The shop is disabled. Please visit https://rootsymusic.bandcamp.com/ instead.

Album
Shurman
Inspiration
(Rootsy.nu)

Price: 69 SEK

In the Austin/Texas region Shurman have long been a fixture on the guitar-oriented roots rock scene while over here in Europe this excellent band has yet to be discovered. Rootsy start collaborating with Shurman with the release of their brand new album »Inspiration«. This band is another insider tip from the scene that brought us the Band Of Heathens and Deadman!

Shurman, in essence, is Aaron Beavers. Since 2001 the singer, songwriter and guitarist has been releasing albums under the Shurman moniker with varying musicians. Their straight rock’n’roll was peppered with ingredients of guitar rock, country rock and alt.Americana. Born in Texas, Beavers grew up in Hawaii and Georgia and lived in L.A. where he produced some mini-albums in a trio format with Johnny Davis on bass and his Georgia school friend Damon Allen on drums. For the 2005 album Jubilee – in large parts a re-recording of early tunes – Shurman became a quartet with Beavers, Allen, guitarist Jason Moore and new bassist Keith Hanna (Rosavelt, Tim Easton). Produced by Dusty Wakeman, the album featured guests like Ben Peeler, Doug Pettibone, Skip Edwards and Garrison Starr – names you have read in the fine print of your Lucinda Williams, Jayhawks, Dwight Yoakam, Jim Lauderdale, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers albums, among others. This was followed by the live album A Week In The Life (2006) and a studio record, Waiting For The Sunset (2008) which was recorded in Nashville with new band members Jesse Duke on guitar and Nick Amoroso on drums. Studio cracks like Al Perkins (Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas), Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo) and Robert Reynolds (Mavericks) graced many of the album’s excellent songs like 'Small Town Tragedy', 'Lonesome L.A. Blues' and 'I'm Not Crazy'.

In December 2008 Aaron Beavers moved from California to Austin, TX and started a new chapter in the Shurman history with varying musicians. Soon Shurman became a hot live act with 200+ shows a year. Regular gigs at Austin venues like the Saxon Pub and glorious SXSW appearances earned them a great reputation and a label deal with Sustain, former home of heavyweights like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Bruce Robison and Jason Boland. In a questionable move, the label re-released the last Shurman album two years later, worldwide with Universal Records, as Still Waiting For The Sun with a different cover, one new song (“Is It True”) and a re-recorded “Country Just Ain’t Country”.

At this point, Aaron Beavers was already working on new material and had finally gathered a line up with potential for longevity featuring Harvey Husbands on stringed instruments like acoustic & electric guitar, banjo etc, bassist/vocalist Mike Therieau (Loved Ones, Mover, Dave Gleason's Wasted Days) from Oakland and drummer Craig Bagby (Dead End Angels, Austin Collins & The Rainbirds), an experienced Austinite. Together they started working on a batch of new songs in 2010 that eventually became the core of Inspiration. In the meantime, however, opening for Blues Traveler lead to frontman John Popper starting a new super group, John Popper & The Duskray Troubadours who released an eponymous debut featuring Aaron Beavers. This proved to be an internationally acclaimed, high quality project from which Beavers received a “kick of motivation”. Is that where the album title Inspiration comes from?

Finally, the new Shurman album is done, four years after the last studio sessions as an L.A. band with vastly different circumstances. This time around, there was no budget for an expensive production and tons of studio guests. Freed from all ties with Sustain/Universal, however, the band took their time at Austin’s 3 Legged Cat Studio and came up with easily the best Shurman album so far. Stylistically diverse, the album encompasses a wide range of Americana/roots rock with their earlier Motown influences and Westcoast sound taking a backseat to Texas country rock, Southern boogie and songwriter flair. Aaron Beavers remains the band’s focal point with his first-rate material and a voice that echoes Adam Duritz (Counting Criows), Tom Petty and Jay Farrar (Son Volt) at times. He can be a veritable rock shouter in one song and then bring out the emotional side of a ballad like 'Somebody Gonna Break Your Heart' in the next. For the first time, though, the other band members got involved in the writing process. Bassist Mike Therieau co-wrote six of the album’s eleven tunes and wrote ‘Apartment 9 Blues’ on his own. He even sings co-lead vocals on that one, ‘Leaving Song’ and album closer ‘Take A Bow’. And he does it beautifully, with a Steve Marriott or Chris Robinson-type voice.

The album’s secret hero, however, is guitarist Harley Husbands who provides exquisite licks on the delicate Americana numbers like ‘Back To Texas', 'Eye For An Eye' and 'Closer To The Heart' and duels with Beavers on rockers like the riff-heavy ‘Novocaine Heart’. Friends of timeless, twangy country rock will love the album’s opening title track, ‘Hometown Judgement Day’ and ‘Closer To The Heart’. Every single track on Inspiration is convincing – this is guaranteed to be one of the year’s strongest albums to come from Texas this year!

The Rootsy version of »Inspiration« contains an impressive extra: The Retrospective Bonus CD provides gems from the band’s back program like 'Red Eyes', 'Petty Song', '2 AM', 'Drownin', 'Small Town Tragedy', 'Country Just Ain't Country' and others – eleven songs taken from their previous albums and providing an overview of this Austin-via-Los Angeles combo!

CD 1:
1. Inspiration
2. Hometown Judgement Day
3. Back To Texas
4. Apartment 9 Blues
5. Novocaine Heart
6. Eye For An Eye
7. Looking Back
8. Somebody’s Gonna Break Your Heart
9. Leaving Song
10. Closer to the Heart
11. Take a Bow
CD 2:
1. Red Eyes
2. Petty Song
3. Impossibilities
4. 2 AM (live)
5. Drownin’ (live)
6. Big Thing (live)
7. Small Town Tragedy
8. I’m Not Crazy
9. Country Just Ain’t Country
10. Is It True?
11. Tomorrow Is Christmas Day

Other albums by Shurman: