Dumb Angel Alert

Dumb Angels are among us.

Yesterday at Bill’s Records in Dallas I caught an in-store performance by John David Kent & the Dumb Angels.  I’ve been hearing Brett Dillon spin the song “My Girl”, from their self-titled album, recently and was curious to see if they were worth the hype and airplay they have been getting. Sure enough, they were.

Seeing them set up the stage for a plugged in set (I love it when bands decide to go that route for an in-store), I noticed that the band members seems to share the scruffy, dingy look of a rock band plucked from the 70′s.  Not really being familiar with their music, I wasn’t sure if this was all an act, put in place to project an image or distraction, instead of focusing on their music.  My concerns were put to rest when they opened with a barn-burning instrumental number that featured the excellent fiddle work of Jason Andrew. Fiddles in “Texas Country”, contrary to what Alabama says, are becoming more and more rare, so it was awesome to see that a young band just getting started out together have that in place. It’s worth noting that John David Kent was a member of the band Radish, which was the project that shot Ben Kweller (who has gone a bit country on us recently) to prominence over a decade ago, so Country music is a bit of a departure compared to the alt-rock sounds that Kent created way-back when. After hearing a few more songs, including the single, “My Girl”, a slightly kicked-up cover of Gram Parsons’ “$1000 Wedding” and a Southern Gospel-tinged number (sorry, I haven’t picked up the album just yet, but obviously I plan to soon enough), I had to reluctantly take off. Definitely look for those guys on the road and look out for more mentions of them here on the Knob!