The Great Book of John
Birmingham, Alabama, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
The Great Book of John just keeps getting bigger and better?—?recently named one of the “12 Alabama bands you should listen to now” by Paste Magazine?—?and reader votes suggest they deserve it. With a mellow and layered sound, the band’s latest single “Dark Star” is an exciting glimpse into their upcoming album, set for release this fall. - Birmingham Magazine/al.com
Hometown: Birmingham
Members: Taylor Shaw, Chip Kilpatrick, Alex Mitchell, Bekah Fox
Current Album: The Great Book of John (2011)
The Great Book of John takes its name from the Hank Williams song, “Angel of Death.” Shaw began writing and performing as The Great Book of John while still in Wild Sweet Orange, an indie-rock outfit whose achievements included a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman and opening slots for Guster and the Counting Crows. The band’s self-titled album was produced by Jeffery Cain of Remy Zero and Grammy Award-winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, Outkast). For the band’s forthcoming album, they enlisted the help of Paul Logus (Jimmy Page, P. Diddy, Public Enemy). The band’s lush, layered sounds will satisfy fans of indie and experimental rock. - Paste
Hometown: Birmingham
Members: Taylor Shaw, Chip Kilpatrick, Alex Mitchell, Bekah Fox
Current Album: The Great Book of John (2011)
The Great Book of John takes its name from the Hank Williams song, “Angel of Death.” Shaw began writing and performing as The Great Book of John while still in Wild Sweet Orange, an indie-rock outfit whose achievements included a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman and opening slots for Guster and the Counting Crows. The band’s self-titled album was produced by Jeffery Cain of Remy Zero and Grammy Award-winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, Outkast). For the band’s forthcoming album, they enlisted the help of Paul Logus (Jimmy Page, P. Diddy, Public Enemy). The band’s lush, layered sounds will satisfy fans of indie and experimental rock. - Paste
Have you ever wondered what Radiohead might sound like if they were a country-rock outfit? Now, sure, Wilco has already been called the American Radiohead, thanks in no large part to the experimental and sonically challenging Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but they have nothing on Birmingham, Alabama’s the Great Book of John – a band that takes the paranoia and widescreen open spaces of the British group and pushes it directly and convincingly into straight Americana. On this, their self-titled album, the Great Book of John’s Taylor Shaw vocalizes and swoops to the same transcendent heights of Thom Yorke, and it is an absolute beauty to behold. However, the group also brings stellar songs to the table and crafts them into huge sheets of sound, working with Grammy Award winning engineer Darrell Thorp, who has, yes, done time in the trenches with Radiohead. With such comparisons being bandied about, you would think that the Great Book of John is merely a knock-off, a sound-alike, but this album showcases a band that has absorbed a main influence and has fused it with the rarefied sound of old-time country music and, this might sound like a boast, has crafted an album that is just about as engaging as Radiohead’s high water mark, OK Computer. Simply put, The Great Book of John is a stunning record, one without a weak track in sight, and is one of the most consistently enjoyable albums to reach these ears in quite some time. The Great Book of John is unrelentingly stark and brilliant in equal measure, and you simply just cannot. get. enough. of. it.
It’s hard to examine individual tracks when an album as a whole is a unified cohesive statement such as this, but there are a few things worth pointing out. Album opener “Robin Hood” sounds like “Creep” put through an alt.country filter and simply rocks out. Follow-up “Brown Frown” takes the glitchy aspects of OK Computer and creates something melodic and spacious. “Let Me Slide” is a fuzzed up version of “How to Disappear Completely”. However, there are also sonic detours that deviate from the Radiohead sound. “Wise Blood”, an acoustic guitar number with swooping strings recorded on the first take that seemingly cribs its title from a Flannery O’Connor novel, ventures into Johnny Cash territory, with an absolutely striking image in its opening lines “This wedding is a funeral / With the maids parading around in rags / We all stared at the bride ‘til the moon grew full / And her friends were drunk but not enough to laugh.” Meanwhile, “On and On” feels like it could have been put on that seminal Wilco album mentioned above. And while “Ashes over Manhattan” rubs a little close in title to a certain Wilco song, it encapsulates a feeling of suspicion and claustrophobia that reeks over this album. In short, The Great Book of John is a staggeringly vital record, one that I would hope gets tongues wagging in music critic circles when it comes time to select the best records of the year. It might be an album out on a small label, but it’s scope and ambition deserves laurels of the highest order. Essential listening for anyone with even a casual interest in either Wilco or Radiohead. - Popmatters
Have you ever wondered what Radiohead might sound like if they were a country-rock outfit? Now, sure, Wilco has already been called the American Radiohead, thanks in no large part to the experimental and sonically challenging Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but they have nothing on Birmingham, Alabama’s the Great Book of John – a band that takes the paranoia and widescreen open spaces of the British group and pushes it directly and convincingly into straight Americana. On this, their self-titled album, the Great Book of John’s Taylor Shaw vocalizes and swoops to the same transcendent heights of Thom Yorke, and it is an absolute beauty to behold. However, the group also brings stellar songs to the table and crafts them into huge sheets of sound, working with Grammy Award winning engineer Darrell Thorp, who has, yes, done time in the trenches with Radiohead. With such comparisons being bandied about, you would think that the Great Book of John is merely a knock-off, a sound-alike, but this album showcases a band that has absorbed a main influence and has fused it with the rarefied sound of old-time country music and, this might sound like a boast, has crafted an album that is just about as engaging as Radiohead’s high water mark, OK Computer. Simply put, The Great Book of John is a stunning record, one without a weak track in sight, and is one of the most consistently enjoyable albums to reach these ears in quite some time. The Great Book of John is unrelentingly stark and brilliant in equal measure, and you simply just cannot. get. enough. of. it.
It’s hard to examine individual tracks when an album as a whole is a unified cohesive statement such as this, but there are a few things worth pointing out. Album opener “Robin Hood” sounds like “Creep” put through an alt.country filter and simply rocks out. Follow-up “Brown Frown” takes the glitchy aspects of OK Computer and creates something melodic and spacious. “Let Me Slide” is a fuzzed up version of “How to Disappear Completely”. However, there are also sonic detours that deviate from the Radiohead sound. “Wise Blood”, an acoustic guitar number with swooping strings recorded on the first take that seemingly cribs its title from a Flannery O’Connor novel, ventures into Johnny Cash territory, with an absolutely striking image in its opening lines “This wedding is a funeral / With the maids parading around in rags / We all stared at the bride ‘til the moon grew full / And her friends were drunk but not enough to laugh.” Meanwhile, “On and On” feels like it could have been put on that seminal Wilco album mentioned above. And while “Ashes over Manhattan” rubs a little close in title to a certain Wilco song, it encapsulates a feeling of suspicion and claustrophobia that reeks over this album. In short, The Great Book of John is a staggeringly vital record, one that I would hope gets tongues wagging in music critic circles when it comes time to select the best records of the year. It might be an album out on a small label, but it’s scope and ambition deserves laurels of the highest order. Essential listening for anyone with even a casual interest in either Wilco or Radiohead. - Popmatters
Discography
Yves' Blues {album}
Let Me Slide {viny /digitall single}
Never Tear Us Apart (INXS Cover) {digital single}
The Great Book of John (s/t) {album}
Dark Star {digital single}
Photos
Bio
The Great Book of John is a Birmingham, Alabama original who has been firmly rooted in their citys scene and the music community at large for many years now. They approach 2013 with the release of a new album which plays spotlight to their continuous evolution as a band. There music is eminently lyrical recalling Jeff Buckleys psychedelic soul, Leonard Cohens poetic (and lacerating) wordplay, and fiery fretwork influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughn and David Gilmour as much as it is by Radiohead. Those may seem like big names to drop, but this is big music emotional, filmic, but never pandering. Led by Taylor Shaw, from whom the songs almost ceaselessly flow, The Great Book of John is very much a band and a formidable one at that. Independently involved in music since their childhoods they have also worked together on projects in the past (including Birminghams late great Wild Sweet Orange). With vocalist Bekah Fox, bassist Alex Mitchell, and drummer Chip Kilpatrick they can conjure the sublime in any setting with or without electricity.
The bands debut album, Yves Blues, was a largely acoustic affair recorded in one long session. Their second full length, The Great Book of John, was a deeply-layered production brimming with amplified crunch and a thick, somnambulant atmosphere, provided in part by musician / producer Jeffery Cain (Remy Zero, Sanders Bohlke, Dead Snares) and Grammy Award winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, Outkast).
This years yet-to-be-released work boasts of the bands ability to lay it all down with all that they have. They were recorded by the great Paul Logus (Jimmy Page, P Diddy, Public Enemy) at Premiere Studios in Manhattan, during a 14 hour live session. Each song renders a feeling of dependence the members have developed on one another. Though the essence of the songs and sheer energy are reminiscent of the deep layerings from the last album, this album showcases the raw qualities that can best be captured when a band is recorded live. It is in these tracks the listener can experience what The Great Book of John brings to every live performance which often has new comers leaving as dedicated fans.
A single from the album, Dark Star, is available on iTunes. It is truly a glimpse into the direction this band is journeying. A small taste of what will come out later this year. It is heavy music, seemingly unbearable, but laden with hope.
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