Rock 'N' Review

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕪𝕡𝕤𝕪 𝕂𝕚𝕕 - 𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕧𝕖

“𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸, 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀, 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗰 … 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁”

Out of Southern Mississippi, I wanted to highlight TGK Band’s new record this week. A little rock, a little blues, a little psychedelic in presentation, Cody is doing something a little different, and I like it enough to bring to your attention today. Cody grew up watching his father on stage, was given his first guitar at the age of 11, and by 13 was performing on his own. In his early twenties he decided to move to Mississippi from New York, but on the way found himself stranded in Nashville. What should have been a Grey Hound layover turned into a 3 month struggle on the street. Playing there he met a guy named Barry. Barry was an old blues harmonica player and when Cody told him is name, Barry replied, “No, you are The Gypsy kid my friend.” From there, with the help of his guitar and some friends Cody played his way on to Mississippi. Interesting story for sure, but what is it about this music that has me banging on my keyboard here this morning? Glad I asked, lets get into it.

I listened to this record at least 10 times before going through the written information, and it comes across exactly as what the BIO laid out; a guitar player giving us his music the best way he knows how. What I mean by that is that Cody seems like a guitar player first, with everything else extending from that talent. The lyrics are not overly complicated, the bass and drums are put in there where they need to be, but the focus is on the six string translation of a thought or feeling. Not that he sounds like them, but in that same “guitar first” vein, these songs remind me a lot of how Hendrix, Dylan, and even Petty wrote music.

Before anyone loses their cheese, I am not comparing him to Petty or Hendrix here, the guitar styles are completely different, but the lyrical style is similar to my ear. For example, songs like 𝗗𝗼𝗴 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀, 𝗠𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗮, and 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘃𝗲 all sound like tunes that Jimi or maybe Dylan could have penned. The way Cody sings them just has my mind wandering in that direction. Of course, about the time I think I have him pegged, 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲 comes on and he goes in a completely different psychedelic direction. I would put 𝗡𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗹𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗮, in that psychedelic group as well, but as an instrumental I did begin to skip over it after awhile. Nothing against this song personally, I think I have recorded that idiosyncrasy in myself several times through the years, but I’ve never been a fan of instrumentals for some reason. 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸 pulls back and forth between all these styles, with the harmonica specifically giving me the Petty vibe. All in all, I don’t make comparisons to these artists very often, so if you are a fan of any of them, you might want to check this record out.

So there you have it, there’s a new guitar slinger running around South Mississippi, and if you’re not careful he might just pull you in. Several catchy tunes on this record, lots of dynamic string work, my only question is can he do it live? He plays and recorded most of the instruments himself on this record, which is a nod to his natural musicianship, but that can often make live shows sketchy. Trying to bring in hired guns all the time doesn’t always translate the same in my experience. Luckily I am in and around that area a lot, so the chances of me finding him on stage increase with every trip across the state line. Is this record a perfect 5 out of 5 horns? I dunno, probably not. It would be hard for me to rate it that high given what that means to me. A 5 means everything is as perfect as it could be right? Is this bass playing perfect? Are these drums as good as they can be? I’m not sure they are. Ideally, I would like for Cody to put together a full band, and give someone who focuses just on bass a chance to add to this music, someone who plays drums a chance to expand on it, etc. That being said, it is still pretty damn good for a self produced album, and I want to give him credit simply because he did do it all himself, practically willing this music into existence, so I wouldn’t go below 3.5, and maybe even up close to 4, and that is where I will make my stand.