If memory serves, this was the last or second to last session we here at Daytrotter recorded without a window unit air conditioning system cut into the studio’s wall. Our new good buddies Oakley Hall – driving from Lansing, Mich., and canceling a show in Madison, Wisc., to record with us – were dressed in a wide assortment of summer wear to beat the heat this day. There were sailor(ish) shorts, Capri pants and cut-off jean shorts with white denim tassels hanging onto hairy legs. And there were sandals, many sandals. As much as you don’t want to believe it, so many of your favorite rock persons spend the majority of their days in shorts and sandals. That much is becoming clear to us. Everyone was panting and in different states of exhaustion, but kicking through, like bullet train’s whistle, was the Brooklyn, N.Y., band’s unquestionable grasp on raucous southern rock, hayrack ride-y country roots rock and pleasant demeanors, which must lead to great table manners. The difficult task is ever determining anything concrete about this band that is part hippie jam band, part Merle Haggard, part stoner, part Nashvillian Fleetwood Mac and all delicacy. For this six-piece band that has recently been touring the country with Calexico and C anadians The Constantines (the two bands are rumored to do some mean collaborations of Neil Young songs), the recording tactics were striped back a little to give a better indication of the best way to consume these songs – some unreleased and some from their two just-released full-length albums. Should we compare Oakley Hall to the apple fruit (our resident artist, Mr. Johnnie “Quiet Bears” Cluney already did), we buck popular opinion that plucking one from the tree and eating it immediately is unhealthy. Oakley Hall should be heard dirty and dusty, not shined or waxed. – Sean Moeller

Song 1: All The Way Down (Oakley Hall) [4.48MB] [3389 downloads]


– unreleased
Could be the song that bassist Jesse Barnes solidifies most of the four tracks done here in Rock Island. It very well could be a dead heat with “Lazy Susan,” but he makes the song gravitational, the deep dripping of his guitar makes you forget that Rachel Cox is singing her dress off over there.

Song 2: Lazy Susan (Oakley Hall) [5.27MB] [4152 downloads]


– original version appears on “Gypsum Strings” on Brah Records
Poor Susan. Like Benedict Arnold, this fateful historical figure is now synonymous with something negative. She’s no traitor, willing to give West Point up to the British, but she is forever known as the person who wanted an easier way than a cupboard to get to her saltine crackers and jelly jars. On a personal note, my Lazy Susan’s not very functional.

Song 3: Light of My Love (Oakley Hall) [3.40MB] [3077 downloads]


– original version appears on “Second Guessing”
Try as you sure well might you will not shake the force of this chorus. It’s an analysis of a lover not taking the love seriously and it’s a premonition that there will be heartarche and yet the music seems to suggest that the wronged party will keep his or her posture. The heartache still sounds like the sunbeam that the love started out as. This is how the greatest country band – Alabama – would sound if they were indie rock and roll.

Song 4: Old and Gone (Oakley Hall) [3.92MB] [3168 downloads]


– unreleased
Preach Rachel, “I’d jump in the water no matter how cold it was.” The sick breakdown at the 2-minutes, 25-second mark will make you want to air organ. It’s evil.

Purchase Oakley Hall music at: Insound