David Nance & Mowed Sound

David Nance has worked hard to earn his reputation as a man with a passion for loose, loud rock & roll, projected through the lens of garage punk and textured with Nances powerful guitar mangling. On albums like 2017s Negative Boogie and 2018s Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, Nances music was raw, raucous, and alive, music for people who value passion over technique. Passion is still Nances greatest priority, but on 2024s David Nance & Mowed Sound, he introduces a new band and shows that theres something to be said for a more careful and dynamic approach. Nance seems to have discovered the pleasures of 70s country rock, and this set of songs is dominated by an understated, rootsy twang and a feel thats laid-back but sharply focused at the same time. The acoustic guitars, electric piano, and vocal harmonies on "Tumbleweeds" make for a mildly trippy campfire singalong, even as a plaintive cry of guitar feedback lurks in the background. "Credit Line" is a taut exercise in country funk thats made to order for a Saturday night, and "Cure vs. Disease" is a swampy number that would have done J.J. Cale proud. The very pleasant surprise is that Nance and his bandmates -- guitarist James Schroeder, bassist Derrick Higgins, and drummer Kevin Donahue, with some extra guests sitting in -- slip into this music with an easy authority, more languid but no less emotionally engaged than his more raucous efforts, and the spare acoustic closer, "In Orlando," leaves no doubt that Nance can do heartache at 3 A.M. every bit as well as he can summon a wall of fuzzy mania. Its anyones guess if David Nance & Mowed Sound represents a new direction for the frontman or just a detour on the way back to wilder things, but if his goal was to show he had some cards up his sleeve we hadnt seen before, he succeeds brilliantly. ~ Mark Deming