William Russell Wallace’s essence is a timeless concoction that is a rare balance of vocal execution and harmonically driven rock and roll in its most raw form. With a throwback Americana style that sounds as if The Jayhawks jammed with Patti Smith, Wallace hoots, toots, and struts with a contagious abandon. Fans of new soul revival artists like Low Cut Connie and Ron Gallo will find something to adhere to on Wallace’s new album Confidence Man.
This set lights up like kindling drenched in gasoline. The instruments are bright, the music well-produced, the voice is a pit bull with a groove that is rock music as it should be in 2021. Stuffy Shmitt (vocals/acoustic guitars, National Steel guitar) has lots of musical pulp on his varied short masterpieces.
His core band is producer Chris Tench (electric & acoustic guitars /xylophone/piano/tubular bells/xylophone/glockenspiel), Parker Hawkins (electric+upright+fretless basses/vocals) & Dave Colella (drums/percussion).
On the 11-cut, 49-minute CD (already available), Stuff Happens (Realistic Records) was recorded in Nashville, TN. The songs have personality, wit, expressiveness & are ballsy.
One of my most played albums of the year, STUFF HAPPENS, from the idiosyncratic Stuffy Shmitt featured in our review section back in February of this year. It made an immediate impact, to say the least, with its stockpile of raging rockers alongside smooth ballads, which found the author digging into the memory vaults and recalling incidents and characters from his explosive past.
Settled and reinvigorated in East Nashville, following a near self-destructive existence in New York, Stuffy hooked up with producer Brett Ryan Stewart and multi-instrumentalist Chris Tench to record the album at Stewart’s studio in Franklin, Tennessee. What also followed were some striking videos to promote a number of the songs, filmed by the talented husband and wife duo Ahana Kaye and Iraki Gabriel.
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Hailing from Long Beach, California, Manuel the Band blurs the lines between rock, pop, and jam music, creating a warm, wide-ranging sound that’s every bit as diverse as the group’s Southern California stomping grounds.
Rooted in the savvy songwriting of frontman Manuel Grajeda, it’s a sound that makes room for electric guitar, pedal steel, a two-piece horn section, and deep-set rhythms. A sound that aims not only for the head and the heart, but also for the dancing shoes. Nowhere does that sound pack a bigger punch than on 2021’s Things That Can’t Be Seen, whose songs of love, loss, and personal growth find Manuel the Band putting a personal spin on the universal experiences we all share. Some of these experiences can’t be seen… but they can be heard, turning this album into a soundtrack for the ups and downs of modern-day relationships.
“Initially, we were going to do a six-song EP,” explains pedal steel guitarist George Madrid, who previously joined his bandmates on Manuel the Band’s debut, Room for Complication, in 2019. “Then we just kept recording. Manuel wasn’t going to stop writing songs, and we all wanted to keep going.”
Created during a time of global uncertainty and isolation, Things That Can’t Be Seen celebrates the joy of coming together, sharing the workload, and creating something that’s bigger than oneself. On “Without Me,” the band builds its way toward a radio-ready chorus, with all six members — Grajeda, Madrid, saxophonist Matt Kalin, trombonist Richard Fernandez, bassist Kevin Nowacki, and drummer Charlesworth — stacking their instruments into thick, lush layers. “Watch it Burn” swirls up an atmospheric cloud of brass, synth bass, and fiery guitar leads, while tracks like “Love But Don’t Need You” and “Post College” veer closer to Americana than alternative rock, thanks to a combination of vocal harmonies, acoustic arpeggios, and ambient percussion. Co-produced by the band and recorded at Jazzcats Studio, Things That Can’t Be Seen casts a wide net, finding room for electrified riffs, acoustic interludes, pop hooks, and multi-genre influences. If that doesn’t sound like anything else that’s blanketing the FM airwaves these days… well, that’s sort of the point.
“I’m a fan of Young the Giant, John Mayer, Kings of Leon, Dave Matthews Band, and Dispatch,” says Grajeda, who pursued a solo career in Long Beach before forming the band in 2017. “George plays pedal steel, which is a country instrument, but also works with a lot of jazz artists. Our drummer, Brandon, is a big fan of bands that blend lo-fi hip-hop with rock, like Gorillaz. We listen to it all.”
That wide range of inspiration has helped distinguish Manuel the Band from other contemporary rock acts. All six members bring their own influences to the table, resulting in a multi-layered sonic stomp that’s made the group one of SoCal’s go-to live acts.
Manuel the Band’s shows have already become the stuff of local legend, earning rave reviews from Music Connection Magazine (“the band is able to successfully transition from alternative rock and blues rock and funk and jazz so smoothly”), OC Weekly (“a very danceable and soulful blend unlike anyone else who ever shares a bill with them”), and Coachella Valley Weekly (“Manuel the Band’s shows are something you could take your parents to, or your kids to, and everyone would love it”). The group’s first release, Room for Complication, was even financed by the prize money awarded to Manuel the Band as winners of Battle of the Bands competition, proof that the group’s stage show and studio efforts have always gone hand in hand.
Even so, Things That Can’t Be Seen proudly stands on its own. This is the product of six musicians who’ve learned to celebrate the very things that set them apart. It’s wide-ranging music with a central message, delivered with determination, drive, and the daring to be different.
“Long Beach’s Manuel the Band are not your average rock band.” – Dead Press
“A very danceable and soulful blend unlike anyone else who ever shares a bill with them.” – OC Weekly
“The band is able to successfully transition from alternative rock and blues rock and funk and jazz so smoothly.” – Music Connection
“Manuel the Band’s shows are something you could take your parents to, or your kids to, and everyone would love it.” – Coachella Valley Weekly
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Spitting and quivering his narrators’ insecurities into the mic, William Russell Wallace’s new album, Confidence Man conjures the desperation of down-and-out reprobates and the sound of bar stools scraping the floor mid-brawl. Confidence Man‘s sharp wit, pounding country-rock riffs, and earnestness bely a man fascinated by the gutter but too inward-looking to romanticize it. To hear it from Wallace, his characters often “…think they’re a ‘man’s man’, but are really like ‘come on; love me. Please.’” “ Equal parts Hamilton Leithauser’s theatrical yowl, Patrick Stickles’ growl, and mid-career Tom Petty’s bar-band tunefulness, Wallace has created an album indebted to his musical loves, but with a unique narrative style entirely his own. Having served for a time as Tim Barry’s touring bassist, it’s no wonder that Wallace is able to capture a similarly spirited energy throughout.
Coming on the heels of his critically acclaimed album Dirty Soul, Confidence Man is set to find its place in the musical landscape through its infectious melodies and thoughtful craftsmanship. Each song gleefully shreds Americana’s more refined aspects and replaces them with punk and keen-eyed satire, giving his protagonists the tendency to shiver and shake, to fight, weep, and bleed. In fact, Wallace himself might say it best in “Just a Little Joy (But It’s a Real Big Deal)” when he sings, “Because these are desperate times/You’re looking at a desperate man.” Indeed, his true gift lies in his marriage of this gravitas with humor, never growing heavy-handed or allowing his jokes to go on for too long. Under the auspices of titles like “Mormon Cocaine” and “Roanoke (Resolution Blues),” Wallace’s rakish protagonists may break bottles or hearts, but they do so with a self-awareness that underscores the singer’s understanding of what is human and breakable in all of us.
Other tracks, like chugging rocker “Fire Season,” combine a knack for melody without losing any of the album’s raucousness– a delicate balance rarely accomplished outside of indie-folk greats like Wilco or The Old 97’s at their most wirey. The album itself concludes with a poignant and enigmatic cover of The Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason,” suggesting what The Velvet Underground may have sounded like if Mark Knopfler had been their guitarist and they recorded in a beautiful underwater soundscape.
Bouncing between Ohio and California, the album was recorded with a variety of different rhythm sections and helping hands. A self-proclaimed student of Tom Petty’s ouvre, these songs drip with the sleaze of Petty’s drawl and rollick with the playfulness and buoyancy of Bruce Springsteen’s pre-Born to Run output. Opener “Recklessly” has Wallace intoning with mic-throttling intensity the story of a protagonist’s gluttonous reckoning, all set to raw, craggy guitars – the sound of pain itself being exercised. On the aforementioned “Just a Little Joy…” Wallace even curates the musical equivalent of the song’s melancholy lyrics as the organ dances playfully before its melody swells with sadness. Songs like these serve to highlight that he is not only a gifted storyteller, but also a masterful band leader, orchestrating and imbuing each song with the same sense of dejected revelry as his characters.
Confidence Man serves to join the long line of albums by Alex Cameron, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, and Tom Petty in detailing the inner and outer lives of those we deem “low-life.” However, unlike, say, Randy Newman, Wallace’s fascination comes from a deep concern for his characters and their human wreckage.
“William Russell Wallace crafts the kind of hard-hitting, poetically nuanced songs that immediately invite you into his world.” – The Vinyl District
“This is a golden comeback album… Lilting, bittersweet, handsome and precocious folk rock.” – East Portland Blog
“Wallace implements a sparse acoustic guitar and his world-weary voice to provide a heart-rending portrait of the beauty of a new beginning informed by deep pain.” – Impose Magazine