CMT Blog: Archive

In a nearly empty venue in Nashville late on Monday night (Dec. 1), a disheveled looking group of men set up their well-worn instruments. A dusty electronic fiddle, a bass that refused to quit feeding back, a guitar, banjo, ukulele and what appeared to be part of a drum kit. Singer-guitarist Greg Jamie offered a toast to the band, then stepped up to the microphone and said in his deceivingly calm way, "Thanks for staying." That was the last calm thing that happened. The band was O'Death, and their mix of Appalachian, punk and hard rock influenced music was an exciting thing to experience.

Jumping all over the stage, energy was the key word of the night. Once the band hit their stride, they almost looked deranged. Playing new material from Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin and familiar stuff from Head Home, Jamie's vocals were nowhere near his reserved speaking manner. He had a powerful and lonesome sounding bluegrass whine that could give way to a guttural scream at a moment's notice, but those outbursts were never hard to listen to. They felt necessary, and to be honest, I think we all wanted to scream with him.

But it wasn't all thrashing, and it wasn't the musical cacophony that you might expect. The eerie sounding melodies were easy to sway along with, while the banjo and fiddle were some of the most expressive that I've heard in a long while. The furious but controlled drum and bass performance made me want to tap dance like Jesco White -- or to start a mosh pit. As for combining those two qualities, O'Death stands alone.