Brake & Turn by Dusty Nickels

Zev Hardman is singing country without the twang. It is rock music with boom chicka boom chicka boom. The little musical influences come out as you sit back and listen. Does he know he sounds like Lou Reed on track four? Did he get back from a religious service and sit down and write track eight?

This Dusty Nickels thing is an Indian head. It's solid silver, the one with a buffalo on the back. Old time stuff you find in your Grandpa's drawer. Piano on some tracks, playing big chords, good bass lines that keep your head moving, and Zev that doesn't follow the mid eighties rock formula for vocals. Instead of trying to sing as high as he can, Zev almost talks it through in a low voice while the guitar is playing happy rythms. The drumming is strong and everyone comes together to sound like they know how to make music sound right. -Jon Rolston, Master Crafstman

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Dusty Nickels, fronted by Zev Hardman, mixes country rhythms with a rock 'n' roll sensibility to create songs perfect to get drunk by - sad around the edges, sure, but putting on a happy face. -Glen Starkey, New Times

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Brake & Turn is the debut album from Dusty Nickels. At first listen you may think this is the perfect "on the road" album, but by the time you get through it 3-4 times you come to realize its true calling. Zev Hardman (lead singer/guitar) gets to the heart of everyday love affairs that have some how gone astray. The stories are told with such devotion that you can't help but genuinely feel for the characters portrayed. What has to be mentioned as well, is how unfaltering the accompaniment rhythm section of August Selby (Bass) and Austin Goldin (Drums) is. When the "Dusty's" hit their groove on such songs as "Ruin Everything" and the title track "Brake & Turn", it's hard to keep your head from bobb'n and your feet from stomp'n! That said Hardman evokes maudlin high points with "Middle of the

Night" and "Among The Ones". Whatever road you happen down while listening to this album, I'm sure you will arrive satisfied that you've learned a little about life, love and all the courage and cowardice that go along with them. -Shawn Hafley, Boo Boo Records

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In the final years of the 20th Century, singer-songwriter Zev Hardman moved to California from Boston with his guitar. He writes songs about relationships and people (and how they're not all good all the time), and Dusty Nickels presents these songs to the listener in a way that combines the striving beats of rock and country with the lyrical melodies often found in the darker corners of the pop genre. August Selby 's able bass guitar playing adds an occasional darker turn to the music while Austin Goldin 's drums form the foundation these sturdy songs are built upon. Zev's voice has the richness of a spoonful of sweet honey delivered with the pungence of a shot of cheap Bourbon. The immediacy is perhaps most sharply felt on the song Ruin Everything , with Carver Cordes contributing his gritty background vocal tones to the rousing choruses. The more melodic yet equally energetic title track Brake & Turn -this time backed by M. Rose Dutra's dulcet vocal-collides Zev's gripping lyrical narrative into August and Austin's cunning instrumental arrangement, a triumph of pop songcraft.

Also on BRAKE & TURN is Middle of the Night , a story of requited love and its tragic implications: "But she don't want to cheat her baby now / Never want to mistreat her sugar-darlin' / But nothin' can stop that now / Cuz I'm falling and she's falling / In love right now." Here once again we hear the vocals of M. Rose Dutra, whose sultry flavor wafts through the harmony.

BRAKE & TURN represents the beginning of what I hope will be a successful run for these guys, and will likely be counted as one of the lucky ones some day. -Al K. Holik, Slim Jim and the Madcows

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