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Stubborn Son: They Call It Rock

StubbornSon

Stubborn Son just wants to speak to its audience—as loudly as possible

Stubborn Son creates powerful, bonerattling music that strips rock down to its basic elements. The trio—guitarist/vocalist Garrett Lamp, drummer Blair Daly and vocalist/bassist Andrew Knapp—makes a fierce, bluesy squall that marries clusters of gritty power chords, pummeling bass lines and blockbuster drumming to the music’s primal roots in the Mississippi Delta.

“We don’t play the blues in a traditional sense,” says Lamp. “We’re just trying to speak of what we know to be true in a way that resonates with who we are. That said, we do draw more influences from the swampy, dirty tones of the Delta, for sure. We gravitate toward the rhythm and overall soul of a song, rather than Chicago-style electric blues.”

The music the band plays on debut Birthright merges Delta, British and West Coast styles into tight, concise nuggets that are long on propulsive grooves and short on lengthy guitar excursions. “You can say a lot with a little in music,” says Lamp. “When we decide to put solos in our songs, we want to make sure they’re to the point and not meandering. Since we were recording on (analog) tape, we didn’t have the option to do unlimited takes and overdubs. Tracking live to tape, you can really capture the energy present in a performance.”

Onstage, the band builds a communal rapport with its fans. “We want to share something unique with our audience,” says Lamp. “What we think and what we feel, in a way that is more like a conversation and less like us talking at them. But we do play rock ‘n’ roll music, so this isn’t a quiet conversation. It’s more like an upbeat, outspoken catharsis, with a few jokes and an overall outlook that everything is going to be all right.”

—j.poet