American Graveyard

"…The cast of characters portrayed in this album are as well crafted as they are disturbing. It’s really something that has to be heard to understand. It’s like they are penned by someone who has either lived very hard or someone who’s seen Deliverance one too many times (or just-enough times)." record review grade "A" - INsite Magazine

“A roots rock band played the Continental Club Friday night, but Austin-based American Graveyard kept alive a tradition that exists only in their musical mind. The sound of this 3-year-old band is familiar, yet indescribable except to say it’s built around a Southern gothic stomp, with elements of country, blues, gospel and punk playfully wrestling in the muck. Songs such as “Doin’ Time,” with singer Chris Watkins reaching vein-testing high notes, and the exhaustive “Hallelujahland” start like conversations and end like clumps of clothes on the floor.”


“A.G. is four exceptional musicians who understand that virtuosity doesn’t mean anything without fresh ideas. To see a youthful audience packed up front and applauding in recognition within the first five seconds of songs like the trancey “Mark Wilshire,” about a guy who sets his house on fire, was encouraging, indeed.”
- The Austin American Statesman

"The group has been upending country and bluegrass around town for the past three years. Though the Graveyard can kick with more power than a swig of moonshine, they’re equally capable of plying exquisite southern ballads worthy of the Band which amount to one of the best alt. country shows in town." - Austin Sound

Dirty South, dirty mouth is American Graveyard's kind of motto. The local quartet's debut, 2006's Rough Around the Edges, was barefoot Texas twang in league with local shit-starters like Honky. Their second LP softens some of those edges and repents (just a little), playing out like a small-town morality play. The title track and "Old Big Mountain" rev the engine as we cross into city limits, and singer/guitarist Chris Watkins' rueful/soulful voice has a twinge of Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright, namely on "Ease Your Mind." It's certainly a more somber affair than Rough, and acoustic standout "Odessa" makes you feel that West Texas heat all the way down to the soles of your boots. Alternately, down-on-my-luck follow-up "Fuck" proves they've still got a sense of humor that translates off the bar stool, but as a whole Hallelujahland has more promise than piss and vinegar. - The Austin Chronicle

“You can't always judge a CD by its cover, but there's nothing misleading about this Austin quartet's maiden offering. The image of some wayward soul passed out (or dead) on train tracks, with only his acoustic guitar for company, mirrors the music within: debauched Americana with a healthy appetite for booze, whores, guns, and everything else that makes life worth living. Knife-edged blues and fleet-fingered bluegrass are the order of the day; "Penance" is a song title and nothing more. Any payback from this litany of dirty deeds will have to wait until the afterlife: "Forgive me father for I have sinned, you keep the 20, I'll keep the 10." Even prison, one of American Graveyard's favorite subjects, isn't a deal-breaker given that "Prison Bound" sounds more like a vacation. Don't call the doctor, don't call the law, call a priest. Stat.” (3.5 Stars)

- The Austin Chronicle

Everything has labels. For American Graveyard, the name implies any of the style labels, and some of the misplaced ones, that have ranged through guitar based music since early last century. Remove anything that passes for fabricated or focus-grouped and you get begin to get an idea of the sound coming from the Austin, Texas based band. They may even come up with their own personalized genre.......Punk Politico Americana, table for one.
The quartet fuse all things rock and country, and their fringe dwellers, on their second release, "Hallelujahland". American Graveyard has been growing in presence and popularity in their Austin for seven years. They have gained in stature to be headliners at Antone's and the Continental Club.

They have spread a base that crosses central Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. American Graveyard take the grass roots approach of building. They created their first album, 'Rough Around the Edges', to get bookings, hearing that they needed a demo for bookers to understand them. The demo was done in twelve hours and mixed on the fly. The results received a glowing review in local music tastemaker, the Austin Chronicle. That led to getting booked. With 'Hallelujahland', the goals are higher. The band is getting heard on Americana radio, a genre that itself falls prey to hosting many musical forms within the whole. 'Hallelujahland' delivers songs with a hard edge, partly due to early bills that came from name only, matching the Graveyard with punk and metal acts. It forced them to play their music louder and with more passion. Vocalist and main songwriter, Chris Watkins, is comfortable writing love songs ("Old Big Mountain") but it is his way of taking issues and lending support and options in his words that really take hold. 'Hallelujahland' speaks the truth and stands up for the blue collar majority with its title track, "Ease Your Mind" and "Common Ones", the song that is helping push American Graveyard up the DIY ladder.

When the "Common Ones" video was uploaded to YouTube is caused a roots music viral commotion, logging nearly a quarter million views in the first few weeks. The song acts as a rally cry for modern times....."we want our country back and, I say, we want it now". Are American Graveyard songs coming from an angry place? As Chris Watkins explains, "If anything we are optimists. We see this could be a great time if the average people remember that we are the ones in charge".



Can I get an amen? Anyone else want to see about getting some prime property in 'Hallelujahland'?
Chris watkins and American Graveyard hooked up with The Alternate Root in Nashville for an interview with Alternate Root TV show host Reb Landers and an impromptu acoustic set featuring songs from their newest and recent albums. We're giving you a sneak peek at that memorable session for Alternate Root TV and selections from the album 'Hallelujahland' This band may just be the band to save Americana Music. - The Alternate Root

Dirty South, dirty mouth is American Graveyard's kind of motto. The local quartet's debut, 2006's Rough Around the Edges, was barefoot Texas twang in league with local shit-starters like Honky. Their second LP softens some of those edges and repents (just a little), playing out like a small-town morality play. The title track and "Old Big Mountain" rev the engine as we cross into city limits, and singer/guitarist Chris Watkins' rueful/soulful voice has a twinge of Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright, namely on "Ease Your Mind." It's certainly a more somber affair than Rough, and acoustic standout "Odessa" makes you feel that West Texas heat all the way down to the soles of your boots. Alternately, down-on-my-luck follow-up "Fuck" proves they've still got a sense of humor that translates off the bar stool, but as a whole Hallelujahland has more promise than piss and vinegar.

*** - Austin Chronicle

American Graveyard, from Austin, really nailed their sound with their name. A slightly terrifying blend of styles leads to an irresistible new record, the fourteen song Hallelujahland.

At first blush, goth and country don’t seem to go together. Same can be said for folk and metal. In fact, all of those seemingly divergent elements can actually roll together quite nicely, indeed. The sound that accompanies each of the aforementioned genres is only a small part of the equation when discussing the hybrid of such styles. Sure, the instrumentation provides the gritty layer on which the rest of the elements lay on top of, but that isn’t to say those elements are anything less than vital to this mix.

With the arrangements ranging from straight-up country-rock, to front-porch-bluegrass-string band, the lyrics that are rife with religious imagery and questioning give each tune a depth and a gravity that immediately informs the listener that this record isn’t your average sunny side of life slice, high-lonesome pickin’ and grinnin’. For fans of Milwaukee’s .357 String Band, Brooklyn’s O’ Death or Montana’s Graham Lindsey, you now have a dark and dirty Gothgrass (just made that up – swear) band to call your own, dear Texan.

The four-piece group, led by Chris Watkins, rocks a stand-up bass, banjo and the other standard issue roots tools, to a supremely satisfying effect. Perhaps the most fully realized tune on the disc, “Ease Your Mind”, mixes in some slide guitar and moves on to shred with some electricity, beefing up their already robust sound.

Kelly Dearmore - August 15, 2010

As is the case with the greats of Gothgrass (sorry, can’t help myself), experiencing them live is always preferable, even to their excellent recorded product. Can’t make it to an American Graveyard show anytime soon? Check out some of the videos on this new site I discovered, called youtube (I think).
- Best of Texas

American Graveyard (or their hired hands) mounted a pretty substantial email PR blitz a couple of weeks ago, and being quite possibly the greatest fringe country music blog in the history of the internets to write about music and be named after a Drive-By Truckers song, it was only a matter of time before I received the email with the lead single, “The Common Ones”, from their latest effort, Hallelujahland, attached.

As I’ve said before, I try and read every PR email I get (this gets harder and harder as time goes on) and make an effort to listen to a decent chunk of the music that comes with those PR emails. When I initially listened to “The Common Ones” I was taken aback, one could even say I was blown away. “The Common Ones” could easily be a Tim Barry track if it were a little leaner and meaner, but I was worried that the album could not live up to song.

Unlike “The Common Ones”, and quite possibly its title track, Hallelujahland is decidedly not a Tim Barry album if it were leaner and meaner. Matter of fact, the album’s opening song is more comparable to The Legendary Shackshakers than anything and the fluidity of their sound never lets up. I say that, but the roots of the songs are always the same, so it ain’t like you’re on some odd iPod on shuffle genre jumping listening experience or anything. While there isn’t another track on the album that melts my face quite like “The Common Ones”, this album has managed to acquire a cherished spot on the AIV iPhone (which is a mirror of the 9B Essential Listening list), sans a few horribly ill advised tracks like “Fuck”.

Anyhow, this little band out of Austin is definitely worth giving a couple of listens to. I suspect very few of you will regret it. - Nine Bullets

Members of Austin’s American Graveyard come from completely different musical backgrounds, but when they get together for a jam session, amps grind, strings hum and the group coalesces into their own alt-country, rock-punk sound. The four piece’s new recording, Rough Around the Edges, features all original songs about fightin’, drinkin’ and goin’ to prison, among other more favorable American pastimes. Hear American Graveyard live Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. on Music with Jay Trachtenberg with guest host Kory Cook.
— Jay Trachtenberg - KUT Radio Austin

We are a little embarrassed to say that we’ve sat on this for a little while and so it is a little later than we would have liked getting posted on MM.

American Graveyard have been described as ‘debauched Americana’ and certainly they do sing songs about boozing, fighting, women and all other kinds of trouble. However, they do it with a skill and panache and a certain dark twist and edge that sets them apart from many of their contemporaries. Not only that, they happily mix bluegrass and banjo with punk and four letter expletives, and do it all to equally good effect.

Certainly second album Hallelujahland is brim full of such tunes ranging from hobnailed, cowbarn stomps to bluegrass hoedowns to the occasional tears in the whiskey laments. We have first single Common Ones, delivered in the timeless style of all classic protest songs, for your very great listening pleasure below. - Mad Mackerel

Well I guess that depends on what you consider viral and what you compare it to but at least from our research vantage point 175,000 views in a few days is among the fastest moving YouTube videos for a band that has both feet firmly planted in the roots/Americana format. Watch American Graveyard - "Common Ones" and let us know...

Here's one of the coolest videos that has ever graced the roots/Americana music world...enjoy.

- No Depression