Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters understand that to stay relevant, country and Americana—like any long-running musical genres—must be unceremoniously leveled from time to time. Blasted by a cold steel wrecking ball, and reassembled into new forms atop the rubble. And what better moment for a scheduled demolition than with all of planet Earth in a holding pattern, straddling the deep chasm between past and future. Into this void arrives Heavy Denim, an album that artfully sidesteps any slavish, formulaic adherence to roots-music traditions.
“At the height of the pandemic” Dittmeier says, “it became clear to me that—with everything we’d been through—there was going to be a different mind coming out the other side. As a band, we decided we weren’t going to try to go back and replicate who we were, or the reality we were living before covid. A lot of people were fixated on getting back to quote-unquote normal, but to me it seemed pretty obvious that wasn’t even on the table.”
Forcing themselves out of their comfort zones, Dittmeier & the Sawdusters began stripping back their roots-rock bluster and leaving room for new textures: drum machines, loopers, synths. Heavy Denim finds Dittmeier and the Sawdusters fearlessly reinventing their sound. The album is in the tradition of Dire Straits’ spacey, synth-anchored early-’90s country curveball On Every Street; Alabama Shakes’ transformation from gritty Southern neo-soul revue to danceable indie-rock darlings on Sound & Color; and the symphonic R&B and art-folk Sturgill Simpson wove on the astral loom that is A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. With its refreshing creativity and sonic adventurousness, Heavy Denim is one of those rare and wonderful records that expands the boundaries of its genre.
Billy Bronsted and the Loot
Billy Bronsted and the Loot are a Cosmic Country/Rock band from central Wisconsin. Billy and his percussionist John Kneipp were both born and raised in Tomahawk, WI, where their love for music was definitely thought of as “unique.” Growing up in Tomahawk instilled strong values of hard work and the importance of family, grounding them and shaping the way they walk through their lives. Their sound reflects this peaceful upbringing; there is a characteristic storytelling and writing style that is second nature to them. The duo's raw and aggressive percussion mixed with Bronsted's diverse acoustic playing styles pulls the listener back through time. Their albums evoke the milieu of the backwoods, where campfire strumming sets the tone for well-crafted narratives.
In 2008. Billy and John recorded their first series of demos as a duo with friends. Billy found himself working on multiple projects, honing his talents and building his reputation in close collaboration with David Blessent, with whom he founded projects such as Linus and the Lute and One Strong Army. During this period, Bronsted crossed paths with many of his current collaborators.
In recent years, John and Billy have been hard at work creating their next evolution as performing artists, Billy Bronsted & the Loot. Billy brought the band to the studio to help finish the latest record “Rhythm, Racket, & Romance” which is set for release in October of 2021. The album was conceived through years of gigging all around Wisconsin, while taking time to jam and write with other artists. It is a work of real midwestern collaboration interspersed with some very personal moments.