Joe Fletcher & the Wrong Reasons

There’s just no getting around it. Music done simple,
honest, and heartfelt is music at its most efficacious. Put
another way, most people tend to reject a lot of useless
BS, unless they’re twelve years old and easily swayed by
the ever-changing trends of pop culture. This is possibly
why right smack dab in the middle of the Technicolor,
psychedelic, flower power scene an American-roots act
with the unadorned name The Band made such a
significant impact on listeners and musicians alike.
To my ears, this fact is what sets Joe Fletcher and his
band The Wrong Reasons apart from the rabble. They
possess a pure, unadulterated sense for rock & roll, and
feel little need to patronize the listener with superfluous
embellishments. To the contrary, they attack the material
with a palpable integrity that conjures up names like
Cash and Dylan. Their new CD release “Bury Your
Problems” exemplifies these abilities with eleven songs
that reintroduces the meaning of American roots music
to a public desperately in need of a refresher course.
Joe Fletcher has been cutting his teeth for the better part
of the last decade in various New England based outfits
including The Sinners Club and the highly-acclaimed
Deterrents (which contained former Amazing Royal
Crowns frontman Jason “King” Kendall.) However in
2005 he finally concentrated his accrued knowledge into
one coherent project. Accordingly, The Wrong Reasons
are really a vehicle for Fletcher’s expansive songwriting
skills. Thus, the band’s lineup is an ever-revolving roster
of musicians, with the 32-year-old singer-songwriter
remaining its one constant presence. He is the group’s
musical heart, bringing to the table his lifelong
appreciation for blues, rock and country, and thus
creating a unique style which he describes as “American
roots music, that's kinda my passion. With each song I
try to keep that element in there and make the songs
have some sort of timeless quality. Not too up-to-date,
but not too archaic either."
The music that makes up “Bury Your Problems” can
aptly be called folka-country-billy; kind of a Johnny
Cash meets Eddie Cochran meets Woody Guthrie
meets... well you get the idea. However it’s the lyrical
content of these tracks that makes the listener perk up
and take note. As is the tradition in folk, Fletcher tells
colorful stories, often set in historic periods. He explains
this penchant for the past as “a thing of dealing with
feeling like you were maybe born at the wrong time.”
Yet unlike folk he puts the whole thing to a rockabilly
rhythm replete with doghouse bass and a slapping brushladen
snare drum. One great example of this style of
upbeat yarn spinning is the disc’s kickoff track “The
Port of Seven Vices”. “In the Port of Seven Vices on a
five drug night, Little Blackie Vasquez he crashed his
motorbike - As the gasoline and blood crept down the
cobblestone street, I knelt down over his body and he
stared right through me .“
One of the disc’s darker offerings has the deceivingly
lighthearted title “Piggy Bank”: “Pick up your piggy
bank and I’ll pick up my piggy bank, Cock your arm way
far back and let that sucker go … You got shot and I got
shot but eventually the pain will stop, We’ll spend our
lives forgetting all we know.“
Joe Fletcher is one of the most uniquely talented singersongwriter’s
out there today. The fact that he uses roots
rock & roll as the backdrop for his lyrics makes his style
all the more alluring. The Wrong Reasons are the perfect
outfit for an approach that is rootsy, honest and
sometimes not so simple. Yup, there’s no getting around
it – this is true roots rock at its best. - Motif Magazine

Wrong Reasons hammer out some rockin' country blues in the vein of Johnny Cash and The Gun Club, while smokey-voiced singer Joe Fletcher sings like he just woke up and can't remember the past week. It's not quite rockabilly or C&W—and it's much too filthy to be roots—but take the best qualities of those genres and you are getting close. If even half of these lyrics are based in fact, let's hope they all share in the redemption they give the listeners. - mark
Released 09.18.2007
- 75orless.com

Fire Note Says: Scorchin' roots rock out of Providence, RI!

Album Review:
The Wrong Reasons represent everything right about American roots rock. You have interesting stories, solid musicianship, a throaty delivery and a sense that they have nothing to lose – so it all just hangs out. Lead vocalist Joe Fletcher has a very Cash meets Nick Cave snarl to his vocals while the band mixes folk, rockabilly, and country giving Bury Your Problems the raw sound that secures its success. Joe Fletcher is not a new face on the scene and he especially is no stranger to the eastern parts previously playing in The Sinners Club and the heavily touted Deterrents which was with former “Do The Devil” Amazing Royal Crowns frontman Jason “King” Kendall. The Wrong Reasons gives Fletcher his own forum to weave his tales and get things off his chest while providing a solid 45 minutes of entertainment to his listeners. I recommend if you are into any style of roots rock the Wrong Reasons should be on your radar and most definitely Bury Your Problems was created to be seen live with a shot of whiskey in your hand. I am positive it only sounds better that way!

Key Tracks: "Piggy Bank", "Port Of Seven Vices", "Who Makes The Knives?"

Bands With Similar Fire:
Waco Brothers
Johnny Cash
The Blasters

Wrong Reasons MySpace
Purchase Bury Your Problems [CD Baby]

-Reviewed by Sam DaMatta - The Fire Note