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Eddy Smith & The 507 have developed the sort of authenticity in their sound that should take a band years to achieve. With their earthy and rooted Americana sound, the group are readymade for a number of smokey dive bars and honky-tonks in the city. Yet what makes them a jewel in the whiskey-stained rough is their songwriting, it's sentiment and adventurousness too persuasive to not dive deep into.
Smith himself belts out the sort of vocal that stops you in your tracks, the 60-a-day husk of a Marcus King or Nathanial Rateliff that sounds like it burns the back of the throat. Across a simmering roots number like 'It Don't Feel Too Much Like Livin'', Smith shreds and exasperates, hooked on not letting this existential crisis make itself at home, while across 'A Little Too Late' he yearns for something already out of his hands - time past and a love lost. He embraces it all with a spiritual maturity, painting his pictures with experience and nurturing the songs out of observance. 'Down To The River' balances faith and hedonism, a washing of sins that's rolled right back in shortly after but is totally worth the moment of clarity and solace. In a live setting it positively aches out of him, Smith scrunched and rasping as he teeters over the keys - the gritty sort of performance that would be the perfect ending to a summer's day after one too many cold ones.
With the band set for an appearance next month at the digital-exclusive AmericanaFest, it's the most suitable opportunity in the near future to catch the group before everyone has their hands on them. But be sure that, when we do finally get to see them live in their prime, it'll be something well worth the wait for.
