Gideon Smith and the Dixie Damned-South side of the moon

Small Stone
2008

Former Antiseen roadie and turned vocalist/guitarist Gideon Smith has enlisted a number of musicians to help him create a rather feisty assault on the senses with his new release. It’s a twisted blend of fuzzy, hard hitting early 70’s hard rock, twangy 70’s Southern Rock and some random doses of punk energy. The diversity in styles and the overall busy sound makes you feel like a lot is being thrown at you all at once. They know how to milk it as they get a lot of mileage out of almost every little bit they squeeze out. At times they come across sounding like a cross between the Doors, Zeppelin, early ZZtop and the Allman Brothers only woven together and blasted at full volume. Once they get a song moving it just rolls and that’s the major strength here. They can take their influences and blast with them and their timing is strong on the faster tracks. The downside is that the writing just isn’t as competent on the slower tracks. The cracks in the armor begin to show when they slow down because they just are not creating enough to pull off these types of songs. The other problem is that the vocals are very limited in range. They work alright on the fast songs, but on the slower tracks it just drones on like someone doing a poor Jim Morrison imitation. Fortunately the ideas and the fuzzy, pumped up rock flows enough to keep this album afloat.

http://www.myspace.com/gideonsmiththedixiedamned