“There was a time when there were no petty distinctions among country music, rock ’n’ roll and blues, and the 484 South Band does what it can to get those paths to meet up again on 21 Miles of Bad Road. “Love Me” opens up like a hog on a long stretch of open highway with just enough rockabilly swing and grit to make you thankful that you wore your dancing boots. “I Drown” is a blistering Southern rock showdown. “Southern Angel” feels like a wistful power ballad.
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“Baton Rouge Tonight” perhaps oversells our fair city’s charms a bit, but I’m with them in sentiment. Ours is a place with a great bar-band tradition, and yet those bands tend to tidy things up too much in the studio. 484 South gets the balance right.
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“All Night Long” shakes the beer sign off the walls of this record, while “Life Worth Living” could accompany a cinematic breakup montage. “Fades” sounds like that Neil Young song you forgot all about until it came on the radio.
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21 Miles of Bad Road won’t take you to any new country rock territory, but like that 2 a.m. autopilot, it might get you back home. ”
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Recommended if you like: Drive-By Truckers, Zac Brown Band, the sound of parking lot gravel under a pickup tire
Essential tracks: “Southern Angel,” “I Drown,” “Fades”
– Alex V. Cook, 225 Magazine
“The album (21 Miles Of Bad Road) is as straightforwardly Southern rock as it gets – they are not flashy, and they do not kid around. Don’t expect anything but honesty, and all the unfettered trappings that come along with it.” – Entertainment Editor, DIG Magazine 2012
“The 484 South Band is barreling down the back roads of righteousness, preaching the verses of the artists who inspired them to make real music—and, of course, a dash of south Mississippi hell raising for good measure.” – Natalie Long, Jackson Free Press
“In the sweltering heat of the Mississippi Delta many fine artists have played in the juke joints that dotted the landscape in years past and those roots grow deep in the heart of The 484 South Band. From the beginning, with the scratchy record sounds and the preacher-esque vocal in the intro one is reminded of the roots of this band. Straight forward and the devil be damned, 484 delivers solid, no flash southern rock and country flavored rock and roll.
This is not formula radio music that is delivered in the same package artist after artist. No, this is where the blood flows from the murdered blues players, from the long gone country honky-tonkers and the long haired southern rockers of the early 1970′s into the 484 South band members.
This is grits with eggs and butter with salt and pepper that is the flavor of 484 South Band. Like sitting back on the front porch picking with friends, drinking a bit of moonshine and
playing everything from Robert Johnson to Hank Williams to Jimi Hendrix and a bit of
whatever they can throw in between.”
– Portions of a review by Vernon Tart of PURESOUTHERNROCK.COM
“From the jump, The 484 South Band turns over like that beat-up old pickup, that almost-paid-for Harley, that refurbished hotrod—whatever classic vehicle you have parked outside the roadhouse of the soul. Mississippi Nights is packed with four-on-the-floor bar rock that has one boot in country music, one hand in biker rock and a line of shots up at the bar. The road and the little stops along the way comprise their song titles: “Lost Highway,” “Crystal Springs,” “Baton Rouge” and even “The Road.” The latter is one of the album’s plaintive ballads, strummed out like the beer and truck commercials in your mind. The band is, however, at its best when it hits the gas. “See Me” seems to bounce at you right off the walls on bike night. “Mississippi” would sound great blaring off a party barge jambox. “Baton Rouge” is a Skynyrd-like lurching blues and funk number that drops into gear with the chorus, “Get the hell out of Baton Rouge.” Whether the sentiment expressed there is ironic or not depends on how good a night you’re having at the bar.”
Essential Tracks: “Lost Highway” “Mississippi” “Baton Rouge”
– Alex V. Cook, 225 MAGAZINE
BOOKING CONTACT: 484 SOUTH MUSIC, LLC … david@484southband.com
