A Nashville artist who is more steeped in the blues and soul than many of his townsfolk, Patrick Sweany gets down and dirty on Ancient Noise, an album which saw him head to Memphis to record in Sam Phillips’ Recording Studios which has been recently refurbished and which is popping up in several sleeve note mentions of late. Produced by Matt Ross-Spang (who helmed Margo Price’s Midwest Farmer’s Daughter) Ancient Noise is steeped in southern styles, raucous blues and swampy rock numbers the deep filling while there’s a delicate dollop of Memphis country adding some sweetness to the whole.

Sweany lurches into the album with the gutbucket kick of Old Time Ways, an evil sounding swelter of slide guitars before diving even deeper into the Devil’s music with the growling Up and Down where he sounds as if Howling Wolf’s spirit was inhabiting Tom Wait’s larynx while the guitars and percussion clatter around like a pneumatic drill let loose inside a scrap yard. A thrilling start to the album.

There’s a brief respite as Sweany allows piano player Charles Hodges (Al Green’s go to keyboard man) to lead the band on Country Loving, a song on which Sweany mines seams previously explored by the likes of Dan Penn and Donny Fritts. This more delicate side of Sweany is further explored in the shimmering slow burn of Steady where the guitars quietly fizz away like distant fireworks as he sings of the ties which unite his relationships. However the pull of the Memphis mojo drags him back into swampy waters for the remainder of the album. No Way No How is a brilliantly muddy foray into syncopated southern rock a la Alan Toussaint or Little Feat and its repeated on the slinky grooves of Cry of Amédé, a song based on a true tale of a Creole musician beaten up by a vigilante mob after a white woman loaned him a handkerchief to mop his brow. Get Along hits a more soulful groove with Hodges’ fluid organ keys burbling over a propulsive beat with Sweany’s vocals  supplemented by some gospel harmonies and Play Around is reminiscent of sixties Brill building pop forays into southern soul culture.

Ancient Noise is perhaps Sweany’s most rounded album so far and is heartily recommended.

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Nashville based Patrick Sweany first came to Blabber’n’Smoke’s attention in 2013 with his album Close To The Floor, a fine collection of swampy blues and soul songs with some edge to them. Some of that edge was due to recent family bereavements, Sweany sounding angry and defiant. Two years down the line and he’s recently domiciled, settling into a new home with his wife and with the resultant music portraying a man who is more content with life, still digging the blues but with a skip in his step.

Sweany describes Daytime Turned To Nighttime as his “grown up record” and it does sound as if he’s a man who’s comfortable in his own skin. While recording the album he was also busy renovating his new home while listening to classic Southern sounds, Lee Dorsey, Bobby Charles, Bobbie Gentry; his choice of rhythm section here (Ron Eoff, bass and Bryan Owings, drums) reflects this, the pair having a pedigree including Tony Joe White, Levon Helm and Solomon Burke. With Sweany and producer Joe McMahon on guitars, Tyson Rogers on keys and Alexis Saski and Laura Mayo offering some sublime vocal swoops the album is a syrupy trip through the delta with some snarly rustbucket kicks thrown in for good effect.

There are ten songs here and all deserve attention. Sweany opens with the blue collar First Of The Week which recalls Bobby Bland and then heads into the acoustic blues swagger of Tiger Pride which struts like prime Taj Mahal. The loose limbed slow rolling feel is maintained on the following Here To Stay (Rock + Roll), tasty guitar licks over a slipping and sliding rhythm conjuring up a back porch cook out, the band playing and the pork slowly melting. The heart of the album however is a brace of slow burning numbers that gather together influences such as Gospel, New Orleans strut and Southern rock. Sweethearts Together is slowed down to a coma pace, wonderfully sluggish, barely perceptible flourishes from guitar and keyboards fluttering briefly. Afraid Of You sweeps in with a glowering majesty, guitars swooping and keening around a determined acoustic guitar motif in a manner reminiscent of the Allman’s Midnight Rider while Nothing Happened At All is stone cold Southern rock, fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd should tune into this.

Throughout the album Sweany’s voice is draped in the sweat of classic soul singers and he excels on the wonderful Too Many Hours which captures the classic meeting of sacred and secular which is at the heart of great soul music and for those who might long for his more rough hewn blues persona there’s a really dirty howling Wolf type workout on Back Home. Here Sweany delivers in buckets, fiery and feisty, howling at the moon.

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