest Zac Brown Band Where: Fabulous Fox Theatre When: April 3, 2008 Tickets: Tickets go on sale Friday, February 15 at 10:00am.

Click Play To Hear Self Destructive Zones - More songs below

DBT’s latest epic work, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, is sure to become an instant classic among die-hard Trucker fans. Drive By Truckers continues to give a voice to small town middle America as they have done with their previous albums.

Despite the departure of guitarist and songwriter Jason Isbell, the Truckers haven’t missed a step. In fact, they have presented a few surprises that could give them new legs for follow up albums.

The first surprise is Shonna Tucker’s singing and song-writing debut that fits well with her counterparts and the “Trucker sound”, such as "Home Field Advantage". I can’t help asking myself why these talents haven’t been utilized before.

The second is the contribution and the diversity of songs written and sung by the “Stroker Ace”, Mike Cooley. The quality is not surprising. Cooley is at his best with a string of songs that are without a doubt “classic Cooley” such as "3 Dimes Down", "Self Destructive Zones", and "Ghost to Most". Cooley also adds a couple of songs with a country twist that are reminiscent of DBT’s second album Pizza Deliverance. Songs like "Bob" and "Lisa’s Birthday" make most contemporary country singers sound like city-slicker, cowboy wanna-be’s.

Front man, Patterson Hood continues to translate the common American man’s worries, despairs, happiness, and duty in such songs as "The Righteous Path" and "Daddy Needs A Drink". Hood’s lyrics seem to mature with every album in sincerity and seriousness; this is no more prevalent than the songs "The Man I Shot", "The Home Front", and "You And Your Crystal Meth" which touch on current topics such as the occupation in Iraq and the ravages of crystal meth on small town USA.

Drive By Truckers fans will find a gem in Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.

The Georgia Jukebox is your home of Drive By Truckers music on internet radio

Click Play To "Bob"

Click Play To Hear "Home Field Advantage"

Click Play To Hear "The Man I Shot"

Georgia music has had a record year in 2007. R.E.M was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, Athfest celebrated its 10th anniversary, and many
independent artists continued to benefit from the myspace revolution.

As the year ends, and we prepare for 2008, we wanted to give you our take on 10 Georgia artists to watch in 2008. We tried to list a diversity of artists, some you may have heard of, others you may not have.

Either way, if you follow local-music we think you'll know all of these guys by the end of the year.

Blackberry Smoke

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An appearance with Slash, a featured spot on the coveted Nascar08 soundtrack ("Up In Smoke"), a tour with ZZ Top, this Atlanta Based band has taken the "Southern Rock" banner from the likes of Black Crowes and Drivin N' Cryin and hit the ground running. Blackberry Smoke makes no bones about being a Southern band. "We don’t pull any punches about calling this Southern rock because that’s what it is,” says Blackberry Smoke front man Charlie Starr. “It’s what we think new Southern rock should sound like.”

2008 Outlook for Blackberry Smoke

How Could 2008 be better for Blackberry Smoke? The exposure they're getting touring with ZZTop will continue to gain this band more fans. A Summer 2008 release, produced by Dan Huff will be eagerly awaited by fans. 2008 could indeed be the year for Blackberry Smoke.

Buy Blackberry Smoke Music at CD Baby .

Zac Brown Band

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The Zac Brown Band is the epitome of Southern College music. "Chicken Fried", "Toes", and "Free" are essentials on long trips, and on the lake. "We like to call our music ‘lake music’", says Zac Brown, “It’s the perfect music to listen to out on the lake with your friends and a cooler full of your favorite beer. What Jimmy Buffet is to the ocean, the Zac Brown Band is to the lake.”

This Cumming Georgia native has appeared on The Rick and Bubba show on several occasions, and sells out shows on a consistent basis.

2008 Outlook For Zac Brown Band

With an early 2007 release (The Foundation), a 2008 CD will be greatly anticipated, and will cement the foundation The Zac Brown ban is building in the Southern Music Scene.

Buy Zac Brown Band music @ CD Baby, Amazon, or download it from iTunes

Nutria

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Nutria, an Athens Georgia based band is a product of a previous Athens Heavy-hitter The Possibilities. Front man Bob Spires has penned songs for The Minus Five (Featuring R.E.M.s Peter Buck) who played "You Don't Mean It" live on The Conan O'Brian. Spires former band opened for R.E.M.Nutria was a featured act at Athfest 2007, and also appeared on the CD. Their power-pop sound is infectious.

2008 Outlook for Nutria

There are actually rumors of a split in the band. We hope that's not the case. But either way, watch for Bob Spires to continue to make music either with Nutria or not. And we'll play it either way.

Buy Nutria Music at Amazon, or iTunes

Corey Smith

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Corey Smith is one of the top independent artists in the country. He sells out everywhere is goes, and gains fans with every leg of his ever-expanding tour.Many people first heard of Corey because of "I'm Not Gonna Cry" a graduation anthem that has become a favorite with High Schools all over the South, and nationwide. But this is no one-hit-wonder. Corey uses his experiences of growing-up, messing-up and trying to fix it, and life in general to hone his craft, and it is paying off. The crowds always sing-along to "Twenty-One", "If I Could Do It Again" and a certain song about the Jefferson Police department, but its songs like "Single-Wide Home", "First Dance", and "Together" that really showcase this artists writing skills, and show you why Corey Smith will be a force to be reckoned with for a long time.

As Corey's fan base grows, so does his music and "Hard Headed Fool", the 2007 release, featured more instruments, better production, and a more professional sound.

2008 Outlook for Corey Smith

The Sky's The Limit. Corey's been building a following since the early 90's and unless myspace melts down, 2008 should be a banner year for the Jefferson Georgia native.

Buy Corey Smith Music at Amazon, CD Baby or download it from iTunes.

Download Corey Smith Ringtones

Paris Luna

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If you ask anyone in the know who the best new female talent is in the Atlanta area, most of them will tell you Paris Luna, a young powerhouse of a singer. Pop/Jazz/Country undertones highlight the diversity of music The Paris Luna Band performs. Bob Lange, with Glide Magazine said of Paris: "she has the ability to sing to you and not just at you. She has the ability to cross gender barriers and touch everyone. She makes her songs personal, not just to her, but to her audience as well."

"I have already had a socially excepted career before I started my adventure in music and I was hard pressed on extreme goals and all the time I spent clawing for those goals" says Paris. "I closed my eyes to the beauty of the journey of life...Now if you want to say my goal in my music career is to have happiness in something I love to do ..and to share that with others when I play my music....oh yeah and to try and not go broke in the process!!.

To appreciate Paris, you have to see her live: "here is nothing like letting your soul out on stage I truly think its the best high you can have! Don't get me wrong we've been in some wonderful Studios in Nashville like Quad and Blackbird and others..Great people and rooms but just like putting a bird in a cage..they are not truly happy without spreading their wings..and neither are we!"

2008 Outlook for Paris Luna

Paris told us her plans for 2008: "We are going to release City Lights our new record through Universal, we just signed with an awesome manager that has worked with Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz and others, so we are hoping that that now our path will have focus and will not have in ventures in vain, and we are just gonna put as much elbow grease into 08 as we did in 07 maybe more".

We know that the future is bright for Paris Luna. 2008 may be the year of Paris.

Download Paris Luna Music at iTunes

Brantley Gilbert

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Jefferson's Brantley Gilbert may be the biggest country music star you've never heard of. He's a growing success on myspace, with friends from all over the world hearing this Georgian's blend of country and rock music on the social network. This guy gets searched as much as these other artists on google (we have our ways) and he's got the looks that will drive Nashville record producers "and women everywhere" wild.

This guy's the real deal. He writes his own songs, and their good. He sings the kind of music you'd expect to hear from Kenny Chesney, but he's real.

2008 Outlook for Brantley Gilbert

This son of a preacher will only continue to grow in 2008. He may not sign the big recording contract this year, but he will continue to build a fan base, sell CDs and entertain people in North Georgia.

Visit Brantley's Website to buy his music

The Honor Roll

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The Honor Roll are the newest member of the Enexia Records family, and this North Georgia rock band may well be on the verge of leading the next wave of Athens style music to hit the national scene.2007 brought change to the young band, and the year proved to be a challenge for the band (Band challenges, and car trouble "coming back from FL during our summer tour our trailer started to fall apart, and on the way to a show in Dalton GA our trailer tire blew out and we were stranded for two hours."

But it seems all the hard work paid off, because the deal with Forever Winter came at the end of December, right before Christmas. The Bands Guitarist, Ben Cramer says that "it feels great to know that someone believes enough in us to invest time and money into our band, and also that they take pride in us being on their team."

2008 Outlook For The Honor Roll

We asked Bassist Eric Horvath their plans: "promotion, promotion and more promotion, we hope to reach new audiences and make new friends, also to tour nationally."

We think The Honor Roll should invest in some good luggage. The road may be a hard one, but they may be on their way.

Buy music on The Honor Roll's website

Drive By Truckers

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If you've been anywhere near the Athens music scene in the last decade, you've no doubt heard about this muscle-shoals (Patterson Hood, founder of the band is originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama) sound that is finally starting to take the nation, and Nashville to task for pre-packaged, commercialized music that infiltrated country radio in the last 20 years. The Drive By Truckers make you feel like you're hearing a mixture of Waylon Jennings and David Allan Coe in 1972, before they made it big. They are one of the top bands on the national alt-country scene, and have built a nationwide following that can only be described as fervent.

2008 Outlook for Drive By Truckers

With the departure of Lead Singer Jason Isbell in 2007, the 2008 Drive By Truckers may sound more like the old Truckers. An eagerly anticipated 2008 release "Brighter Than Creation's Dark" is scheduled for late January, and The Georgia Jukebox (along with most of the rest of alt-country radio in the country) will be spinning it like a top.

You never know when commercial radio is going to wake up. This band could be the shot it will take to get things started.

Buy Drive By Truckers Music at Amazon (you Can Pre-order "Brighter Than Creation's Dark now" or download the EP from iTunes. We're currently playing most of the new album on the station, so give it a listen, and let us know what you think.

Buy Drive By Truckers Ringtones

Ishues

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Athens based Ishues is the only hip-hop artist on our list of Georgia Artists to watch for 2008, and theres a good reason for that. Most hip-hop coming out of Georgia is the D-south or Crunk variety, and The Georgia Jukebox, to be honest isn't a huge fan of these sub-genres. A feature with KRS1 on the Hip-Hop legend's 2006 CD is one of the young community activists many accomplishments to date.What Ishues does is more reminiscent of East Cost hip-hop, but there's even more to it than that. There's a message in the melodic, intelligent lyrics that's missing in mainstream hip-hop. Ishues talks about the issues, and he gives perspective not seen in other Georgia Hip-hop.

2008 Outlook For Issues

This guy's got the gift, and his music will take care of itself. Here's something much more important that Ishues has planned for 2008, posted on his myspace blog: "As 2008 approaches, we have to begin to challenge those negative vices that are destroying our communities. We have to create the balance for our children and re-introduce the concept of the village. Why are we waiting for others to fix and handle our problems? Here is a challenge for anyone that's frustrated and tired of the current destruction taking place in their community. Locally, we have organized a massive monthly community clean up. One day out of a month is our challenge to the world. On this day, we organize teams from various "Hoods" to do a massive clean up. By this, we are encouraging the community to stand up and become responsible for what goes on there, and stop surrendering their/our power to the Police department and all of these other agencies that profits off of the community's destruction. After the massive clean up, we organize a community meeting and encourage all the members of all the differnt Hoods to begin dialogue and discussing solutions for change."

Buy Ishues music from his website

Georgia (The Band)

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Of the 10 artists we’re featuring on this blog, Georgia, a Canton Georgia based band is the only act that has signed a major label contract (Atlantic Records). Since then, they’ve been touring the East Coast.

The Band is tuned for the end of January’s “Rock Boat” where they will share stage time with other Georgia Jukebox artists, like The Zac Brown Band. They’ve also opened for Jason Aldean recently: “It seems like country fans are gonna be loyal to us since we’re crossover between Rock & Country” says Jon Mitchell, guitarist for the band.

Georgia is a laid back group of guys. "Our hope is that our music continues to connect with people and things could get to the point where I never have to get a “Real Job.” Build up a big enough following and make our mark in this industry. Possibly help bring harmonies back in music. People just aren’t doing it anymore.” says Jon.

2008 Outlook for Georgia

A 2008 release date does not appear to have been set, but the guys are eagerly awaiting finishing up the album and writing new songs. They hope to expand their East Cost tour and build their base.