Georgia’s Fall Line is a geologic boundary marking the prehistoric shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the border between the state’s upper Piedmont and lower Coastal Plain regions. For the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, it’s also a source of major inspiration and the grounding concept of Fall Line, the band’s first album in over 30 years. Slated for release on Apr. 7 via New West imprint Strolling Bones Records, the album portrays a distinct sense of place that’s rooted by a deep reflection on the relationship between environment and culture.
“It’s not just about history, but also about the people, nature, animals, tastes, smells and the seasonal sonic memories from either end of the Georgia Fall Line seen through the lenses of the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies,” according to the album’s liner notes. “The coast, ancient and otherwise, is where we all grew up.”
Recognizing the Fall Line as a thread that geographically connects the band members—Brant Slay in Columbus, Ben Reynolds from Waynesboro and Alan Cowart of Jacksonville—the album effectively plants itself within this middle ground. Often nicknamed “swamp rock” and “hillbilly blues,” The Mudd Puppies’ twangy, idiosyncratic sound draws on influences of old-school country, garage rock, gospel, blues and even punk. Transporting listeners to another time and place, these swaggering, boot-stomping tunes call to mind red clay, dirt roads and high humidity. Drenched in harmonica and peppered with unusual percussion, the band has retained its Deep Southern Gothic personality, but with a fuller sound and more worldly perspective.
“I jokingly have been referring to our little 30-year hiatus as, ‘We went out on a beer run,’” says Slay. “I guess our music was a bit like a delinquent dad—he went out for a pack of smokes and didn’t come home for 30 years. All kidding aside, music, writing and art have never not been a part of my life.”
After releasing the albums White Dirt (1990) and 8 Track Stomp (1991), both of which were produced by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, the band soon fizzled out, and the members eventually moved on to starting families and developing professional careers. Reynolds worked as a carpenter and hog farmer before landing a job teaching photography at UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, and has continued playing music with various acts, including Workhorses of the Entertainment/Recreational Industry. With degrees in art, forestry and wildlife, Slay has spent nearly two decades with the Georgia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy at the Chattahoochee Fall Line Program.
“The music that I’ve been making has been in the form of conservation real estate and land protection,” says Slay. “In the last two decades, we’ve been successful in protecting a little over 35,000 contiguous acres along the western Fall Line sandhills near Columbus. Our main goal is to restore all of that permanently protected landscape back to its historic fire dependent longleaf pine habitat. I’m pretty proud of that song.”
After taking an initial 20-year hiatus, a reunion was sparked by the band landing one of its songs on the soundtrack to the 2011 film The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham. To navigate around licensing issues with the old label, the band decided to return to John Keane’s studio and re-record the track, changing the title from “Ponky Knot” to “Chickenbone.”
“Pretty hilarious, but not surprising, that John still had that piece of heating duct we used as a drum on the first recording of the song,” says Reynolds. “Just like wood on a guitar, that sheet metal’s tone had sweetened with age. The session at John’s led Brant and me to start bouncing some ideas around. It became obvious to both of us that whatever separated us in the past wasn’t as strong as what connects us.”
The band has continued to receive a trickle of royalties from the movie over the years, but more importantly, that experience creatively re-energized the bandmates and led them to rediscover their love for the Mudd Puppies. Soon, the duo called on their old pal Alan “Lumpy Weed” Cowart to join.
Back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Cowart performed with the Beggar Weeds, a Jacksonville, FL-based act that toured across the country and stopped through Athens a handful of times. During a tour with the Mudd Puppies and Flat Duo Jets, Cowart began sitting in with the Mudd Puppies, which eventually led to additional tours with him on drums.
“I’ve always loved the percussion sounds of Jim ‘Bones’ McKay, the O.G. Mudd Puppies percussionist, and I’ve tried to replicate that sound ever since,” says Cowart. “The combination of trash cans, Charles Chips cans with nails driven in, and any and all assortment of found percussion that Jim used was magical. And although I play a full drum kit live and on the record, I’ve added a rig of galvanized buckets, wood blocks and cowbell, and a creation of my own that Ben Reynolds affectionately dubbed The Earpiercer, which is a film canister filled with BBs and a 13-inch hi hat cymbal attached. Crazy, but effective! So yes, absolutely, the original percussion sound of the early days totally shaped and drove my drum sound on the new record.”
Major advancements and increased accessibility of recording technology over the past three decades has made it possible for the bandmates, who live in three different towns across two different states, to virtually collaborate and take all the time that was necessary to really hone in on the sounds they sought to create. The majority of the album was recorded in Reynolds’ basement studio—all learning as they went along—before the songs were handed to Keane for mixing and mastering. The album also includes contributions from Curtis Crowe, David LaBruyere, William Tonks, Tom Baker and Don Drew.
“Neither the performances nor fidelity are perfect, but I think that suits my own sensibility, as well as the band’s,” says Reynolds. “It’s taken me all these years to stop apologizing for what we do and to recognize our natural approach as a strength.”
The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies will celebrate the release of the new album Fall Line at the 40 Watt Club on Friday, Apr. 7, where the band will also debut a new music video for “9 Volt” directed by Jason Thrasher. Local country western group The Howdies will also perform, in addition to the Beggar Weeds, who are reforming specifically for this special night.
WHO: Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, Beggar Weeds, The Howdies
WHEN: Friday, Apr. 7, 7 p.m. (doors)
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
HOW MUCH: $10
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