Western North Carolina’s Sezessionville Road plays Home Team BBQ’s Live Wire Wednesday
Special to West Of Free Press
Sezessionville Road is an expandable two-piece Americana/Alt Indie/Rock Band from the mountains of Western North Carolina. Their music has tight and intense male/female vocal harmonies sometimes with different complimentary melodies, dirty guitars, and fluid rhythms. DD Clayton and Alpine Eliot Beck view their work as project-oriented, which allows them more freedom in exploring the diversity of musical backgrounds they’ve experienced and love.
Last fall, Sezessionville Road traveled to Genova, Italy, where they recorded 17 songs with drummer and producer Federico Foglia, which was released as four separate EPs quarterly throughout 2018. This particular project focused on their tendency to combine rock with ambient melodies and blacklight folk.
The most profound experience Clayton and Eliot Beck took away from the project was how quickly they were able to reach the “sweet spot” in their sound, despite being together for less than a year. Both claiming it was an honor to connect on so many levels musically and humanly, appreciating the familial bond that emerged over such a short period of time. The band was also accompanied by their photographer/videographer, Tom Farr, whose work is featured on the band’s website as well as in an upcoming Sezessionville Road documentary.
The band’s third project will consist of 22 Americana/Folk songs, returning to their born and bred southern Appalachian roots.
Eliot Beck is a classically trained pianist and singer-songwriter, who hails from a family of musicians; her grandparents toured with Bill Monroe, and participated in a weekly music radio show in Western North Carolina, the predecessor of WNCW. She has toured across the United States with her previous California math-rock based band, Nice Monster, and several other musicians from the mid-west, and both east and west coasts.
Clayton is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and the producer of Sezessionville Road’s first album. He has written, recorded, and produced several albums that span a wide genre of music. He’s also an accomplished Celtic finger-style guitarist, with more than 20 years experience.
Sezessionville Road has been compared to Fleetwood Mac, Mates of State, Gillian Welsh & Dave Rawlings, and Band of Horses, among others.
Instead of being labeled and identified with one particular genre, the duo enjoys the freedom to explore the various musical musings that naturally arise through their songwriting process.
Such eclecticism can be heard with a spin of Sezessionville Road’s first album Light ‘n Shade Brigade: Sound Tranzition Tranzmission. The songs on this album range from heartwarming Americana to rock ‘n’ roll to introspective pop rock to Celtic-style laments to gritty country.
Sezessionville Road plays Wednesday, Nov. 7 at Home Team BBQ, located at 1205 Ashley River Road. For more information, call (843) 225-7427 or visit www.hometeambbq.com
