Eddie 9V

Down Here

Easy Eye Sound

A jack of all trades is a master of… all, in the case of Eddie 9V. On his fifth studio album Down Here, the Atlanta singer and guitarist blends original, Southern-styled, 1950s to 70s vintage, blues, soul, rockabilly, and gospel with similarly old-fashioned but Northern-rooted rock, funk, soul, R&B, and even disco. Born Brooks Mason Kelly, this firecracker of a performer became Eddie 9V during his earlier blues-band-in-a-van days when he and his crew would kid each other with mobster names. But listening to him here, the name 9V screams transistor radio. But it goes beyond that, all the way to a modern vibe, courtesy of producer Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, a man with a unique ear for current demand and retro perfection.

 Eddie 9V wrote all but two of these widely assorted gems with premier songwriters Daniel Tashian, Marcus King, Pat McLaughlin, and Auerbach. The one song he wrote on his own, “Horses,” a masterwork of full-tilt, delicious Philly soul, features him singing in a timbre somewhere between Prince and Teddy Pendergrass. Very, very impressively at that. The lone cover is a surprising take on “Rock Your Baby,” written by Howard Wayne Casey—KC, of KC and the Sunshine Band—and taken to the top of the disco charts worldwide in 1975 by George McCrae. 9V sings it faithfully, and the band—augmented by several rhythm players and background vocalists—plays it ideally, retaining the disco but dirtying it up with Georgia mud and some Allman Brothers-inspired guitar playing. The rhythm players shift throughout the album, but either Nick Movshon or Joe Harrison play bass along with, for the most part, drummer Chris St. Hilaire. What a heck of a job they all do.

The album opening “Whole Lot Coming for You” explodes in a furious guitar fest of rock ‘n roll, in ways like a sped-up rewriting of Don Nix’s classic “Goin’ Down.” Between the relentless rhythm of the song, and 9V and his guests Marcus King and Dustin McCook on guitars cranking out riffs and peeling off lines, it’s an instantaneous attention-grabber. “Blowin’ Up,” next, features the same players locked in a marching, hand clapping, countrified groove that fans of Tedeschi Trucks Band and Larkin Poe will love. Written with King and Auerbach, it’s a sinister tale inside a catchy groove and it’s already landed 9V his first #1 on the Americana chart.

The acoustic guitars at the outset of “It Don’t Bother Me” ring Rod Stewart and the Faces bells before a deep as the Mississippi groove kicks in. “Can I Sleep in Your Backyard” feels like Neil Young and Crazy Horse setting up shop at Atlantic Records, and “Down Here” lopes along casting deep hooks like J.J. Cale fishing with John Fogarty. But those are all just gut feelings. Eddie 9V and the folks he surrounded himself with on Down Here sing and play fantastic original music, originally. The album presents an artist in all his glory. It will be a pivotal one in a career on a steep rise, and should appear on many Best of the Year lists.

Tom Clarke for MAS

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