Sound Biscuit Records has shared a debut track from one of their latest signees, a new group made up of familiar faces called The Bays Mountain Cut-Ups.
Three of them, Ben Watlington on guitar, Colton Powers on banjo, and Max Etling on bass, came up with Seth Mulder in the initial version of Midnight Run that popped up a decade ago. Joining them in the new group is the talented mandolinist and singer, Josh Gooding.
Their first release is a moving anthem from an unexpected source. It’s 1916, a song originally recorded by British rockers Motörhead, written by their lead vocalist and bassist, Lemmy Kilmister. The lyrics depict the brutality and death that was WWI, in particular the Battle of the Somme in France, which involved trench warfare over the course of more than three months in the summer of 1916. More than a million men were lost in the battle, almost 20,000 in the first few hours, between the German aggressors and the English and French allied forces combined.
1916 tells the story from the point of view of a 16-year-old recruit, bright-eyed and full of patriotic enthusiasm, thrown into the meat grinder of battle, and how his perspective on war changed in the face of seeing his comrades die one after another.
Sung here by Powers, with harmony vocal support from Etling and Watlington, the Cut-Ups turn this keyboard-heavy rock ballad into a powerful traditional-sounding bluegrass number, played at a quick, three-quarter time pace.
Quite an auspicious debut. Check it out.
1916 by The Bay Mountain Cut-Ups is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct or Get It Played.
