The Bohannons

Down South well below the Mason Dixon line in the home of Rock City, Moon Pies and the International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame, Bohannons meticulously ready the release of a new album. Black Cross, Black Shield is an epic guitar laden narrative that crawls from the muddy back roads to engulf listeners’ souls like the ever present kudzu that devours the Southern landscape. The band’s music is driven by the wall of vicious guitar riffs that is saturated with Southern soul as the band offers up songs about lost souls, love, life & death and people’s darkest fears.

Bohannons open the album up with the title track “Black Cross, Black Shield”. As the brooding sounds intensify Marty Bohannon’s anger is palpable in his diatribe about the fears associated with a lack of health insurance. This track hits close to home due to the visible presence insurance companies have in Chattanooga. On the soulful “Love Stunt” the band takes a hack at affairs of the heart. The lyrics compare the dangers of falling in love to those of death defying stunts; both hold high rewards but defy logic. Death and despair oozes from the dark “Lightning and Thunder”. Sparse vocals accompanied by a lone guitar set the tone before being punctuated by a tsunami of sounds. Once again the stench of death is in the air with the song “Dios De Los Muertas (Day of the Dead)”. Possessing an ominous beginning complete with echoing guitars and rattling bones, Bohannons poke at the festering sore spot that is immigration between Mexico and America. While most records bombard listeners with all the choice cuts on the front end, on Black Cross, Black Shield Bohannons save the best for last with “Red, White, Black and Pale”. As Marty’s vocals ease their way through a sense of impending doom brought on by surly guitars and ominous rhythms a blood curdling harmonica (care of Mr. Jimbo Mathus) pierces the orchestrated chaos. The song slowly grows until reaching the musical peak where all the sounds collide in a brilliant climax before effortlessly falling apart into nothingness.

With Black Cross, Black Shield Bohannons have delivered an album that reaches people’s souls. The lyrics are well thought out touching on subjects that affect us all but many prefer to keep buried inside the deep recesses of the mind. Musically the record is brilliant using dark soundscapes to punctuate the lyrics. They harness the sounds of Sabbath, Crazy Horse and Deep Purple to create a musical landscape that is all Bohannons. The band is a leader in a new breed of bands to emerge from the South, respecting the heritage of the Southern rock bands past and creating music on the foundations they have laid. The music uses bigger bolder sounds wrapped around lyrics that touch on lingering social issues and stereotypes the South can’t seem to escape from. Available later this month on This Is American Music, Black Cross, Black shield is a record that will not only have you rocking out but it will make you think. - examiner.com

This brilliantly diverse album really reveals a group that doesn't lack in quality when it comes to the types of songs that they choose to perform.

Album opener 'Black Cross. Black Shield' may start off extremely subtle but builds into a great climax that the listener (well this one anyway) wasn't expecting.

From then on it is a record that has plenty of twists and turns that make it an intriguing and refreshing album to listen to.

While songs such as 'White Widow' and 'Cold Rag' are straight forward rock songs, 'Love Stunt' and 'Dias De Los Muertas' stand out because the sound is so completely different to many of the other tracks we hear on the rest of the album.

'Love Stunt' definitely has a very 1960's vibe about it: stripped back and stylish, it is certainly one of the highlights of the album. Meanwhile ' Dias De Los Muertas' is one of the most poignant and emotional tracks on the album.

It is certainly an album that is full contrasts that can't be labelled under one particular genre - always flowing from one style to another that means it is fascinating from beginning to end.

Another major plus on the album is the absolutely brilliant guitar solos on songs such as 'Lightning and Thunder' that made this particular listener sit up and pay attention throughout.

In order to be fair there is no real big flaws with any of the performances - except in the rare moment when the band get slightly carried away such as on 'Cold Rag' when it all gets a bit too much to listen to.

However, it still remains a strong and powerful album that delivers on diversity and performances. - The News Hub UK

Bohannons are brothers Marty and Matt. Black Cross, Black Shield is an intense hard rock album with a lot of heart and style. It was released off This Is American Music on March 31st 2015. There is a running theme throughout this album that deals with a darkness within the human psyche although this is not a death and gloom album. Marty remarks “There is a theme to this album and it’s not death, it’s the beauty of death and memorialising the departed with electricity and force”. There is a hopefulness within with album and although the subject matter is dark and intense, Black Cross Black Shield finds that light at the end of the tunnel with breathtaking blues riffs, heroic vocal delivery and sludgy guitars reminiscent of the best seventies metal. Bohannons are defined as a modern southern rock band and although they are that, they are many other things. This album has a classic quality to it, without being a reenactment. It’s sincere and soulful and a pleasure to listen to. Bohannons have given their listeners an album to really sink their teeth into.

There are many names that I was reminded of in listening to this album. I guess you could say if Black Sabbath and Neil Young had a baby, you’d get a sound like Bohannons. There is undeniable depth in their lyrics and dark down and dirty nature to their riffs which would hark back to the witchy sludge of Black Sabbath. This is especially apparent in the track Red, White, Black and Pale, an hypnotic metal track complete with snarling lyrics and accompanying southern harmonica found within the storm of metal sludge.
Opening track Black Cross, Black Shield immediately made me think I was dealing with a big sound. The track has an epic quality to it. It even reminded me of something I’d hear by a band like Mother Love Bone. Musically and lyrically, the track is soulful and clever. The track has a distinctive southern sound which runs through the whole album. The guitar work on Cold Rag is breathtaking. Darkest Night is track that almost has an R.E.M like to it, the guitars jangle along and the songs theme is about losing a loved one to suicide. It’s a beautiful track.

Bohannons are not afraid to tackle difficult subject matter and that is another reason I found this album a particularly compelling listen. Death and Texes is another track with some beautiful guitar work. The theme hear is about terminal illness. The song conveys a compelling emotional intensity and clocks in at six minutes. Lyrics deal with God, the afterlife and wondering why someone had to go. Dias De Los Muertas is a song that seems to have garnered a lot of attention on the album. The tracks theme is a tribute to the struggles and injustices faced by Mexican immigrants in the United States. Considering the albums overall theme, I found the title of this track particularly poignant. Dias De Los Muertas is a tribute to indigenous peoples and a beautiful soulful track.

Black Cross, Black Shield is an album for listeners who are seeking something that rocks hard but rocks hard with a lot of heart and depth and well worth listening to for those who are disillusioned by a lot of contemporary rock. - Live And Die In Music.com

In the build up to the release of this record Marty Bohannon, who along with his brother Matt forms the backbone to the band that bears his name said: “There is a theme to this album and it’s not death. It’s the beauty of death and memorialising the departed with electricity and force.”

A bit of a distance from Motley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls Girls” huh?

“Black Cross, Black Black Shield” beats strongly with a dark heart. The title track, which is also the opener to the album, is a classy, confident cut and one which sees the protagonist of the lyrics overcome with an unspecified illness “don’t tell mom I’m feeling down, don’t tell mom I’m sick” comes it’s plaintive cry. On “White Widow” which follows, the theme is regret: “who’s to say you’re satisfied, just because you’ve lived and died?” asks it’s chorus, not unreasonably.

That song is typical of many on this superb work. If you just want to enjoy it as a piece of superb music that is in places reminiscent of Springsteen at its darkest or the brilliant shoulda-been-huge Philadelphia mob Marah, then you can do just that very nicely, thank you, but dig deeper and “…..Shield” just keeps on giving.
“Eyewitness Blues” is a brooding piece of rock n roll – perhaps the heaviest thing here, the countrified “Love Stunt” is worthy of Johnny Cash at his most cantankerous, “Death And Texes” is emotionally draining while “Darkest Night” , with it’s brilliant first line becoming, almost the perfect summing up of mental illness “how can you be lonely, when it’s standing room only…..?”

It is “Dias De Los Meurtas that is the highlight amongst many, though, a glorious dark vignette with huge intentions, it’s a ballad to dream of. It is run close by the wonderful heavy blues of “Red, White, Black And Pale” which brings the curtain down. Harmonica wails, musicians seemingly do what they like and play independently of each other, and yet it all works outstandingly well.

The same can be said for the album itself. “Black Cross, Black Shield” shines as something of a gem.
Rating 9.5/10 - maximum volume music

The Bohannons new album, Unaka Rising is a real scorcher. It’s an odd thing to say about a band, but their approach to music makes so much sense that it’s difficult to understand why their particular cocktail of heavy Southern rock jangle hasn’t already been done to death by someone else.


Pantera billed themselves as “Cowboys From Hell,” which sounds appealing on paper, but of course, that came with a degree of 1980s glam and kitsch that sort of negates the “Cowboy” part. Not to knock Pantera or stick The Bohannons with the label that Pantera invented but didn’t really live up to, but that phrase creates an itch to hear the Southern Gothic aesthetic injected into some serious hard rock.


A little Two Gallants, a little Black Sabbath, they’re as heavy as they are twangy. They manage their heaviness without venturing into melodrama, which is difficult for many artists that venture into darker territory. Their music begs to serve as a soundtrack to a genre of film that doesn’t currently exist—some kind of violent, stylized-but-gritty (a la Tarantino) Southern road movie patterned after the classic Western model.


Not to say that the whole record is overcast with darkness—certainly tracks like “Tim Tim” are more lighthearted rodeo rock than twangy doom metal. They picked a good first track—“Goodbye Bill” is a kicker-offer if I’ve ever heard one.


The Bohannons are Tennessee natives, and “Unaka” refers to the region in and around the Unaka mountain range on the Tennessee/North Carolina border.
- Oxford American

The Bohannons are a Chattanooga band that combines swamp boogie, hard blues, full-on glam rock, and punk -- and it's just as bracing and crazy as that sounds. If you've enjoyed some of the proud Southern rock varietals we've blogged about this year: The Alabama Shakes, The District Attorneys, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Patterson Hood - this is something you will want to check out.

On Unaka Rising, they're loud and way up front with shouted vocals, slashing electric guitars and a rhythm section that swings like crazy. The Bohannons consist of Nick Sterchi, Marty Bohannon, Matt Bohannon and Josh Beaver.

Here's the lead track "Goodbye Bill", available for free download:
They're dipping into the Southern folk tradition, too... listen to Marty Bohannon describe the genesis of "Goodbye Bill": "It's an ode to martyred labor organizer Joe Hill approaching the 100th anniversary of his death. The words are from his last will, as well as from Ethel Raim and The Pennywhistlers' song 'Joe Hill'."

And here you can stream "River Above", a haunting hard rock track with guitars layered on top of guitars:
And here they are playing "Built A World", a plaintive song of lost love as only the Bohannons can play such a thing - with a little bit of a ragtime feel and of course a scorching electric guitar solo:
The whole record is good, but I think the last two tracks are the highlights: "Ponchatrain", a call-and-response, foreboding blues song about an oncoming storm and "In The End", which races along at a punk rock pace and finishes this album by letting me know this band is just starting to shake things up. - When You Motor Away

Southern rock music is undergoing an interesting revolution these days. It's adding some punk attitude and a bit of grunge sound to the rock, blues, and country it has always had. The Bohannons, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, are a perfect example of what's great about this new roots rock sound on their new release, Unaka Rising.

This is not music that invites you to listen passively. This is music that attacks and forces you to engage from the very first notes of "Goodbye Bill" to the last strains of "Ponchartrain."

The lyrics delve into the rich mines of Southern mythology and are filled with the imagery of their native region. The title of the CD refers, in fact, to the Unaka region of Tennessee. But in The Bohannon's music, that mythology and imagery is mixed with anger, paranoia, and political unease.

The sound here is anything but predictable. Yes, there are blues licks and high, lonesome, twangy sounds like the best of bluegrass, but there is also violently raucous guitar, emotionally charged vocals,more than a touch of metal, and above all else, rock and roll.

Stylistically, The Bohannons are often compared to Crazy Horse and Drive-By Truckers. But I hear strong similarities to The White Stripes and Drivin' N Cryin' as well.

Every song here is strong and it is hard to pick favorites. My favorite is probably "The River Above." But "Goodbye Bill," "The Ballad of Christian and Other," "Cold Dead Hand," and "Ponchartrain" are also standouts. Other listeners may well choose other favorites, and, indeed, upon further listening each song may well take its turn being my favorite.

Some people may hate this CD. The Bohannons do not make mainstream music, and they make a point of challenging the listener. Others are going to love it. Either way, no one is going to be left undecided. Personally, I love it and am already craving more.

If you like homegrown rock that defies the norm and demands a response, you owe it to yourself to give The Bohannons a listen. You just may find out that it's exactly what you've been looking for. - BlogCritics

Over the last five years, the American South became the setting du jour for serialized television shows about monsters and the end of the world. The inevitability of this marriage should come as no surprise. The ubiquity of vampires, zombies, and serial killers may be traced to a popular obsession with the supernatural and macabre that dates back at least to the late eighteenth century. The haunted American South’s many mysteries and transgressions aligned with this trajectory in the mid-twentieth century to spawn Southern Gothicism, tales of strange, broken, oddly beautiful people trying to keep it together below the Mason-Dixon.

And while not classics on par with To Kill a Mockingbird and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Dexter, True Blood, and The Walking Dead derive from this lineage (or drag it down, if you like). The grotesquery is less nuanced. The characters are obvious monsters as opposed to multidimensional people capable of monstrous acts. The existential and moral questions of high literature bow to the commercial needs of television drama and its viewers. But the dots between Faulkner and Daryl the redneck zombie hunter are, for better or worse, connectable. The common thread runs through the South and its relationship with the unknown, the off-kilter, and the ever-present threat of sweeping change. Strip away the werewolves, walkers, vamps, fangbangers, and freaks and the fact remains: the South is the perfect place to stage an apocalypse.

So it is that Chattanooga’s the Bohannons throw one of their own on their latest album, Unaka Rising. A melange of all our favorite rocks—hard, southern, punk, garage—Unaka Rising is ten stomping tracks that deconstruct and interrogate America through the Bohannons’ loud and cracked prism. Musically, the Bohannons occupy a unique space somewhere between Skynard, The Pixies, and modern southern rockers like Jason Isbell and the Drive-By Truckers. Matt Bohannon’s vocals can evoke Frank Black piped through a PA at a demonstration. Lyrically, Unaka Rising concerns itself with the conflict and paranoia of our contemporary milieu, a hodgepodge of angry ideologues and frightened people tottering on the cusp of collective horror.

“Goodbye Bill” opens the album with a guitar lick that could amply accompany a montage of criminals plotting a dystopian prison break. The narrator of “Two Riders” pleads with his baby to forego a night of getting high and opt instead to stay home and “drink some wine.” His suggestion sounds a little like begging, a little like a threat.

Each track tells a story of people assaulted by their surroundings and, appropriately, the music finds a way to both succumb to and accompany this assault. “Cold Dead Hand” sways back and forth between a blistering celebration of guns and a rumination on a world where everyone needs one. Only “Built a World” slows down the proceedings. And the world of this narrator is crumbling, alien, and loveless. By the end of the song, the world’s officially off its axis and our storyteller is left to wonder “if your heart was ever found” among its ruins.

The track-listing reads like a possible table of contents from an H.P. Lovecraft collection. “River Above.” “The Ballad of Christian and Other.” “The Cradle.” And, of course, “In the End.” In each, our tour-guides are distrustful and wary, issuing warnings and anecdotes. The politics, social structure, and history of the south haunt the background. But “The South” is a convenient construct. Louisiana’s south is different from Georgia’s south, which is different from Tennessee’s south, all of which run on different bandwidth than Florida’s and Texas’s many souths. On “Ponchatrain,” the story and instrumentation evoke a hurricane’s rain and wind. And we are reminded that the Gulf Coast has a distinct set of environmental and cultural conditions that should not be trivialized by fictitious beasts and contrived love triangles.

In the end, Unaka Rising is the ideal musical companion for a world circling the drain. But its monsters are real—doctrines, storms, close-minded neighbors, drugs, and drink. In the Bohannons’ south, the lines are not so clearly drawn between black and white, living and dead, right and wrong. And when the end comes, it ain’t going to be quick and painless. “Baby, it’s a long and winding ride,” sings the protagonist of “Two Riders.” “Try to keep your hands and feet inside.”
- Threat + Constant

The Bohannons debut full release Unaka Rising has been one of those unexpected treats that makes having a music blog worthwhile. We called it Southern-fried glam boogie, and the album is a fabulous listen from start to finish. - The Mad Mackrel (UK)

Tonight The Bohannons’ Unaka Rising jumped out of my speakers: A hard-hitting drum/guitar attack constantly clears a path for the message of “Goodbye Bill.” That passion got me looking at the band’s bio. Which made me realize the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based quintet is still far enough under the radar to be burning up bar stages in the deep South. Shit, there’s a lot of great music coming out of the Southeast these days.
- My Old Kentucky Blog

It's in the bloodstream of the Bohannons and in a sound that emphasizes that everyone seems to be getting through all of their problems, so what's the big deal? It's about the highest of highs and the lowest of lows that sniff around and take their prisoners and crown their winners, whenever they want. It's about embracing the ways that people are pulled. It's about being one of the buffalo and being one of the buffalo killers and some days being unable to tell the two apart. There's loneliness and pain all over the songs and the decent people are just as in need of salvation as the wrecked ones are. Everyone's got their debts and everyone's got their skeletons. They can all leave sweet scents trailing behind them, as Bohannon sings, "It seems the train has left it's tracks/She has rode right onto her back/Again/I love that sound." Something bad has happened, but what else is new?
- Daytrotter

"Most young bands start by emulating their heroes. On the EP Days of Echo, their third release, The Bohannons, led by brothers Marty and Matt Bohannon, leave little doubt as to their muse. The sound of the Sticky Fingers Stones is all over this record--both the rock 'n' roll and the country twang of that seminal album, which was made just down the road from here in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The meaty thrack of the drums in tandem with the guitars at the start of the opening track, "Six White Horses," makes their intentions clear: They are here to grab you by the collar and to bring you up close. It's a swaggering, Stones-y rocker, with Marty Bohannon adopting his finest I-don't-care sneer. That powerful opener sets the bar high for the rest of the record. For the most part, The Bohannons rise to it." - Natural Awakenings

"When The Bohannons decided it was time to work on a follow-up to their 2008 sophomore release, "Bright White Light," they hit the road for Chicago. That may seem a strange decision for a Southern grunge rock band known for writing songs reflecting their Scenic City origins, but getting out of town was key to getting a new perspective on the music, said vocalist and co-founder Marty Bohannon. "So much of what we do and play is based on where we live and our perspective from inside where we live," he said. "Our motivation was to take it somewhere else and look at our material on a different scale. "That really brought something textural to the songs... really road-testing them and seeing them as an artist outside our comfort zone." " - Chattanooga Times Free Press

"I don't know what's more impressive, the fact that the group seems to have written their own "Take Me To The Speedway" (Dexateens anthem) or that Steve Albini recorded their Days Of Echo EP [buy], the recent release that concludes with "Crown Vic." I love this song, with its coiled tension, angry build, and stinging guitar. Here's hoping the Brohannons use this as a sonic template in the future." - The Adios Lounge

"The Bohannons: Days of Echo Great chemistry doesn’t come easy for a band, but when you hear it, you know. Whether it comes from almost ten years of playing together or familial bonds the brothers at the helm, The Bohannons have it. Their latest release, Days of Echo, is a short but explosive record that showcases the diverse yet perfectly cohesive styles of brothers Marty and Matt Bohannon. Marty’s affinity for punky, raw aggressiveness is both different and seamlessly matched with Matt’s down-home, rootsy rockers." - CityBeat, Belfast

"Very 70's-arena-Southern-rock influenced without sounding too much like Skynyrd or any of the other variants. Good stuff." - Degenerate Press

"i have not run across a record so difficult to pin down or explain than the bohannons’ debut record, days of echo. its not a metal record, but it kinda is, its not a southern rock influenced record, but it kinda is, and its definitely not an alt-country, whatever that is, record, but it kinda is. from what i hear though, they are straight metal, but i am not too sure about that. its like lead singer marty bohannon channels geddy lee fronting some weirder band than rush, minus the bass solos, thank goodness. when brother matt takes over the singing duties is when the alt-country banner is waved, as you can hear in the song provided below. whatever the hell it is, its fuckin awesome. " - Captain's Dead

...the Bohannons boast spit and polish. adept at transporting you to a different time and place, in this instance the heyday of country rock minus the mopey pretensions of its contemporary practitioners." - Time-Out Chicago

Brothers Matt and Marty Bohannon (along with bassist Josh Beaver and drummer Nick Sterchi) have produced ten brutally good and deceptively intricate songs dripping with snaky Southern guitar work, crunchy and crushing rhythms, and tastefully twangy vocal hooks that would make the Black Crowes proud. "
- Bill Colrus, Chattanooga Pulse - Chattanooga Pulse

The Bohannons
Songs for the Disenfranchised
(www.MySpace.com/TheBohannons)



2006 has been a year that's seen a handful of established local acts (Infradig, Leticia Wolf, The Lovell Sisters, The Tennessee Rounders) make marked strides towards the big time. The Bohannons are the latest additions to this list.

Brothers Matt and Marty Bohannon (along with bassist Josh Beaver and drummer Nick Sterchi) have produced ten brutally good and deceptively intricate songs dripping with snaky Southern guitar work, crunchy and crushing rhythms, and tastefully twangy vocal hooks that would make the Drive-By Truckers proud.

-Bill Colrus

- Chattanooga Pulse

This is from a review by Chris Gray of Birmingham, posted on the Drive By Truckers fansite ninebullets.org:



The opening band was a pick-up band of members of the Bohannons and other bands*. They did an acoustic bluegrass / Americana set that I was very impressed with seeing (especially) as they didn't seem to have played together often before. I especially liked a cover of 'Moonshiner' (traditional) that they did on which the banjo player (Cornbread?) was excellent.

It isn't very often that a band wins me over during the course of their set - I usually either love them or hate them immediately - but the Bohannons did just that: the set started off sounding like a disjointed cross between Lou Reed and Modest Mouse with a few country riffs thrown in, but it really came around. They've written a pretty cool set of tunes and they played tight with a ton of energy. The drummer is amazing. I'd like to see them again or catch a CD if they have one out.


- ninebullets.org