BLUES
VA - Root Damage [2012] (2 X CDs)
Root Damage feels like a night spent drifting through America’s back roads, where blues, garage rock and country‑punk spill out of small bars and half‑lit rooms. Sympathy For The Record Industry built its reputation on unruly, heartfelt music, and this two‑disc set captures that spirit with clarity. Nothing here is polished for radio. These are performances shaped by instinct, grit and the pleasure of playing loud.
The first disc sets the tone with raw blues and garage swagger. R.L. Burnside opens the door, and suddenly you’re inside a world where guitars growl, drums stumble with purpose and voices carry the weight of lived experience. The sequencing moves easily between moods, swagger, melancholy, humour, desperation, yet everything feels connected by the same rough charm. You hear musicians who aren’t trying to impress anyone. They’re simply doing what they do best: playing with conviction, letting the imperfections become part of the character.
As the set moves forward, the variety becomes its strength. Garage bands crash through short, sharp songs. Country‑blues outfits stretch grooves until they become hypnotic. Oddball storytellers appear, adding crooked humour and sideways perspective. The production values jump around, but that inconsistency becomes part of the appeal. It reminds you that these tracks were made in basements, back rooms and small studios, driven by urgency rather than budgets.
The second disc widens the frame even further. Swampy blues sits beside fractured garage noise. Country‑punk rubs shoulders with outsider rock. A few tracks lean toward surreal humour, others toward emotional weight, but all share the same sense of independence. You can hear the label’s personality in every choice, a love of the unruly, the regional, the heartfelt, the strange.
What makes Root Damage compelling is its honesty. It doesn’t try to tidy anything up or present a unified narrative. Instead, it celebrates the rough edges and the small stories that make American roots music so enduring. For collectors, it’s a snapshot of a label that championed the overlooked. For listeners, it’s a reminder that great music often thrives in the margins, loud, imperfect and full of life. (B)
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Track lists
CD1
01 R.L Burnside - Georgia Women 3:44
02 Dan Melchior; Billy Childish - Length of Pipe 2:10
03 South Filthy - Hot Dog 2:21
04 Chris Wilson - Dark Haired Girl 3:02
05 Soledad Brothers - Shakey Puddin' 3:25
06 Compulsive Gamblers; Jack Yarber - Rock n' Roll Nurse (feat. Jack Yarber) 4:08
07 Mr. Airplane Man - Sun Sinking Low 3:23
08 Junkyard Dogs - Lightning Bar Blues 3:06
09 T. Tex Edwards - You Ain't Never Gonna Live 2:17
10 Elmore Williams - Hoopin' and Hollerin' 2:38
11 Speedball Baby - Blackish Man 3:11
12 Mark Spitz Freestyle - Three Shiny Nails 2:42
13 Reigning Sound - As Long 2:56
14 Kirby Grips - Needless 3:24
15 Earl Lee Grace - Kitchen Girl 1:54
16 Cool Jerks - Man and a Woman 3:09
17 Gun Club - Preaching the Blues 4:32
18 Deadly Snakes - Love Undone 3:16
19 Jack Oblivian - I'm Too Old for You 2:17
20 Holly Golightly - Anyway You Like It 3:42
21 Blackhands - Black Girl 2:27
22 Junior Kimbrough - You're Gonna Find Your Mistake 3:11
23 Monsieur Jeffrey Evans - Otto Wood 2:30
24 Cedell Davis - Keep on Snatchin' it Back 2:38
25 Greg Oblivian & The Tip Tops - Watching My Baby Get Ready 2:27
CD2
01 Joe Coleman; Je & Jill - Intro / Kiss and Kill 2:22
02 Oddball's Band - Hangdog Blues 2:53
03 Interstate Leisure Kings - Best Liquor Store 2:12
04 Big Foot Chester - Harpoon Man 2:45
05 T-Model Ford - Morning Gown 4:41
06 Bob Log III - Daddy Log's 2:16
07 Tearjerkers - Bank, Gun, Jail 2:34
08 Darlins - Take Me Dancin' 3:43
09 Wreckless Eric - Harry's Flat 4:23
10 Compulsive Gamblers; Greg Cartwright - Two Thieves (feat. Greg Cartwright) 5:32
11 Holly Golightly; Dan Melchior - I'd Follow Her Down 2:22
12 Jeffrey Lee Pierce - Goodbye Johnny 2:48
13 Gibson Bros. - Memphis Chicken 2:35
14 Revelators; Walter Daniels - Old Slew Foot 1:16
15 Panther Burns - Fun Mob 3:18
16 Geraldine Fibbers - She's a Dog 3:15
17 Lisa Marr Experiment - Shooting Stars 3:52
18 Robert Cage - Liza Jane 4:10
19 '68 Comeback - '68 2:14
20 Work Dogs - Our Good Man 4:13
21 Frank Roach - Alabama 2:31
22 Dan Melchior's Broke Review - Laughing to Keep from Crying 2:35
23 Pearlene - Burying Ground 2:35
24 Beck - Leave Me Alone on the Moon 2:17
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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
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