Mark "Porkchop" Holder originally turned the blues on its head more than a decade ago as a founding member of punk/blues band Black Diamond Heavies. While he's been tearing up juke joints, festivals and dive bars since then with his own fiery brand of the blues, it wasn't until earlier this year that the Tennessee musician released his own debut solo album, Let It Slide, an acclaimed effort that No Depression described as, "...fire in a barrel. If the Rolling Stones camped with Howlin' Wolf and Billy Gibbons on trucker speed for the weekend with a fuzz pedal, this would be its precious procreation." Now just nine months later, the guitar-slinging, harp-shredding bluesman is releasing his follow-up album, Death and the Blues. On it, Holder, along with Travis Kilgore (bass) and Doug Bales (drums), builds on the success of his previous album with eight newly penned tracks, along with three rousing covers. |