Family Worship Center

Family Worship Center are a rock n’ roll band. In a traditional sense, you know, with overdriven tube amps and swaggering bravado, with whiskey dripping beards and cigarette stained fingernails, bad attitudes and hearts of gold. The kind of band you could imagine living on some destitute farm, or a rundown warehouse in the historic part of any major city. Places they’ve lived, shared, attacked one another, and engaged in furious bear hugs. Places where they’ve created a unique home for themselves and their sound, where they don’t quite belong, but have always been welcome.

Their debut EP is a rock n’ roll record. Again, think traditional. You can hear the sweat, the dirty middle fingers on rusted guitar-strings and pounding pianos. The horns rave up like The Band, singer/songwriter Andrew Krissberg testifies like the Boss, and the whole affair never sounds hopelessly retro; there’s no trying to sound anyway other than what comes natural, and the LP storms and swears in no uncertain terms, utterly sure of itself.

Recorded in Nashville, TN engineered and mixed by Grammy Award-winner Eddie Spear, who has engineered for Jack White and recorded many well-known acts with Nashville mega- producer Dave Cobb.  Personel includes Ron Eoff (bass) who played with both Levon Helm and The Band, Robbie Crowell (keys,sax) mostly known for his years with Deer Tick, and now one of Music City’s most sought-after players.  Rising Americana star Kashena Sampson and Nashville legend Jonell Mosser (she was in a band with Ringo) sang backing vocals.  To round it out, a six-piece Nashville horn section, perhaps more cake than icing, was arranged by Trey Pollard of Richmond, Virginia’s Spacebomb Records, who has composed for many artists including genre-bending band Foxygen.

FWC doesn’t make music for the self-consciously cool. They don’t do it for the money, nor are they opposed to being showered with it. They don’t do it for any other reason than joy, the kind of joy derived from those American ideals of Truth, Freedom and Volume. It won’t help to read more much about it, so perhaps it’s time to put the needle on the record. Don’t say I didn’t ask nice.  Afterall, it’s about time you joined a cult anyhow.