Brooklyn, NY -- June 2006
photo by Mary Smedes Pike
Justin started playing ragtime and country blues guitar at the age of sixteen after being given a broken Goya with two strings which he played for a week straight till he got it fixed and found that you could do way more with six strings than two. After a few years of playing old songs from the 20s and 30s and living out of shacks and cabins in the country, he discovered such modern music as Palace Brothers and Songs: Ohia and began to appreciate the beauty in simplicity and space he found in that music. By 2002, this sensibility resulted in a record of songs called Sandrock Hilton, named after the trailer that sat on the ridge near his treehouse in the woods in Amesville, Ohio. Justin continued to make and record music in rural settings (barns, shacks, empty farmhouses) and released Traveler's Rest in 2004. After moving to Colorado in 2006, he made Ten Dollar Guitar which, typically, was recorded on dirt roads and fields from the tailgate of his car. After driving down to Guatemala in the winter of 2007 to write and record, Justin got the opportunity to play 15 dates with the Avett Brothers across the country to large audiences and had his first experience playing with a band. In the fall of 2008, a new band fell together naturally in Ashland, Oregon. The group recorded The Love & The Mystery in the summer of 2009 and were on tour in August on the west coast in support of that album.
Recent press:
Friday August 28th 2009
In Living Color: Paleface, Justin Gordon and Homesick Elephant
Paleface showed true rock charisma at his show on Monday night at the Hotel Cafe by refusing to hold back his performance despite a sprained ankle he had sustained at a show several night’s before. Despite the obvious pain, he danced around, shared the duo’s incredibly infectious tunes, and even got the folks at Hotel Cafe singing along with him (which is quite a feat at a place known for holding industry showcases and mellow singer songwriter types). Justin Gordon and the Wrecking Ball proved quite impressive as well. I knew Gordon’s songs from record but was curious to see how they would translate live. Quite well would be the answer and with a bit more of a rocking edge that lended itself perfectly to a spot on version of Neil Young’s “Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere”. I look forward to seeing both of these acts again in the hopefully not-so-distant future.
-www.whenyouawake.com
Discography:
JUST OUT!
The Love & The Mystery (c) 2009
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1. Love & The Mystery (alone)
2. Just Passin' Through Blues
3. Birds On The Wing
4. Royal Crown Cola
5. Chaos Calls The Shots
6. The Institute At 49
7. Sweetlix
8. Kansas
9. Estudio De Un Espejo
10. At Daybreak
11. Fever Dream In A Minor
12. The Wheel (Bottoms Up)
13. Love & The Mystery (together)
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The Love and the Mystery is Justin Gordon's latest record and the first that includes his backing band The Wrecking Ball. In this album Justin delves into a fuller, more electric sound backed by tight harmonies, but still stays true to the themes that powered him as a solo performer. Like his previous albums, the record includes crude yet character-laden tracks and interludes recorded by Justin in motel rooms from Oregon to Guatemala. Only now there is more rock in his roots-rock blend, and a healthy selection of live studio-quality recordings encapsulating the energy and soul of Justin Gordon's new sound. Written after the end of long roads and a long relationship, Justin Gordon's newest offering could be called a “journey of heartbreak”.
Recorded in July 2009 outside of Ashland, Oregon. Featuring Justin on telecaster and banjo, David Hampton on electric bass, piano and organ, and Kyle Coroneos on drums. Bob Evoniuk plays dobro on track 10.
Ten Dollar Guitar (c) 2006
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1. Gasoline
2. Bottomdweller
3. High And Lonesome
4. Staircase To The Sky
5. Goin To Town (See My Baby)
6. Six Eighty One
7. Song For Athens
8. I-70 Hot Springs
9. El Viento
10. Aliens
11. Leon Trotsky Assassination Blues
12. Skedaddle
13. My Dear (Drank All My Beer)
14. Kansas
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Buy on iTunes
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These songs were played using only a ten dollar guitar that was tweaked and overdubbed to make it sound fancy, with the addition of a yard sale snare drum on track 13. Tracks 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 14 were recorded in the taxi from remote locations in Colorado and Utah. The rest was done in the back room.
"Ten Dollar Guitar is full of the best songs you’ve never heard. It’s like a road mix of your favorite artists and albums all ripped and ready to go. It’s rough as a way to be true to its music, but it’s still thought out and refined in its own way.
Asking what genre Ten Dollar Guitar is like asking a rainbow its favorite color. Ten Dollar Guitar is Justin Gordon and a ten dollar guitar. The collaboration of country, folk, blues, and Latin influences is superlative and seamless. You don’t listen to Justin Gordon because you’re in the mood for country or blues. You listen to him because you’re in the mood for Justin Gordon.
The album gets the wheels spinning with ‘Gasoline,’ a witty tune full of country idiom and political persuasion without being preachy. Then he immediately shifts gears with ‘Bottomdweller,’ a virtual lullaby that emphasizes Justin’s songwriting range. Like most Justin Gordon tunes, the themes of the lyrics and rhythms are harmonious. I can’t imagine he’s ever written an unfinished song that just needs lyrics. His lyrics and the music seem to need each other.
The album is peppered with Latin junkets that really help drive an underlying theme. They include ‘Staircase to the Sky,’ ‘El Viento,’ ‘Aliens,’ and the albums masterpiece ‘Leon Trotsky Assassination Blues.’ ‘Staircase’ and ‘Aliens’ are tremendous bouts of storytelling, but Justin’s historical account of a Russian man’s murder in Mexico, told in a southern black blues style puts the multi in multiculturalism, all while Justin works the guitar like a carnival calliope.
The album also has it’s more mellow tunes whose hearts lie much closer to home, wherever Justin’s home might be at the time, and one of the album’s gems is ‘High and Lonesome,’ which says much with no lyrics, and whose simplicity incites cool reflection and nostalgic ease.
The album ends with ‘Kansas,’ and just like the state, it makes sweet beauty out of nothing. One of my favorite lyrics of the album comes from that song. “Now our shocks are sacked out with all of our shit.” You may have never been to Kansas, but if you’ve been young, you’ve been there.
If there is any criticism of the album, it might come from its production. But praise could come from there too. Justin recorded ‘Ten Dollar Guitar’ using a simple audio device and a computer, and did all the overdubs himself. Most of the takes were done from the back of his car on the road, and there was no studio mixdown. Its easy to understand how this recording style could become limiting, but it is hard to argue that this technique gives an antiseptic feel to the music or makes it feel untrue like so many studio produced albums today.
Oh, and did I mention the guitar he used was a ten dollar guitar?
Well if you ask me, I’d say Justin got a hell of a bargain, and if you buy this album, so will you. So pony up."
-www.savingcountrymusic.com
The Trailer Tapes (c) 2004
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1. Leon Trotsky Assassination Blues
2. Hot Tamales (Robert Johnson)
3. Going Down To Georgia
4. Younger Days
5. Pancho's Lament (Tom Waits)
6. Crooked Pine
7. Holocaust Girl
8. Close Quarters
9. Memphis Bound (James Mathus)
10. Winter In Ohio
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Recorded live to drive at Sage and Dave's trailer on the fringe of Ashland, Oregon in single takes around Christmas 2004. Much, much, obliged to Sage Meadows, Dave Hampton and Jef Fretwell.
Travelers Rest (c)2004
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1. Holocaust Girl
2. Firewood
3. Still Blue
4. Close Quarters
5. Truth Or Consequences
6. Suckatash
7. Hypocrite's Plea
8. Traveler's Rest
9. Pocatalico
10. On The Beltway
11. Barnside Shed
12. Indian Springs
13. Farther Along
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"Thoughtful, introspective, musically infectious and, at its best, flat-out brilliant...Travelers Rest is one of the best albums of its kind to come along in recent years. It's all the evidence needed to establish Justin Gordon as, not only an underrated songwriter, but among the region's best."
Troy Gregorino, The Athens Insider, Nov. 25 2004
Sandrock Hilton (c)2002
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1. Going Down To Georgia
2. Hills Of Mexico
3. Sorry Rag
4. Sally Rose
5. Shady Grove
6. Crooked Pine
7. Georgia Camp Meeting
8. Winter In Ohio
9. After You're Gone
10. Drunkard's Lullaby
11. Zipolite Rag
12. Driving Song
13. Shack Song
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"Sandrock Hilton is a can't miss for anyone who appreciates gritty, heartfelt blue-inspired folk writing and singing coupled with satisfying guitar work. I am as confident in recommending Gordon as I have been in recommending any performer to date. He's a legitimate, multi-faceted talent whose work deserves notice."
Troy Gregorino, The Athens Insider, Jan. 29, 2003
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