Powder Mill
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Powder Mill

Van Buren, Missouri, United States | SELF

Van Buren, Missouri, United States | SELF
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""Land of the Free" Review"

Verisimilitude isn’t a word you’re likely to hear out of Powder Mill but it’s the one that fits. Everything about these Missouri men feels damn real: salt of the earth substance apparent in every tune, every rugged but right vocal, with every line ringing true and strong backed with the kinda muscle that lays a body flat. A palpable sense of place permeates their music, deftly carved mountains and rivers winding through their tunes, the backwoods stills and boogie shacks breathing along bad roads everyone knows you just shouldn’t wander down but do anyway because, well, human nature – something this band understands very well, clearly fellas who’ve spent a few nights in jail AND learned a thing or two from it.

But these are no wannabe outlaws, just guys telling it like it is, unvarnished reports from the blue collar trenches, putting melody to every solitary late night thinker wondering, “I’m working this damn hard and this is all I’ve got?” There’s a healthy measure of early Asbury Park Springsteen to the gritty pondering of The Land of the Free, which strives to drag Jesus from the dark side of town, eager to bring the good word to every battered, struggling soul living on the ragged, shadowy edge.

Make no mistake, this is rock ‘n’ roll that needs no adjectives (modern, classic, Americana, etc), but this is also unabashedly country as fuck, embracing the world outside big cities and tied to the land and its cyclical flow in tangible, lived ways. In this way and many others, Powder Mill are the true sons of Ronnie Van Zant, with a game that’s tight, tough and fired up about all the right things – family, freedom and fun – and a surprising tenderness that slips in between all the fisticuffs, hot messes and weed running in their tales. Their willingness to tussle extends to love, understanding that the real thing has to be fought for and defended with all one’s might, perhaps most so against one’s own failings and dumb decisions.

Powder Mill, particularly on The Land of the Free, put the lie to notion that they don’t make ‘em like they used to. This is a band that can proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with pre-plane crash Skynyrd, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Black Crowes and contemporaries like The Drive-By Truckers and Slobberbone as torchbearers for rock rooted in unremittingly honest soil that takes full advantage of Southern musical traditions – People’s Music made by real people with more heart, balls, raw charm and natural talent than most God made.
- Dennis Cook, Music Critic


""Land of the Free" Review"

Verisimilitude isn’t a word you’re likely to hear out of Powder Mill but it’s the one that fits. Everything about these Missouri men feels damn real: salt of the earth substance apparent in every tune, every rugged but right vocal, with every line ringing true and strong backed with the kinda muscle that lays a body flat. A palpable sense of place permeates their music, deftly carved mountains and rivers winding through their tunes, the backwoods stills and boogie shacks breathing along bad roads everyone knows you just shouldn’t wander down but do anyway because, well, human nature – something this band understands very well, clearly fellas who’ve spent a few nights in jail AND learned a thing or two from it.

But these are no wannabe outlaws, just guys telling it like it is, unvarnished reports from the blue collar trenches, putting melody to every solitary late night thinker wondering, “I’m working this damn hard and this is all I’ve got?” There’s a healthy measure of early Asbury Park Springsteen to the gritty pondering of The Land of the Free, which strives to drag Jesus from the dark side of town, eager to bring the good word to every battered, struggling soul living on the ragged, shadowy edge.

Make no mistake, this is rock ‘n’ roll that needs no adjectives (modern, classic, Americana, etc), but this is also unabashedly country as fuck, embracing the world outside big cities and tied to the land and its cyclical flow in tangible, lived ways. In this way and many others, Powder Mill are the true sons of Ronnie Van Zant, with a game that’s tight, tough and fired up about all the right things – family, freedom and fun – and a surprising tenderness that slips in between all the fisticuffs, hot messes and weed running in their tales. Their willingness to tussle extends to love, understanding that the real thing has to be fought for and defended with all one’s might, perhaps most so against one’s own failings and dumb decisions.

Powder Mill, particularly on The Land of the Free, put the lie to notion that they don’t make ‘em like they used to. This is a band that can proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with pre-plane crash Skynyrd, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Black Crowes and contemporaries like The Drive-By Truckers and Slobberbone as torchbearers for rock rooted in unremittingly honest soil that takes full advantage of Southern musical traditions – People’s Music made by real people with more heart, balls, raw charm and natural talent than most God made.
- Dennis Cook, Music Critic


"One of the Best Rock Albums of 2010"

Powder Mill, “Money, Marbles and Chalk”/“Live In Carter County” — One of the best rock albums of 2010 came creeping out of the Ozarks stinking of meth and misery. Powder Mill, a grizzled Missouri quartet, felt like Southern rock’s answer to Dead Moon: a band of outsider survivalists who understood greatness and sounded like they had lived hard pursuing it.

Especially frontman Jesse Charles Hammock II. Over the 13 tracks of “Money, Marbles and Chalk,” he moans, groans and growls about his pharmaceutical diet, huffing paint thinner, coping with PTSD and a getting nailed with a DWI. Sometimes the only thing propping him up is guitarist Jeff Chapman, who solos like he’s mapped the Slash genome.

A year later, Powder Mill’s new live album, “Live in Carter County,” finds the band basking in a hometown roar that should only grow louder and more widespread. - The Washington Post -- Chris Richards, Pop Music Critic


"One of the Best Rock Albums of 2010"

Powder Mill, “Money, Marbles and Chalk”/“Live In Carter County” — One of the best rock albums of 2010 came creeping out of the Ozarks stinking of meth and misery. Powder Mill, a grizzled Missouri quartet, felt like Southern rock’s answer to Dead Moon: a band of outsider survivalists who understood greatness and sounded like they had lived hard pursuing it.

Especially frontman Jesse Charles Hammock II. Over the 13 tracks of “Money, Marbles and Chalk,” he moans, groans and growls about his pharmaceutical diet, huffing paint thinner, coping with PTSD and a getting nailed with a DWI. Sometimes the only thing propping him up is guitarist Jeff Chapman, who solos like he’s mapped the Slash genome.

A year later, Powder Mill’s new live album, “Live in Carter County,” finds the band basking in a hometown roar that should only grow louder and more widespread. - The Washington Post -- Chris Richards, Pop Music Critic


"Baby You're a Star!"

Powder MillUnabashedly Southern and raw as a Hell’s Angel’s ass after he upends his hog, Powder Mill are one of the best goddamn bands to emerge from below the Mason-Dixon in the past decade. Like kindred forebears Lynyrd Skynyrd and Drive-By Truckers, Powder Mill mines the South’s rich folklore, inviting drawl and working class ethos to create unshakeable honest, utterly unvarnished music packed with dirty truths and shadowy humor. And these Missouri boys just keep getting better.

Album number three, Money, Marbles, And Chalk (released June 15) is Powder Mill’s Second Helping, Decoration Day or Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, i.e. the albums that refined all the promising virtues inside Skynyrd, DBT and the Crowes and created the skeleton for everything that came after. Money, Marbles, And Chalk is paycheck-to-paycheck mean, and tender as a longtime marriage finding quiet comfort silently holding hands at the end of another long-ass day of grinding it out. These are tales wrung from deep emotion but also a deep appreciation of good times and the reckless, ornery fun that can be had when one hawks one in the boss’ eye and jumps into their truck without worrying what tomorrow or even the next hour might bring. Sometimes you just gotta say “fuck it” and let your real feelings loose, and Powder Mill is just what should be playing when you do.

And while they resonate with choice ancestors like the Crowes, Black Oak Arkansas, etc. they’ve managed, as all the truly great ones do, to find their own space within familiar territory, often injecting a hillbilly strain in unexpected places or openly embracing the omnipresent country music around them. Every move feels right on Money, Marbles, And Chalk, culminating in a four song closing section that’s passionately riled up (about all the right things) and unutterably human in every way. Rock ‘n’ roll feels like the roughshod church it can be when a band testifies like this. All I can add is “A-freakin-men, brothers!” - Dirty Impound


"MORE OF 2009'S BEST NEW MUSIC"

MORE OF 2009'S BEST NEW MUSIC

We continue our survey of some of the best sounds to emerge thus far in 2009. Last week's Playlist offered some softer, poppier, off-the-beaten path entries, but this week we go heavy 'n' hard, launching this assortment with Clutch barking about "anthrax, ham radio and liquor" and concluding with Big Rock Candy Mountain screaming, "Give me all your goddamn money!" In between things get weird, loud and ruinous. We'll keep offering up baker's dozens periodically until the end of this year, intermingled with our usual oddly themed mini-mixes. In the meantime, if you hear something that pricks up your ears here then by all means dig in deeper. You won't regret it (and we've even included links to album reviews we've run for some of this week's selections to help in this regard). And do take the opportunity to comment on what's been flipping your wig in '09. We're all ears…
-Clutch: Strange Cousins From The West album review
-Powder Mill: Do Not Go Gently album review
-Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle: Rock Star Bench Press album review
-Akron/Family: Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free album review
-Sam Roberts Band: Love At The End of the World album review
-Arctic Monkeys: Humbug album review
-Big Rock Candy Mountain: Hey Kid album review

- JAMBASE


"Z95.5 FM reviews "Money, Marbles and Chalkl""

Growing up in the hills of Northeast Arkansas, I felt a kinship with Powder Mill's tales of shinin', Ozark girls, and backcountry livin'. They struck a cord with many of us rural folk by writing songs about what goes on in their neck of the woods which, in turn, is the same stuff going on in our neck of the woods, only the names have changed.

With their third effort, Money, Marbles And Chalk, the Mill sound tighter than ever with even more influences on their sleeve. The steel guitar on such songs as Another Mile, Hand To Mouth, and I Will Survive is provided by Scott Shipley (Johnny Cash, Porter Waggoner) and stretches Powder Mill out a little deeper into their country roots where they float as easy as the Current River on a Sunday afternoon while still keeping their rockin' edge. That rockin' edge comes courtesy of some badass guitar playing by Mr. Jeff Chapman, who recorded and mixed Money Marbles & Chalk once again at his Trumble Hill Studio. Great fretwork from Chapman on songs like The Dog Bites, Hillbilly Heroin and Bed Of Roses. The rhythm section of Pat McSpadden and Andrew Bedell groove like kinfolk who have played together their whole lives and stand out on songs like I Will Survive. The band gets to showcase some southern fried humor on the Fred Fiction-penned Engaged To Get Divorced, and the ode to a sexy waitress, Cold Ice Water. Hats off to Jesse Charles Hammock II for writng songs about hillbilly justice (Righteous Wrath), being labled because of your family name (Bed Of Roses), demons that haunt you (The Dog Bites), crooked preachers (Billy The Baptist), and the problems that are really in our backyards (Hillbilly Heroin). With Money, Marbles, & Chalk, Powder Mill continues to be a voice and soundtrack for the way we’re livin' in our neck of the woods.

Randy Bailey, Program Director
95.5 FM
Z95 The Bone
The River Radio Group, LLC - Randy Bailey


"Z95.5 FM reviews "Money, Marbles and Chalkl""

Growing up in the hills of Northeast Arkansas, I felt a kinship with Powder Mill's tales of shinin', Ozark girls, and backcountry livin'. They struck a cord with many of us rural folk by writing songs about what goes on in their neck of the woods which, in turn, is the same stuff going on in our neck of the woods, only the names have changed.

With their third effort, Money, Marbles And Chalk, the Mill sound tighter than ever with even more influences on their sleeve. The steel guitar on such songs as Another Mile, Hand To Mouth, and I Will Survive is provided by Scott Shipley (Johnny Cash, Porter Waggoner) and stretches Powder Mill out a little deeper into their country roots where they float as easy as the Current River on a Sunday afternoon while still keeping their rockin' edge. That rockin' edge comes courtesy of some badass guitar playing by Mr. Jeff Chapman, who recorded and mixed Money Marbles & Chalk once again at his Trumble Hill Studio. Great fretwork from Chapman on songs like The Dog Bites, Hillbilly Heroin and Bed Of Roses. The rhythm section of Pat McSpadden and Andrew Bedell groove like kinfolk who have played together their whole lives and stand out on songs like I Will Survive. The band gets to showcase some southern fried humor on the Fred Fiction-penned Engaged To Get Divorced, and the ode to a sexy waitress, Cold Ice Water. Hats off to Jesse Charles Hammock II for writng songs about hillbilly justice (Righteous Wrath), being labled because of your family name (Bed Of Roses), demons that haunt you (The Dog Bites), crooked preachers (Billy The Baptist), and the problems that are really in our backyards (Hillbilly Heroin). With Money, Marbles, & Chalk, Powder Mill continues to be a voice and soundtrack for the way we’re livin' in our neck of the woods.

Randy Bailey, Program Director
95.5 FM
Z95 The Bone
The River Radio Group, LLC - Randy Bailey


"JAMBASE rocks "Do Not Go Gently""

We may be looking at the next great Southern rock outfit. And like their forebears who aren't just dime store, rebel flag decal wearing copyists, Powder Mill digs their nails into the earthy substance of the American South, capturing the heat and home cooking, the roughhewn history and intrinsically defiant spirit, the plainspoken directness and the gnarled, deep rooted complexities…and then serve it up with befuzzed guitars, growling vocals, undisguised country accents and a crushing backbeat.

"It doesn't matter how you sleep at night just as long as you can get through your day," snarls bandleader-singer-guitarist Jesse Charles Hammock II on opener "Runnin' People Down," which vibrates with the rare, don't-give-a-damn-'bout-modern radio toughness that'd bring a shit eating grin to Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood and the rest of the Truckers, especially because it's not just a facsimile of what Drive-By is doing. Powder Mill is dirt-poor real in their own way, pulling teeth with fishing pliers, cookin' corn in the hills and looking for truth in the wind. This is a band (and music) that'll fight till the last note fades, a sort of "you can have my electric guitar when you pry it from my cold dead fingers" kinda thing. Combine that tenacity and pleasant cantankerousness with a sonic variety and knack for cool spot instrumentation and shifting moods that compares favorably with under-sung fellow Missouri greats the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Like that semi-forgotten Southern classic, Powder Mill can take it down, nuzzle in close and whisper about love and desperation in a way that cracks your heart but just as credibly turn it up to '11' and bark, "You can bet your suit and tie I'm gonna get some fuckin' closure!"

Do Not Go Gently (released June 2) jumps into your lap with a cold beer and a wicked grin and just keeps getting better as it wiggles the blue off your jeans. Different sections will hit you harder on different days, where the tough-minded opening section hits your sweet spot on pissed off, hating the boss days but the thoughtful, fiddle dappled simmer of "Wet Moons" or "Lonesome Mama" feed your wistful workingman's soul in the wee-wee hours. Regardless of personal mood, the sheer togetherness and raw talent of this band is just a pure fuckin' pleasure. Lead guitarist Jeff Chapman is, to borrow a line from Almost Famous, incendiary. Some dudes roll by their chops (and Chapman's got those) but six-stringers that strut by feel are often soooo much more satisfying, and Chapman has the touch of an old blind man feeling up college coeds. Plant the whole rockin' mess atop the equally hip-shakin' rhythm section of Pat McSpadden (bass) and Andrew Bedell (drums) and you fast begin to get this review's opening salvo.

Powder Mill is already terrific. Only two albums in and they've begun to carve out an identity for themselves that honors but never apes the legacies of Widespread Panic, Mofro, the Allmans, Marshall Tucker Band and other below-the-Mason-Dixon groups that rose above the clichés while savoring their culture. Do Not Go Gently shows a band deadly serious about blasting some big holes in rock's plump hindquarters, and trust me, their powder is dry and their aim is true.

- JAMBASE


"JAMBASE rocks "Do Not Go Gently""

We may be looking at the next great Southern rock outfit. And like their forebears who aren't just dime store, rebel flag decal wearing copyists, Powder Mill digs their nails into the earthy substance of the American South, capturing the heat and home cooking, the roughhewn history and intrinsically defiant spirit, the plainspoken directness and the gnarled, deep rooted complexities…and then serve it up with befuzzed guitars, growling vocals, undisguised country accents and a crushing backbeat.

"It doesn't matter how you sleep at night just as long as you can get through your day," snarls bandleader-singer-guitarist Jesse Charles Hammock II on opener "Runnin' People Down," which vibrates with the rare, don't-give-a-damn-'bout-modern radio toughness that'd bring a shit eating grin to Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood and the rest of the Truckers, especially because it's not just a facsimile of what Drive-By is doing. Powder Mill is dirt-poor real in their own way, pulling teeth with fishing pliers, cookin' corn in the hills and looking for truth in the wind. This is a band (and music) that'll fight till the last note fades, a sort of "you can have my electric guitar when you pry it from my cold dead fingers" kinda thing. Combine that tenacity and pleasant cantankerousness with a sonic variety and knack for cool spot instrumentation and shifting moods that compares favorably with under-sung fellow Missouri greats the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Like that semi-forgotten Southern classic, Powder Mill can take it down, nuzzle in close and whisper about love and desperation in a way that cracks your heart but just as credibly turn it up to '11' and bark, "You can bet your suit and tie I'm gonna get some fuckin' closure!"

Do Not Go Gently (released June 2) jumps into your lap with a cold beer and a wicked grin and just keeps getting better as it wiggles the blue off your jeans. Different sections will hit you harder on different days, where the tough-minded opening section hits your sweet spot on pissed off, hating the boss days but the thoughtful, fiddle dappled simmer of "Wet Moons" or "Lonesome Mama" feed your wistful workingman's soul in the wee-wee hours. Regardless of personal mood, the sheer togetherness and raw talent of this band is just a pure fuckin' pleasure. Lead guitarist Jeff Chapman is, to borrow a line from Almost Famous, incendiary. Some dudes roll by their chops (and Chapman's got those) but six-stringers that strut by feel are often soooo much more satisfying, and Chapman has the touch of an old blind man feeling up college coeds. Plant the whole rockin' mess atop the equally hip-shakin' rhythm section of Pat McSpadden (bass) and Andrew Bedell (drums) and you fast begin to get this review's opening salvo.

Powder Mill is already terrific. Only two albums in and they've begun to carve out an identity for themselves that honors but never apes the legacies of Widespread Panic, Mofro, the Allmans, Marshall Tucker Band and other below-the-Mason-Dixon groups that rose above the clichés while savoring their culture. Do Not Go Gently shows a band deadly serious about blasting some big holes in rock's plump hindquarters, and trust me, their powder is dry and their aim is true.

- JAMBASE


"Jambase Reviews "New Mountain""

By: Dennis Cook
When most people invoke Lynyrd Skynyrd it's usually a semi-derogatory allusion to misunderstood clichés surrounding the landmark Southern rock pioneers. Spend time inside the five Ronnie Van Zant led albums released between 1973-1977 (as well as 1976's barnstorming double live record, One From The Road) and you'll discover a group that understands the inner workings of blues, country and rock, and expresses their knowledge with lovingly tangled combinations – great American music picked up at grandpa's knee, along dirt roads and inside minimum wage jobs. Powder Mill reminds one a LOT of Skynyrd in their early scratching-to-make-a-name days, overflowing with ideas, unabashedly Southern and serving up something as satisfying as cornbread & honey butter.

Led by Jesse Charles Hammock II (Shady Deal), Powder Mill is Mike Cooley rough and Jason Isbell tender, musical kin to the Drive-By Truckers family while welcoming in vintage flavors closer to Black Oak Arkansas and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, particularly in Powder Mill's incorporation of mountain folk elements like weeping, whipping violin. There's tons of invigorating foot stomp and nifty lil' touches that show all the smart whittling that's gone into this album. For as rangy and rowdy as their debut, New Mountain, gets there remains a real mix of moods and approaches, the band showing as much facility with acoustic lightness as they do with nasty boogies – a bit like those Skynyrd boys.

In the end, this sort of Southern rock isn't likely to reinvent much, so it's down to the quality of the playing and material, both of which are stellar on New Mountain. Your fave cut might be bouncing love letter "Baby Yo Man," road sing-along "Overpass," gnarly, amp-shaking opener "New Mountain" or plain ol' nasty "Meth Lab Blues" (which gets extra points for being credited as a "Traditional"). Or maybe like me, you'll find yourself just hitting repeat so you can let the whole enjoyable shebang bounce around the room without worrying too much about hierarchies. However, do keep an ear out for whatever Powder Mill does next. One suspects they're only going to flourish as they keep at it.




http://www.myspace.com/powdermillmusic
- JAMBASE


"Jambase Reviews "New Mountain""

By: Dennis Cook
When most people invoke Lynyrd Skynyrd it's usually a semi-derogatory allusion to misunderstood clichés surrounding the landmark Southern rock pioneers. Spend time inside the five Ronnie Van Zant led albums released between 1973-1977 (as well as 1976's barnstorming double live record, One From The Road) and you'll discover a group that understands the inner workings of blues, country and rock, and expresses their knowledge with lovingly tangled combinations – great American music picked up at grandpa's knee, along dirt roads and inside minimum wage jobs. Powder Mill reminds one a LOT of Skynyrd in their early scratching-to-make-a-name days, overflowing with ideas, unabashedly Southern and serving up something as satisfying as cornbread & honey butter.

Led by Jesse Charles Hammock II (Shady Deal), Powder Mill is Mike Cooley rough and Jason Isbell tender, musical kin to the Drive-By Truckers family while welcoming in vintage flavors closer to Black Oak Arkansas and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, particularly in Powder Mill's incorporation of mountain folk elements like weeping, whipping violin. There's tons of invigorating foot stomp and nifty lil' touches that show all the smart whittling that's gone into this album. For as rangy and rowdy as their debut, New Mountain, gets there remains a real mix of moods and approaches, the band showing as much facility with acoustic lightness as they do with nasty boogies – a bit like those Skynyrd boys.

In the end, this sort of Southern rock isn't likely to reinvent much, so it's down to the quality of the playing and material, both of which are stellar on New Mountain. Your fave cut might be bouncing love letter "Baby Yo Man," road sing-along "Overpass," gnarly, amp-shaking opener "New Mountain" or plain ol' nasty "Meth Lab Blues" (which gets extra points for being credited as a "Traditional"). Or maybe like me, you'll find yourself just hitting repeat so you can let the whole enjoyable shebang bounce around the room without worrying too much about hierarchies. However, do keep an ear out for whatever Powder Mill does next. One suspects they're only going to flourish as they keep at it.




http://www.myspace.com/powdermillmusic
- JAMBASE


"Jim Dickinson reviews "Do Not Go Gently""

Great record. Only thing I don't like is that I didn't make it. Kick Ass band. Song writing is top drawer. Proud to have a piece. Jesse is singing his southern heart out. - Zebra Ranch


"Jim Dickinson reviews "Do Not Go Gently""

Great record. Only thing I don't like is that I didn't make it. Kick Ass band. Song writing is top drawer. Proud to have a piece. Jesse is singing his southern heart out. - Zebra Ranch


Discography

"New Mountain" - 2008
"Do Not Go Gently" - 2009
"Money, Marbles and Chalk" - 2010
"LIVE in Carter County" - 2011
"Land of the Free" - 2013

Photos

Bio

It started as an act of independence and expression when Jesse Charles Hammock II came home to Missouri in 2008 to record a solo album after 6 years on the road playing every bar from Charlotte, NC to Los Angeles, CA that would pay him in draft beer and gas money. Hammock had gone from learning the guitar at age 20 after an automobile accident that caused over $50,000 worth of damage to a main street building plaza and landed him in the county jail….to a road musician who had shared the stage with The Black Crowes, The North Mississippi All-Stars, and Gov’t Mule just to name a few. After two previous records with the late and legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, Jesse brought together two of his closest friends (Pat McSpadden, Bass / Jeff Chapman, Lead Guitar) and his cousin (Andrew Bedell / Drums) to record the effort, with Chapman producing at his own Trumble Hill Studios in backwoods Carter County.

What followed were recording sessions fueled by booze, desire and unity, as all of the musicians started bringing their ideas and personal touches to the music Jesse had written. After recording the song “Highway Robbery”, Jesse decided that the process would no longer be a solo effort. They took the name Powder Mill, named after a place they had grown up on the Current River, and the name’s allusion to the explosive, combustible feel of the band soon took on a meaning of its own. “New Mountain” was released soon after and the band received high praise from critics, selling in over 8 different countries and across the United States.

Riding the high of their new-found collaboration, Powder Mill did not waste any time as they stepped back into the studio the very next year and recorded “Do Not Go Gently” and received even greater success with help from album reviews, Sirius/XM airplay, radio airplay and CD sales around the globe. What started as a side project / solo effort had morphed into a musical powerhouse of southern rock, country blues, and the truth. Dickinson described the songwriting as “top drawer,” and these songs about hard living, hard times, and easy women seem to ring true with Powder Mill’s fans, affectionately known as “Mill-Billies.”

With the release of their 3rd studio effort in as many years, Powder Mill became a force to be reckoned with in the Outlaw Country and Southern Rock movement. “Money, Marbles and Chalk” proved these guys will not go gently into the night and have plenty of stories to tell and rock to roll. From the relentless urging of “Another Mile” to the frustrated reckless abandon of “Bed of Roses,” the record reeks of vivid Ozark country realism. Chris Richards of The Washington Post described "Money, Marbles and Chalk" this way -- "One of the best rock albums of 2010 came creeping out of the Ozarks stinking of meth and misery. Powder Mill, a grizzled Missouri quartet, felt like Southern rock’s answer to Dead Moon: a band of outsider survivalists who understood greatness and sounded like they had lived hard pursuing it."

The contrast between the rawness of the “New Mountain” record and the intentional slopbucket rock and roll and country truth of MMC is glaring, but the band’s trademark Ozark mud, muck, and filth rears its homegrown head consistently on every record. There is a charm to their lack of pretention that plagues so many up-and-comers in today’s music industry, but it is because Powder Mill’s stories and their songs are true.

These themes continue to resonate on their latest release, “Land Of The Free”: rock-n-roll rooted in endlessly honest soil, taking full advantage of Southern musical traditions, but also brazenly country, embracing the world outside big cities, tying to the land and its cyclical flow in tangible, lived ways. ??Dennis Cook of Dirty Impound describes the band as “overflowing with ideas, unabashedly Southern and serving up something as satisfying as cornbread & honey butter.”

Powder Mill brings to mind an outfit of roughians, backwoods hillbillies that live hard and rock harder. But upon further investigation, they are a family of kindred throwbacks who do not have the desire to pay mind to the happenings in the current music industry or the mainstream. Honest, homegrown, down-home, simple…..whatever you want to call it.