Born & Bred is your source for music emanating from the hills of West Virginia. We are excited to showcase the enormous and diverse talent that has been bred here. Check out new releases from Philip Bowen, The Grey Agents and Monstalung with Power Forward.
Listen to all of the amazing West Virginia Music on our Spotify Playlist and Apple Playlist.
Philip Bowen released his full length album “Appalachia Forever” today. He has trickled much of this project out as singles over the course of this year but it’s now available as a complete project featuring an unreleased track “Bulldog.” This album perfectly encapsulates who Philip is. Fantastic lyrics, great musicianship and friendship, as indicated by the multiple collaborations, is who he is. This is a perfect album to usher in this fall weather. Listen to “Bulldog” below.
The Grey Agents released a new EP today entitled “Grey Matter Revival.” “We recorded it in Brian’s studio. We worked for about 1 to 4 hours per song over 3 recording sessions. We’d knock ideas back and forth and eat some pizza,” said lead singer Phil Wyatt. Of the process, bassist John Anderson Farmer said, “The whole band played together, at the same time for every song. It was very much live in the studio. It’s more fun that way.” Davin Seamon plays piano and organ. “We tried different arrangements and tempos. No click tracks. No tricks. The only overdubs were my organ and some vocals. It’s high octane rock and roll record done the old fashioned way.” On playing it together, drummer Bob Workman said, “We have a better vibe when we all play at the same time. The ideas flow instantly and the songs morph into sounding like The Grey Agents. There’s a lot of passion and fire in the playing and interaction.” Guitarist Brian Cottrill said, “The band had great ideas for these songs and we kept changing things until we felt the song was as good as it could be. The songs are mostly about love and breaking up. Three of the songs are breakup songs. There is always a lot of residual pain that you don’t forget from breakups. One is a pure love song. And one is about how we need somebody to blame for our problems in life.” Listen to “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing” below.
Monstalung and Power Forward, a band comprised of Andrew Tuck, Tudore, Vashon Page and Danny Davis have dropped their first single “Vampire Love.” On his socials Monstalung said, “Before I started working with the band Power Forward I would go watch them play, and they always played an instrumental song of theirs called Transylvania, and I was always drawn to it. So when we started to work together, I knew I wanted to write something for that track, and this is that song.” Listen to it below.
