according to their press notes, providence, rhode island americana band deer tick owes their existence to a “hank williams album and a bottle of brandy”.  in late 2004, deer tick began as a solo project by then 18 year-old john mccauley (guitars, vocals, songwriting).  after self-releasing a number of cd-r’s and constant touring he expanded the band to include christopher dale ryan (bass) and dennis ryan (drums) and later andrew tobiassen (lead guitars).

 john had two influences that guided him toward his musical destiny: 1.) dressing like roy orbison as a kid, and 2.) the california raisins clay-mation shorts on tv.  in fact, orbison's mystery girl is still one of his favorite albums and he has a “raisin” tattooed on his arm.

john once said on npr that “deer tick's tunes can be endearingly sloppy, but the band's arrangements remain thoughtful.”  and his lyrics “tend toward folks who have it hard, but don't make things any easier on themselves”.

combining john’s nasal, rough as sandpaper voice with the band’s instrumentals, deer tick's music is often described as a combination of folk, blues, alt-country and grunge.  the band has been compared to the shins, modest mouse, and early bright eyes.

in 2007, the band released their first studio lp, war elephant.  in may 2009, deer tick was the first band profiled on britunes, nbc nightly news anchor brian william’s web-only music interview program/attempt at being hip.

the band’s second lp, born on flag day, dropped june 23, 2009.

click here to listen to deer tick's august 02, 2009 newport folk festival set recorded by npr.  click here to listen to a june 25, 2009 in-studio set/interview recorded by wxpn for world café.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check here to see if deer tick has any gigs scheduled near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.