Vintage Review: Dave Perkins’ Pistol City Holiness (2009)

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Dave Perkins is, perhaps, best known as one of the creative forces behind the early ‘90s rock band Chagall Guevara. Some may remember him as one of the architects responsible for mid-’90s industrial/alt-rock terrorists Passafist, whereas others may know him as the producer behind such successful CCR bands as the Newsboys. Whether he’s playing guitar behind Jerry Jeff Walker or singing with Amy Grant, Perkins’ talent has always risen to the top.

One of Perkins’ greatest loves has always been the blues, however, and with the release of Pistol City Holiness the artist rediscovers the vibrancy, electricity, and excitement that got him into music in the first place. Influenced and inspired by blues greats like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and blues-rockers like Cream and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Perkins has delivered in Pistol City Holiness a stunning collection of ambitious blues-rock tunes that was almost a decade in the making.  

Dave Perkins’ Pistol City Holiness

Pistol City Holiness opens with a squawk and a holler, the muddy Delta grit oozing from Dave Perkins’ serpentine fretwork, his vocals gruff and supple and soulful all at once. Although the song has inherited the spirit of a hundred juke-joint jams, its underlying funky swagger, metal-edged guitar, and contemporary poor man’s lyrics clearly stamp it as a fine example of 21st century electric blues, the song swinging wilder and harder than a blacksmith’s hammer.

The album’s lone cover, Don Nix’s classic Memphis blues standard “Goin’ Down,” is provided a tune-up under the hood and a fresh coat of paint up top. With roaring, whiskey-soaked vocals driven by Perkins’ brutal six-string assault, T.J. Klay’s rampaging harpwork, and a fine bit of nearly-hidden piano-pounding courtesy of former Double Trouble keyboardist Reece Wynans, Perkins and his manic mechanics hot rod “Goin’ Down” from its turbocharged, flat-track origins into some sort of interstellar, space-ace speed machine.

Hard Luck Men & Long Suffering Woman

Perkins gets down-and-dirty with the powerful “Long Eleven Road,” the song itself a showcase for Klay’s tortured harpwork. With a wiry guitar riff that chases its tale in circles, Perkins’ best black cat moan vocals, and Klay’s timely blasts of soul, the song is a hard luck tale of a factory ghost town where little is left but sin and degradation. With a true Delta vibe that reminds of Son House’s most apocalyptic visions, “Long Eleven Road” is a potent modern American fable of hopelessness and misfortune.

If “Long Eleven Road” is the story of hard luck men and long-suffering women facing another brutal workweek, “Bottles and Knives” is a rollicking and curious mix of Chicago and New Orleans blues music that signals the arrival of the weekend. With the entire band playing helter-skelter, Wynan’s flailing ivories are matched by Perkins’ joyful, ramshackle guitar solos.

Perkins’ humorous lyrics are pure genius – “bottles and knives flyin’ all around this place, we’re gonna leave here darlin’ before I lose my pretty face” – the song’s protagonist claims that his girl ain’t happy goin’ out on Saturday night unless he gets into a fight. It’s 1930s blues jukin’ reality set to music, delivered with reckless abandon (and highly-amped instruments).

The Devil’s Game

Blues guitarist Jimmy Nalls sits in for “Devil’s Game,” the former Sea Level fretburner adding some tasty acoustic notes behind Perkins’ greasy slide guitar runs. The song’s languid pace is deceptively framed by an underlying rhythm that moves at the speed of kudzu growing, blasts of ice-cold sax complimenting the red-hot notes of Klay’s harmonica and Perkins’ flame-thrower guitar. Lyrically, the song is a Southern Gothic dirge of sore temptation and the wages of sin, punishment meted out in an aching limbo that again evokes the blessed ghost of the mighty Son House.

Perkins’ “Preacher Blues” is a blistering, raw blues-rock rave-up with noisy, buzzing rhythms, blustery vocals, and whipsmart lyrics that reference Robert Johnson and his fabled hellhounds. The song is probably also the best showcase on Pistol City Holiness for Perkins’ phenomenal six-string skills, the two-and-a-half-minute rocker virtually humming and crackling with the electricity generated by the guitarist’s rattling leads.

The album closes with the explosive “Mercy in the Morning,” a full-tilt, anarchic, stomp-and-stammer that throws dynamite in the water in the form of scorching guitarwork, darts of gospel-tinged and honky-tonk piano, powerful drumbeats, and shots of machine-gun harp notes that dive-bomb your ears like a horde of angry hornets.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Those of us that have followed Dave Perkins’ lengthy career as sideman, band member, producer, and solo artist have never been surprised by the artist’s immense talent, deep musical knowledge, and ability to perform well in nearly any musical genre. Nothing could prepare the listener for the nuclear-strength fall-out of Pistol City Holiness that cascades from your speakers. Perkins has created a masterpiece that fuses Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues tradition with a hard-rocking, guitar-driven blues-rock sound that fans haven’t heard since Stevie Ray Vaughan burst onto the scene. Although it’s hard to find, go out and beg, borrow, or steal a copy of Pistol City Holiness… (self-produced, released June 2, 2009)