Music
Press
2007 1st Runner –Up in the Best Local Bluegrass Band category in Knoxville’s MetroPulse readers’ poll.
Winner of The Preservation Pub (Knoxville, TN) 2006 Singer/ Songwriter Competition.
- None
“The kind of muffled, painful moans you’d expect to overhear while hiking the Appalachian Trail…the unpolished heartfelt moans that were so good that they’ve resisted change for over a hundred years…they keep the mountain traditions alive and keep it local, reminding us of our roots.”- Molly Kincaid, MetroPulse, Knoxville, TN - MetroPulse
“The band’s sound contains all the dank, shadowy Appalachian humidity a goth-folk historian could want for, but it’s modernized enough to where it feels more accessible than archaic.”- Leslie Wylie, MetroPulse, Knoxville, TN - MetroPulse
“Four out of five stars…I’ve not seen an album of this type that does so well at telling a story…‘The Flattville Murder Album’ is storytelling at its best combined with fantastically put together and played music.”- Indie Matters, Charlotte, NC - Indie Matters
“…Making music that is part of the fabric of life in this area…they truly are beginning to stand out among the others. Their approach is honest, their music is good, and their future is bright. We are proud to play their tunes.”- Benny Smith, WUTK-FM General Manager, Knoxville, TN - WUTK
“Every now and then you find a band that has no other agenda than writing great songs. Like their shows, MBRC’s sound isn’t experimental in the ethereal sense, though it is unique. They are unpretentious people playing accessible music, yet their creativity and versatility are astounding.” – Leah E. Willis, MetroPulse, Knoxville, TN. - MetroPulse
Discography
"The Flattville Murder Album" (2006)
"Small Town" in rotation on WUTK FM and WDVX FM in Knoxville, TN
New LP "Eccentricity NOS" will be released March '08
Photos
Bio
If Doc Watson, Ryan Adams, Dwight Yoakam and Maynard James Keenan were all trapped in a coal mine cave-in, Knoxville's Medford's Black Record Collection would likely parallel the songs they would write and sing together with their dying breaths.
Sometimes, nobody gets out of a Medford's song alive. Long time friends Michael Davis and Matt Foster's first record, "The Flattville Murder Album" is written from the inspiration of foreboding folk murder ballads, a concept piece weaving together a story told through raw wood and an alloy of voices. Other times, Medford's is alive with tenderness, humor and complexity, as seen in the wider discourse on life, love, and family on their forthcoming studio album "Eccentricity NOS". Sweet and sorrowful, grassy and folksy, but with enough rock and roll pathos thrown in to satisfy even the most basic of sonic appetites, MBRC always pays close attention to the delicate beauty of all that is dark and mournful, balancing the sound into a fulfilling simplicity.
Davis and Foster are "two of the hardest working young whippersnappers in (Knoxville)" (Knoxville's MetroPulse), self producing and releasing their albums and playing five and six instruments apiece. Bolstered now with the rhythmic drive of bassist Clint Mullican and drummer Dave Whittaker, MBRC’s sound is beating with the pulse of modern Americana, new 'grass, folk and country rock, and a live show that is spreading throughout the southeast with recent appearances at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, and the Knoxville Brewers' Jam. Unafraid of exposing their roots while reaching for the next limb of the Americana tree, Medford's Black Record Collection is quickly becoming a trailblazer of roots music's new generation.
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