cadillac sky breaks out their “chemistry set”

“We use our instruments like a chemistry set, playing around and trying to conjure up sounds that create the right atmosphere for each song's lyric,” says lead singer and principal songwriter Bryan Simpson, one-fifth of acoustic quintet Cadillac Sky. The group, about to release their second record on Ricky Skaggs’ Skaggs Family Records, makes what Simpson calls “outlaw acoustic music,” a hybrid of folk rock, traditional roots, bluegrass, and country. The band looks as much to Radiohead and Gnarls Barkley for inspiration as it does to Earl Scruggs or Alison Krauss, admiring the way they’re able to mix, blend, and stand outside of genres to produce quality music.
The songs on Cadillac Sky’s forthcoming record, ‘Gravity’s Our Enemy,’ embody this ideal. Take for example a song like “My Precious Waltz/I Hate How Happy She Is.” It begins with long mournful notes on the violin and some truly fine whistling, sounding almost like Andrew Bird or gypsy-punkers DeVotchKa, before the blazing banjo-picking suddenly kicks in and lead singer Bryan Simpson begins heaping scorn on an ex-lover. “Why can’t she be as miserable as me?” he wonders, before the song breaks down again into some spare, spooky sounds. Other tracks mix country and ska, or bluegrass and Radiohead-style chord progressions to continue to surprise even a listener who expects surprises.
More than anything, ‘Gravity’s Our Enemy’ is a complete record. In a world where most albums only have a few tracks that demand repeated listening, this is a record that will reward the listeners’ ear from start to finish. It’s a true headphone album, with tiny hidden touches that reveal themselves the more often, and the more carefully, it’s heard.
Don’t take our word for it. Let us know if you’d like a copy of the CD, and in the meantime check out some YouTube clips of Cadillac Sky doing their thing -
The video for Cadillac Sky’s “Born Lonesome” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXrblHqXod8
Live footage of the band covering Green Day’s “Basketcase”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH809EjEnx0
For more information on Cadillac Sky, please contact Nick Baily [ nbaily@shorefire.com ] or Chris Chafin [cchafin@shorefire.com] at Shore Fire Media, 718-522-7171