As JB And The Moonshine Band are on the rise, with singles playing on satellite radio and their third full length album due to release on June 30, 2015, it isn’t a huge surprise to fans country wide. In just six years since the band formation, they’ve already put out two albums and are gearing up for performing their 1000th show this year, averaging 175 live performances a year. The blood, sweat, and tears shed to this point are on full display with their release of ‘Mixtape.’
1.) ‘Shotgun, Rifle, and a .45’
Impression: The album begins with a powerful, blue collar anthem, and the first single released off the album. JB And The Moonshine Band strongly declare their stance on constitutional rights in this upbeat song, with an incredibly catchy chorus line, and layers upon layers of guitar riffs and musical talent.
Favorite Lyric: When will this country wake up and see, will we watch over our freedom, or will we just watch more TV…
2.) ‘You Can’t Take My Backroads’
Impression: Another catchy track, this song embraces everything right and good about growing up in a nowhere town. From catching fish on the bridge and prom night, this track describes every high and low of growing up on the backroads before the eventual loss and transformation to an interstate highway.
Favorite Lyric: Back when I was just a kid they’d take me out past range road bridge, I’d drop a line and be catching fish all day…
3.) ‘Mixtape’
Impression: This song instantly has the qualities of everything you look for in a title track of an album. It has the ability to bring smiles and laughs at the artists listed in the lyrics, but not without describing the highs and lows of a relationship through song titles, from peak highs of George Strait ‘Check Yes or No’ references to ‘The Thunder Rolls’ by Garth Brooks.
Favorite Lyric: I’d play all your favorite songs, from Gun N’ Roses, Haggard, Jones, to Chris Ledoux, If I made my mixtape for you…
4.) ‘How Can I Miss You’
Impression: This song really sent the album in a different direction, every bit and piece of this song screams vintage Randy Travis, from the crying violin, the low guitar picking, and the moving lap steel guitar. They found a way to blend contemporary music with classic melody’s and ran with it. The song has a more sinister wording than most classic love songs, leaving a man to wonder what he can do to end such a terrible relationship.
Favorite Lyric: You’re there every morning, you darken my day, Baby how can I miss you if you won’t go away…
5.) ‘Light It Up’
Impression: In choosing an album title, ‘Mixtape‘ was the perfect choice, in the fact that every song had a different sound, almost like a new band on every track, and ‘Light It Up’ was no different. Where they tended to model classic musicians prior, this song seems to be modeled after high octane southern rock groups of the past and present, screaming guitar solos bring this party anthem to full swing.
Favorite Lyric: Let’s pray for peace and let the good times roll, watch me blow smoke rings like I’m Navajo…
6.) ‘Close Enough To Heaven’
Impression: A fast paced and upbeat song, this track describes the love between a man and a woman, and the feeling of heaven on earth being together. The catchy guitar picking really brings the song together, and is sure to be a windows down sing-a-long.
Favorite Lyric: I see the light, and this is close enough to heaven tonight…
7.) ‘Wagon’
Impression: This is another song that begins sounding like a hard rock or Lynyrd Skynyrd song of the past. A bar room anthem about smoking, drinking, and other activities that one might consider giving up, this is easily the catchiest song on the album, and it’s bound for success.
Favorite Lyric: Its been a long time since this shot glass was in my hand, But I ain’t forgot how whiskey understands…
8.) ‘Keep A Couple Beers Cold’
Impression: What would a country album be without a song describing a painful heartbreak, and what pairs better with that than a few cold beers? This song is about a guy holding on to the good times, and hoping she might realize her mistakes to join him for a cold beer like the past, a song nearly everybody in the country could find something in to relate to.
Favorite Lyric: I’ve lost faith in happiness a time or two, nothing’s ever made much sense til I found you…
9.) ‘Good Lord’s Grace’
Impression: Another different sounding song than contemporary country, with a backround laced with an incredible fiddle groove, and a low pitched twangy guitar picker over the top through the opening versus, with an incredibly Merle Haggard style sound. This is a song for all of the fun loving, partying folks out there who seem to always have somebody looking over them.
Favorite Lyric: I still drink a lot of beer, and I still raise a lot of hell, I still check in every weekend at the county jail…
10.) ‘Mess Outta Me’
Impression: This song describes the struggle of leaving an unhealthy relationship, something everybody can listen to and relate with. With such strong subject matter, the band doesn’t lack in musical talent, the real winner being the steel guitar, being put on showcase more than any other point on the album.
Favorite Lyric: When I first met you I was kind, but somewhere that changed along the line…
11.) ‘Where’s Woody Guthrie’
Impression: This song is a tribute to legendary singer-songwriters over time, not only Woody Guthrie, but also Johnny Cash and John Lennon- the type of musicians who broke barriers, musically and lyrically, and the need for more like them in the world today.
Favorite Lyric: Where’s Johnny Cash when you need him, to be the man in black…
12.) ‘Back When We Were Kids’
Impression: Once again bringing a different sound to the album, this song begins somewhat like a classic bluegrass picking song, only a fiddle and guitar playing along. This song describes every in and out, every high and low of the younger days, and the lessons learned and applied today from those times.
Favorite Lyric: I drove fast, and rode hard, I broke rules, bones and hearts…
13.) ‘Shotgun, Rifle, and a .45 (Remix)’
Impression: A remix of the opening track of the album, but with a new twist. A seemingly more of a hip-hop beat in the backround, a few voice distortions, and synthetic shotgun blasts in the backround turn this working class anthem into something that could easily be played at every BBQ and tailgate from shore to shore.
Favorite Lyric: I’ve got a shotgun, a rifle, and a .45, and you can’t take that away…
This album is one that can be put in a car stereo and left for months at a time. There are so many different twists and turns, highs and lows, that no matter how many times you listen, there is always something new to hear. JB and the Moonshine Band really went out to prove that a band doesn’t need to settle into one specific sound or style of country music to make a hit album, and on release date, June 30th hits, fans across the country will agree.
You can pre-order ‘Mixtape‘ on iTunes here.
You can follow JB and the Moonshine Band on Twitter, Facebook, and their official website.
