The Shooting Gallery

Not much is black and white in The Shooting Gallery's world. It's more blood red and purple bruises, with a little amber left over at the bottom of a shot glass. And that hole in your chest? It's where your heart used to be.

"Dark and Bloody Ground" mixes anger and regret with cantankerous rock 'n' roll and hard country. It all comes together in John Ashley's open wound of a voice; he sings as if every wrong has been done to him at least twice.

At its best, this strong debut references viciously drunk Jerry Lee Lewis, the Stones' decadent period, a little Stooges and late-1950s country. The material gets a little weak in places, especially on the straight country stuff, but when everything clicks, this is a vibrant, scary ride.

Jeffrey Lee Puckett – Courier-Journal Critic http://www.louisvillescene.com/music/music.html
- Courier-Journal - Louisville KY

The Shooting Gallery would be the perfect opening band in the "Rawhide" scene of "The Blues Brothers." As the rip through their Cow Punk style of their debut album, Dark and Bloody Ground, you can almost smell the cigarette smoke and see the chicken wire.

These local boys are not easily categorized, but fit most comfortably in Alt Country. They follow the trail of Johnny Cash's storytelling on songs like "Hell to Pay" and "Defrost," and the wonderful "Tiny Incisions" has the flow and twang of vintage George Jones.

The music is appropriately distorted and loose and singer John Ashley's voice has that whiskey-marinated quality that adds to the atmosphere. At times you may wish Ashley was a little closer to the right notes, but after a few listens through the CD you won't notice or won't care.

A few songs on "Dark and Bloody Ground" stray in other directions, like the driving instrumental "Ohio River Sludge" or the frantic blues of "Northbound Train." But the Shooting Gallery most hit the mark when dealing songs of rebels, loners and scorned love and they are usually right on target.

By Kory Wilcoxson http://www.louisvillemusic.com/lmn/lmhdr.php?thisid=3&thisstory=2026 - Louisville Music News

Rock This Town

http://www.velocityweekly.com/2004/1208/sound/rock_town.html - Velocity Weekly

http://www.velocityweekly.com/2004/0616/sound/movies.html - Velocity eekly

There are no neutral colors in Kentucky. Positioned as it is, adjacent to the somnolent Midwest and the hard-luck Appalachians, yet very much a part of the South, it's a crossroads of cultures, and inevitably a crossroads of conflict: the sun may be — probably is — shining, but just the same, you're standing on dark and bloody ground.

The Shooting Gallery, an alt-country outfit from Louisville, knows all this stuff. Dark and Bloody Ground, the band's independently-released CD, fuses the blackest, bleakest mountain themes to spirited rockin' country backgrounds, tales of people you'd like to know more about, but you probably shouldn't approach too closely if you know what's good for you. "Harlan," set in that coal-mining county in southeastern Kentucky, explains the milieu:

Where the devil had cursed the land
And the company owned his soul
He had all that he could stand
Of digging in a deep black hole
Down in Harlan, bloody Harlan

Under conditions like these, the strongest and bravest of us might snap, and those of us who don't think of ourselves as especially strong or remarkably brave, which is most of us, feel for these characters, even as we wait for the retribution, divine or otherwise, we know is coming.
This particular musical river has been fed by many tributaries, some well-known, some less so. I hear traces of Neil Young and the Band, of Merle Haggard and Lefty Frizzell, and, perhaps unexpectedly, U2; while there's no The Edge-like signature guitar sound per se, John Ashley's vocals dance around the periphery of the notes, sometimes hitting them square, sometimes grazing the corners, like Bono soaked in George Dickel. "Northbound Train," written by guitarist Brent Thurman, evokes Jerry Lee Lewis at the end of his rope.

Of course, you should run right out and get this CD, and assume the risks that come with these twelve tracks. I'm not saying that this is a dangerous collection, that you're jeopardizing your immortal soul merely by possessing it. But late at night with the shades drawn and one too many drinks — well, there's a reason that the last name in "Thanks to...” after all the friends and well-wishers and equipment suppliers, is Ed Gein. Dark and bloody, indeed.
www.dustbury.com - Dustbury.com

Dark and Bloody Ground - The Shooting Gallery

Just like Donnie and Marie Osmond, the Shooting Gallery is a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n' roll.

On "Dark and Bloody Ground," the band recruits some of Louisville's finest roots rock talent, including Ian Thomas (Satchel's Pawn Shop), Steve Ferguson (NRBQ), Catherine Irwin (Freakwater) and Wink O'Bannon (Bodeco), to create a solid and swinging debut record.

From start to finish, "Dark and Bloody Ground," toes the line of country rock, never quite descending into campy backwoods stomps that mar other Americana records.

The full swagger of honky tonk bravado shines through on "The Desert Song," in which John Ashley sings, "I drank my share of straight Kentucky bourbon/Never paid no mind to a preacher's sermon," over an acoustic shuffler.

Ashley's vocals run the spectrum from warm and reserved on the soft lamentation "The Cross She Wears" to a full-throttle whiskey roar on "Northbound Train."

By Joshua Hammann - Velocity Weekly, Louisville, KY
http://www.velocityweekly.com/2004/0331/sound/music.html - Velocity Weekly - Louisville, KY