Paul Luc's 'Bad Seed' is an alt-country gem (stream it)
Pittsburgh’s Paul Luc grew up listening to punk, and as an adult he started playing folk and country music but never lost the spirit for raw, underground-minded music. His third solo album, Bad Seed, comes out this week (2/9) (pre-order).
As Paul told us, “I didn’t want to make a record with the conveyor belt approach where you add parts session-by-session. I wanted to get people in a room, roll the tape, and capture what was happening in the moment.” Those people included Jefferson Crow and Laur Joamets (who were both in Sturgill Simpson’s band for A Sailor’s Guide to Earth) and Paul Griffith (who played on Jason Isbell’s Southeastern), and like those Sturgill and Isbell albums, Bad Seed finds the middle ground between country and indie rock, and should appeal to fans of both. (The album also features bassist Cameron Carrus, backing vocalist Leah Blevins, and producer Dave Hidek.) Paul also adds, “I’ve made other records, yet I feel like this is the first addition to my catalog.”
Paul and his band might be rocking out in a communal way, but lyrically, Bad Seed gets personal. “For me, Bad Seed was a number of songs that take a look at myself and where I’ve been, people I’ve been with, and asking whether or not I carried myself the right way,” he told Rolling Stone.
We’re premiering a stream of the album ahead of its release, and we highly recommend checking it out. Paul’s got a great knack for melody, his voice has just the right balance between cleanliness and grit, and there’s some real nice guitar work on this thing. Listen below.
