Dusty Wright
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Dusty Wright

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"VILLAGE VOICE REVIEW"

"Instead of the haze kicked up on old dirt roads by pickups, Dusty Wright makes music that’s more like space dust. The elements are the same, particles of chord progressions and themes spun by tunesmiths since Hank Williams’s big bang, but this veteran New York City–based guitar slinger takes his tunes to a different astral plane.” (SCHWEBER)
- VILLAGE VOICE


"THE BIG TAKEOVER REVIEW"

Dusty Wright's the self-pro claimed “Metaphysical Cowboy,” a New York-based country rocker whose eclectic tastes make his music too freaky for Nashville--even though there are a few tracks here that oughta be country hits, such as the rockabilly “Love Saves the Day” (the Kentucky Headhunters would sound good on this one) and the ballad “Watching Angels Cry” (anybody'd have a hit with this'n). And then there are the tracks that’re too country for Nashville, such as “Let the Wind Blow” and Wright’s witty revision of Janis Joplin's “Mercedes Benz.” But though everything’s rootsy, it’s not all rustic; “Dead End” is modern electric hoodoo blues, and there’s some gritty rock ’n’ roll at various points. The album features Wright’s new backup band The Jaguars: drummer Pete DeMeo (5 Chinese Brothers), slide guitarist David Waters (Fender; Waters sets the tone on many songs here), and bassist Tony Oppenheimer (GIANTfingers, Wright’s other band). A few guests who’ve made names for themselves also show up: singer Queen Esther, and Preacher Boy on banjo and National Steel. Wright’s singing is better than ever; he matches his singing styles to each genre he touches on without slipping into arrant stereotypes or repetitive quirks. This one’s a winner.
- THE BIG TAKEOVER


"ALL-MUSIC GUIDE REVIEW"

AMG REVIEW (**** ) Dusty Wright Elevened (PetRock): New York country-rock songwriter Dusty Wright has turned the amplifiers up on Elevened, his third solo outing after a virtual career playing in bands of varying degrees of total obscurity. No Depression and other media outlets have hailed Wright as a worthy successor to the original outlaw movement for his previous two outings. Thankfully, that hype has been minor. The guy can write, and he can sing, and most of all, he can rock. Elevened has plenty of country music in its veins and on its front porch—the restless waltz "Cuts Like a Blade" comes immediately to mind—but the raw, blazing electric guitars on "Dusty Road" and "Cherry Red Mustang" move the set to the left musically. But it's the swampy blues overdrive of "Farmer's Daughter" that puts everything into perspective. Here is where the Cramps, the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, and the Red Devils all co-mingle on some unholy tavern's stage with rotgut and cheap cigarettes for nourishment. Wright can pen the sweet sad ones as well, as evidenced by "Watching Angels Cry," or turn all cinematic and, well, dusty on "The Devil's Handmaid." But the voodoo stroll on "Dead End" or the teen garage rockabilly rave-up on "Love Saves the Day" are the real treasures here. The too-reverent Texas country read of Janis Joplin 's "Mercedes Benz" doesn't cut it, but thankfully it's at the end of the disk. The faithful country stuff that Wright does is capable and worthy, but when he lets it rock, he could create his own legend or be Jason Ringenberg 's replacement in the Scorchers.—Thom Jurek
- ALLMUSIC.COM


"NET RHYTHMS REVIEW"

Dusty Wright Elevened (PetRock)

His music dubbed metaphysical Americana, Akron native now New York based Wright’s been slowly making his way up the ladder via a career that included a duo singing kids songs for grown ups, a garage band, psychedelic folk-rock quintet and a country-rock four piece before going solo. This, his third collection, confidently swaggers between harmonica blowing gunslinger country rock (Dusty Road), rowdy swamp Nashville boogie (Cherry Red Mustang), and barroom waltzes (Cuts Like A Blade); and that’s just the first three tracks.

Elsewhere slide guitar and tribal thumping rhythms blast their way into the echoey Link Wray-like hoodoo rockabilly stomps of Farmer’s Daughter and Love Saves The Day, but on the turn of dime he can just as easily slip into the twangy guitar classic country ballad Watching Angels Cry or the moody desert The Devil’s Handmaid which wouldn’t sound out of place among a Giant Sand or Nick Cave collection.

Preacher Boy (and whatever happened to him?) pops in to add banjo for a good old five pints rebel country line dancer Let The Wind Blow, another track that suggests the Stetson hatted Wright probably kicks up a storm live much in the manner of early Steve Earle, before he rounds things off with a guitar and harp country waltzing restyling of Mercedes Benz that owes far more to Cash than Joplin. A little rough round the production edges maybe, but then I guess that just serves to underline his honest approach to the music.—Mike Davies - www.netrhythms.co.uk


"INDIGO FLOW REVIEW"

IF E-zine
Issue 41 - December 2003
Artist: Dusty Wright
Title: Elevened
Label: PetRock Records
Rating: ****
This is the third solo album from GIANTfingers frontman, Dusty Wright. The self-proclaimed “metaphysical cowboy” (due to his rather urban habitat of New York), brings an eclectic mix of influences to this country album: the string-soaked ballad Cuts Like A Blade would probably have him burned as a witch in Tennesee, while Farmer’s Daughter, which may have started life as a love song, is made unnervingly menacing with the edition of some raw blues. Dead End is pure rock ’n’ roll and Mercedes Benz is an interesting and daring take on the very well known Janis Joplin tune.

In the end, this is an album that doesn’t quite sit with the formulaic and tired country scene but at the same time doesn’t fit into the young man’s domain of alt-country. If I was feeling a bit more audacious, I might suggest that this inability or unwillingness to fit in could be likened to Johnny Cash (but with less killing). (AM) - www.indigoflow.co.uk


"AMERICANA UK REVIEW"

Dusty Wright “Elevened” (Pet Rock 2004)

Early REM crossed with Green on Red, the beginning of the record gives both a jangle and glass topped wall sound to the opening ‘Dusty Road’, a song that picks up momentum as it progresses like a juggernaut without brakes going down a mountain. ‘Cherry Red Mustang’ has the swagger and attitude to go with the bluesy hollering and the cutting guitar - by contrast ‘Cuts Like a Blade’ is slow and hushed, drums marking time as the guitar is strummed, the vocals confessional, a cello adding mournful accompaniment to the tale of loss. Though Dusty is adept at all the styles here he’s best when he slows things down; ‘Watching Angels Cry’ is as sweet a song you’ll hear this year, great pop country, with a chorus the angels themselves will be singing along with. ‘The Devils Handmaid’ is atmospheric, like a 70s Chiller TV programme—plenty of distortion, wailing, a glockenspiel, and Scott Walker narrating ‘Tales of the Unexpected’. ‘Dead End’ has a sparky boogie feel that’s not to my taste - you have to admire the dynamism though, that breaks with a superb slide guitar solo. Old time shapes populate ‘Love Saves the Day’—this time rockabilly stamps its imprint all over the song, the music grabbing you under the arms and marching you to the floor. ‘Let The Wind Blow’ starts with a banjo and slide guitar, a rustic song with strings so tight that they threaten to break as the notes escape; throughout the banjo and slide vie for prominence and end up with a peaceful détente after each has done their best to upstage the other. A gentle run through the old ‘Mercedes Benz’ transforms the song into an early morning comedown coda to a wild night out. There’s no definite release date for this, check out Dusty’s website, www.dustywright.com where you can order it. DC - www.americanauk.com


"CST REVIEW"

Dusty Wright
Elevened, 2004
PetRock
When the first note of Dusty Wright's "Elevened" hits your speaker, you may be duped into thinking its another bar-band outing by a well-meaning roots-rock enthusiast. Don't be fooled. Wright infuses the well-worn medium with a number of pleasant surprises, including a little spacey psychedelia on "Cherry Red Mustang" some detective-show tension and bluesy backup wails on "Farmer's Daughter" and Creedence Clearwater Revival-era stomp on "Love Saves The Day." And then he brings the lights down low on numbers such as "Watching Angels Cry" or "Cuts Like A Blade."
All of this comes with a healthy helping of intimacy - the tracks sound as if they were cut live on a stage, not in a studio. Most country albums have 10 songs, Wright tells us, so he added 1 more to defy convention, which he does up to the very end. His low-key version of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" sounds like it's less about the fun of thinking big (like the bluesy original) as it is about the terrible fact that big dreams such as owning a nice car will never be realized. Keep on truckin'. - Brian Steinberg - COUNTRY STANDARD TIME


"PHILLY INQUIRER REVIEW"

Dusty Wright
Elevened
(PetRock)

Dusty Wright, a Midwest native and longtime New Yorker, has been all over the musical map, and now seems to have settled into a brand of urban Americana. On Elevened, he alternates between sometimes anguished, folk-tinged reflections and swaggering, slide-guitar-accented rockers, his burly voice conveying a convincing sense of been-there authority. - Nick Cristiano - THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER


"NY PRESS REVIEW"

“Maximum Americana that offers
a lot of backbone and none of the overplaying that’s become trademark of most hipster rural acts.”—J.R. Taylor
- NEW YORK PRESS


"TIME OUT NY"

“Dusty Wright has found his niche on Elevened, his third solo album. The record is eleven straightforward, rockin’ songs about—in the true country style—girls, cars, and your friend and mine, the devil.”

- TIME OUT


Discography

CDS:
GIANTfingers, II (PetRock, 2006)
Dusty Wright Elevened (PetRock, 2004)
GIANTfingers GIANTfingers (PetRock, 2002)
Dusty Wright Dust! (PetRock, 2000)
Dusty Wrigth Dusty Wright (PetRock, 1997)

COMPILATIONS:
Anthropologie Music Sampler, Volume 2 (Musicbase, 2000) "Happened Upon"
Nolan Ryan; A Musical Tribute (Hungry for Music, 1999): "Baseball (America's Game)"
Kurt Newman Atlantic City EP (The Right Stuff, 1997) "Mary, Queen of Arkansas;" Springsteen tribute
English 101 (Unkulunkie, 1994) "Speed of Life;" Painter Ron English tribute
The Song Retains The Name, II (Safehouse, 1993): "Ramble On;" Led Zep tribute

We currently have several tracks getting radio/internet play.

They are: Watching Angels Cry, Love Saves The Day, Farmer's Daughter, Cherry Red Mustang, and Cuts Like A Blade.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

As many a road manager for a Brit-rock act has discovered, America is a difficult place to transverse. The land between Nashville, Austin, and Bakersfield is littered with thousands of acoustic guitars, each chronicling their own small patch of experience. Some sound like country, some sound like folk, and some sound like rock 'n roll. But they all share the same defiant tone of words that need to be said.

That's a lot of sound to fit into the small space between strings and the neck. But NYC-based Dusty Wright still carries the country in a case, writing music that captures all the heights and depths that blow across this land. The job is part of tradition, but it’s as simple as a tune that can’t be forgotten.

These are songs measured in bus fare, and built on heartbreak, humor, and perseverance. Authenticity is not an issue. Dusty Wright is a modern guy who has recorded and worked with folks like Matthew Sweet, The Delevantes, and guitar freak Robert Quine (Lou Reed, Lloyd Cole). And you can hear the magical interplay on his latest effort Elevened. Here he’s joined by Harlem roots-rocker Queen Esther on vocals and Brooklyn singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Preacher Boy.

He's recorded on both sides of the Atlantic, with whoever brings out the best in a song. He's not sleeping under the stars. He's not rustling cattle. He's not riding the rails—unless you count the occasional D train.

Dusty Wright is just sitting alone in a room, where he writes songs that resonate beyond any four walls. That's how it's worked before. That's how it's working now. - J.R. Taylor