Okay, here’s what you do: Go download Hell and Half of Georgia’s self-titled album, play it through once, then set it aside and go do something else.
Now, come back and listen again.
The first thing you’ll notice is that you’ve gotten adjusted to the raggedness of Sean Fahlen’s voice and can now hear the sweet center of it. The second thing you’ll notice is that the band’s simple and friendly melodies have already lodged themselves in your brain. These are the best kind of country songs, made of heart and backed by solid musicianship. These songs feel like they belong inside a barn that has been cleared for a dance or at an old gas station during a rest stop on a long roadtrip through the dusty Southwest. When you listen to these songs, you feel like you’re listening to good friends play. And you can practically feel the sun of the band’s homestate of California shining down on your skin (which is very helpful as I sit next to a Cleveland window through which I can see several inches of Ohio snow – thanks, boys).
Hell and Half of Georgia – made up of Sean Fahlen, Kevin Burwick, Mike Troolines, Charlie Breneman and Captain Ed Brady – don’t have a label and, at the time of this writing, they are preparing to play their first show. But they are not new to the world of music-making, and, as Fahlen puts it, “we gots our fill of chasing any music dreams”. HaHoG began as a two-man (Fahlen and Burwick) project that they ended up liking so much that they decided to turn it into a full-fledged band, just for the love of the music and sharing the music. “[W]e just wanna play some songs,” says Fahlen, “tour round th southwest in a 88 chevy van with no radio, drink some whiskey nd make new friends along th way.” They back up this philosophy by offering their album for free to anyone who wants to download it. “[W]e are putting our music out for this moment here, you diggin it and sharing your feedback with us and anyone else that you want to share something you like with.”
“Sharing and connecting” could be a rally cry for HaHoG, putting them in good company with NTSIB favorites the Felice Brothers and A.A. Bondy. They will put in their time with websites and Facebook pages because they know these tools are a useful means to an end, but what they want most is to “connect person to person when we can”. In an unrelated conversation, Fahlen said, “[S]ometimes runnin round th country playin music pays off. [N]ot literally pays rent that is, but pays off one way er another…”
Hell and Half of Georgia – Bellingham
Hell and Half of Georgia – California
Hell and Half of Georgia Official Site (Scroll down for free download of their album)
Hell and Half of Georgia on Facebook
