guhoasdifdoadueaobh <- DVORAK keyboard smash
ROY! ROOOOY! ROY!
New Tupelo Honey this morning!
Guess who the new vocalist is!
HINT: We've seen him sing live before.
Tupelo Honey was one of the opening bands when Roy and I went to see Shinedown live in Vancouver (Incura was the other band) circa June 2009. This concert? Was worth the cost of tickets just to watch the two opening bands. They had such stage presence and energy that the main act was a downright disappointment. A main act we had driven over 8 hours to see, part of it on a narrow gravel road 50 feet up from a river; epic story for later.
Anyways!
Of the two awesome opening acts, Tupelo Honey made the best longterm impression. Their lead vocalist had the most amazing and unique voice, their lead guitarist (and back up vocalist) possessed an incredible stage energy.
(Side note: The guitarist, Dan Davidson, also bears a similarity to
Dillon of Best Before Death fame; Roy spent much of the night amused at how Dillon-esque he looked and, to an extent, acted.)
Immediately, we acquired all available LPs from Tupelo Honey. Since Dan was our absolute favourite part of the show, Roy snared his autograph.
Only his.
(Another amusing story for later is how the lead vocalist reacted to being ignored by her.)
Dan Davidson was the core of the band's energy, in my opinion. When he was the one I kept noticing on stage, despite the sheer power and presence of the lead's voice, it confirmed it. He also handles a lot of the band's e-activities (in email he was adorable; I am fairly certain he is the online voice for a lot of the Facebook and Twitter material). I would drive a long distance to see him perform and I would do so multiple times. We had even planned to see a live show in June or July of this year.
We couldn't though.
Early this year, they announced that the lead vocalist was parting ways with the band. This? Was SAD. I mean, as much as I love Dan's contributions to Tupelo Honey, Matt Landry (lead) has the kind of vocals that feel utterly irreplacable. The voice is the surface presence of the band - what catches most people's attention and gets them to notice the rest - so cue the trepidation about how or who they would find to replace him.
Things went silent, then a sneaky campaign to announce that they had a replacement vocalist without mentioning who it was.
Until this morning. They released their new single this morning.
Lead vocals?
Dan Davidson!
The single is free for download on their site (link above) and I have been listening to it for about an hour now. Dan is no Matt Landry, but no one can be. However, I am excited to see him stepping up to fill those shoes. And you know what? He's not bad at all. I haven't felt that this wasn't Tupealo Honey even once.
It feels like a new branch, a new direction for the band.
(The more I listen to it, the more I enjoy the new vocals. And the core of the music, the amazing guitar and mix between that, bass, and percussion? That is still strong in the music.)
I will acquire their new albuw, to see how it continues. But now? I am kind of excited to see what they will bring to the music.
IN SHORT! Anyone here pinged by rock? Go
download their new single! And consider picking up their LPs. Ping me or YouTube them for a sample of the music with Matt Landry.
(L-LOL. The new single is kind of working for Thomas post-spoiler with spoiler.)