Search - Jason Loughlin :: Peach Crate

Jason Loughlin's creative guitar playing has supported artists such as Amos Lee, Rachael Yamagata, James Burton, Lesley Gore, Nellie McKay, and Mike Viola. With the release of his debut album, Peach Crate, Loughlin steps out of the sideman role to prove that he is a formidable front man in his own right.  Drawing upon the rich musical roots the moods and memories of his childhood days in Florida, Loughlin s debut record pays homage to many of his guitar heroes-players like Jimmy Bryant, Hank Garland, Danny Gatton and Les Paul and to the days when the guitar records they made reigned supreme on the airwaves. Throughout Peach Crate, you can hear the sounds of the old rural South and almost see the scenes of swampland and beaches, horse farms and dirt roads, drifting through as the record spins.

Each track on the album conjures moods through carefully crafted compositions.  The title track, 'Peach Crate,' which features Loughlin on lap steel guitar, cascades effortlessly like a breeze through an orchard. When 'Whoopsie Daisy' kicks in, there's no doubt this is a showpiece, complete with an orchestrated solo that pays tribute to Les Paul's multi-tracking prowess.  The record invokes a surprising range of moods and landscapes, none more than 'Steep Grade.'  This lumbering Truckerbilly tune sounds like ghost-driven semi rolling down Route 66. Humor and darkness are battling it out on Peach Crate for our benefit.

''The vibe always comes first; the guitar playing is secondary to that. Everything is in service to a certain mood,'' Loughlin says about his writing of this record, which happened over breaks between touring and recording. Appearing with Loughlin on the album are drummer Stephen Chopek (Charlie Hunter, John Mayer), upright bassist Jason Hogue and pedal steel player Rich Hinman (Rosanne Cash, Ben Kweller).

Loughlin has founded Big Pop Records, on which Peach Crate will be the first release. ''I'm excited for Big Pop Records to become a home for many more instrumental guitar records like Peach Crate. I want to recreate the era when guitar records were popular, when there was a lot of humor in music and people were writing great instrumental tunes,'' he says.   And that goes for the artwork as well--the Peach Crate cover, for example, could easily be mistaken for an old guitar record from the fifties. The name for the label comes from Loughlin's great-great grandfather, ''Big Pop'' Bowes, who was a friend and hunting buddy of Buffalo Bill.  Using an old portrait of Bowes, Loughlin created the label s logo, a mustachioed man in profile sporting a 10-gallon hat.  In an age when musicians have to wear multiple hats in order to survive, often finding themselves on their own playing the many parts needed to produce and promote a record, it is, perhaps, no bad thing to have an old cowboy riding the range alongside you.

Peach Crate is a wonderful reminder of what a record could be. Light-hearted, erie but most importantly an escape to some undefinable place. If Peach Crate is a sign of things to come from Jason Loughlin then we are in for a wonderful journey.