Much of the greatest country music happens in the bars on Saturday night and the church on Sunday morning, and few people working today embody that spirit like dirty old one man band Scott H. Biram. On Nothin' But Blood, Biram fluctuates wildly between the extremes of the whiskey bottle and the baptismal river, bathing in the glorious history of southern blues while driving his rusty hooks into it to drag it forward.
Whether he's channeling the ghost of Howlin' Wolf on "Backdoor Man," blasting his way through the sludge-metal bluegrass of "Around the Bend" or reliving the past of a Vietnam vet in the acoustic "Nam Weed," Biram is relentless with his emotions, channeling everything through a battered Gibson hollow-body. Even his haunting, lonely rendition of the gospel standard "Amazing Grace" brims with Biram's signature grit. He's lovable when he's singing about sinning and sinister when he's calling to Jesus for saving. Nothin' But Blood is religious music for people who are too drunk and high to give a damn what God may think.
(Bloodshot)Whether he's channeling the ghost of Howlin' Wolf on "Backdoor Man," blasting his way through the sludge-metal bluegrass of "Around the Bend" or reliving the past of a Vietnam vet in the acoustic "Nam Weed," Biram is relentless with his emotions, channeling everything through a battered Gibson hollow-body. Even his haunting, lonely rendition of the gospel standard "Amazing Grace" brims with Biram's signature grit. He's lovable when he's singing about sinning and sinister when he's calling to Jesus for saving. Nothin' But Blood is religious music for people who are too drunk and high to give a damn what God may think.
