Sync Weekly
Transcending the label

Moses Tucker just released their debut album.
Dec 21

Moses Tucker debut album touches upon several genres of music. By Shea Stewart

Little Rock — Moses Tucker is not to be confused with Moses Tucker. One is the Little Rock-based real estate firm specializing in commercial real estate. The other is the Gravel Ridge-based power rock trio of John Moses Tucker, Kish Moody and Steve Shatzer.

One Moses Tucker buys and sells real estate; the other Moses Tucker just self-released their debut album For What It’s Worth, 11 tunes for fans of blues rock who enjoy a dash of country and Americana with a dose of guitar theatrics. Moody is the lead singer and lead guitarist for Little Rock-based hard rock band Monoxide Project, and a member of Jacksonville-based rock trio Stereo Down. And on For What It’s Worth, Moody contributes vocals, guitar, bass, three-string cigar box guitar and keyboards while Tucker provides vocals, guitar, mandolin and three-string cigar box guitar. Shatzer rounds out the group on drums, but For What It’s Worth also includes a number of musicians, including the addition of brass on “Magic Woman” and Sydney Halcumb with backup vocals on “Better Man” and “White Trash.” Tucker is the band’s principal songwriter, writing six of the album’s 11 tracks solo and co-writing the rest — except for “The Star-Spangled Banner” — with Moody.

Recorded at House of Melody Recording Studios in Gravel Ridge, the recording studio where Moody and Shatzer are engineers and producers, the 43 minutes run from the three-string cigar box guitar country blues of “My Woman” to the hard rock stomp of “If You Got It.” The album basically asks the question: Do you like Gov’t Mule, The Black Crowes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, country and alternative rock? Well, you’ll appreciate For What It’s Worth. Sure, there are a lot of influences within the album, but no matter the influences within For What It’s Worth — the band boasts a fan has described their sound as “The Cult meets Marshall Tucker Band” — it flows. There’s little jarring as the band transitions from the blazing Southern boogie of “Poor White Trash” to the horn-powered sway of “Magic Woman.” Heck, the album ends with an acoustic version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a version so effortless it’s the direct opposite of Jimi Hendrix’s acid rock version. But it’s the perfect coda. Admittedly, Moses Tucker is less concerned with fitting neatly into genres — Is it Southern rock? Blues rock? Americana? — and more concerned with the sake of the song. Does it always work? The atmospheric rock of “Burn It Down” is a little too close to epic progressive rock territory to truly fit into the sonic landscape of For What It’s Worth.

Still, the album provides a lot more enjoyment than disappointment. “Better Man,” on which Glen Martin provides delicate keyboards, is a storyteller tune of a man who is looking to turn his life around. Incorporating a bluesy guitar weaving itself through the deliberate country beat and straightforward lyrics such as “Baby, when you came to me/Know that you made me see/I can be a better man/You know you helped me find my way/I need to hear you say/You can be a better man,” the tune is simple but heartfelt. No bells, no whistles. Just a rhythm and a story.

“Damn Good Man” is in the vein of Gov’t Mule, jamming Southern rock with a swaggering guitar-fueled rhythm, and “My Woman” sounds like a ’70s David Allen Coe perfect country and western tune. “Dirt” takes on a bluesy grunge sound, similar to Jar of Flies-era Alice in Chains, and “Magic Woman” combines romantic south-of-the-border horns with a ringing, acoustic guitar shuffle. There are enough stand out moments on For What It’s Worth to make the album, a year in the making, a success, and a rich testament of simply what can be called Arkansas rock circa 2010.