Album Review: "Scorched Earth Policy" by Brother Dege

Scorched Earth Policy

Few things are better to me than new music.

The subject of today's review has just released an album, or digital mixed tape, that's available for immediate purchase and download.

Brother Dege, aka Dege Legg, has been in the game for a little while now. He's been touring and recording since 2009.

His music was used by Quentin Tarantino for the movie Django Unchained.

Clearly, he's knocking on doors and getting noticed out there. He's described as "Cajun Blues," and I can certainly get behind that. He's a very unusual artist and that's pretty cool.

The current release is a mammoth 19 track undertaking chock full of three kinds of recordings: Studio, Demos, and Field Recordings. He certainly has released a giant pile of music.

Brother Dege aka Dege Legg

Everything I read about Brother Dege spoke about how unique he is and how he does so many things so differently than other artists.

Please bear that in mind as you read the rest of this. His style is described as Cajun Blues. Well, we all know Chicago Blues, Delta Blues, etc, but Cajun? I suppose, it's just on the other side of the Mississippi right?

The music is widely varied on this disc. The slide guitar growls its tones just as well as it plays colorful melodies.

As we're not talking Chicago Electric Blues, don't look for any pentatonic box guitar solos full of feeling and emotion, because they're not here.

All of the power and emotion comes from Brother Dege's vocals and he has both of those qualities in spades.

In terms of blues, there's no one that really vocally compares to this man. He sounds like some modern rock messiah, but a self depreciating one.

It melds with the music so well. 

The vocals sound like beautiful agony over the angry growls of the guitar. The drums click in perfectly to the chords and the moans. 

Interestingly enough, the album is three kinds of recordings and all three have the same impeccable sound quality. If this man can sound this good when he's demoing a song, he may be wasting money recording a second time.

Release: 7/9/14

Genre: Blues

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