Billy Allen + The Pollies w/ Ty Pow and The Holy North and Filthy Kittens at 7th Street Entry
There is a ferocious Southern engine inside of Billy Allen + The Pollies’ debut album, Black Noise. It thrums to life atop a classic rock chassis and expertly weaves in and out of gospel, grunge, funk and soul along its eleven-song journey. From the explosive top of the album (a liberating anthem of self-worth called “All of Me”) to the spiritually haunting final track (the wurlitzer fueled “Go on Without Them”), Black Noise is a genre-defiant haymaker that lands.
Jay Burgess was raised in, on, and by the music of Muscle Shoals - He’s been a “young pup” to many of the Shoals music scene stalwarts for practically his entire adult life, going back to his days as a young guitar slinger and his early songwriting efforts (encouraged by Jason Isbell), all the way through to his creation of the Pollies, the band he’s used as a prism to reflect some of the weirder, prettier strains of Southern rock music. Many peg their music to decidedly non-Southern influences like Wilco or Neil Young, but the true spirit of the Pollies’ music is reflective of a long tradition that bears no resemblance to Molly Hatchett or the like. The sounds of Southern bands who don’t fit within the genre “Southern rock,” foremost among them the legendary Big Star from up the highway in Memphis, echo throughout the Pollies slightly weird, sometimes noisy, always pretty rock songs.
Ty Pow and The Holy North is a Minnesota-raised Americana, Blues, and Alt-Country band featuring members of Cloud Cult, 4ontheFloor, Jillian Rae, and many other Midwestern staples. With over a decade worth of touring together in different capacities, Ty Pow and The Holy North came together to write and record their debut album with Soul Asylum’s front of house technician, Colin Loynachan. Released in June of 2022, Rhubarb ‘93 delivers a raw energy to the well-crafted original tunes that draw influence from '60s and '70s Rock, Soul, and Rockabilly.
Filthy Kittens started in Minneapolis in March of 2022, with general tendencies toward folk rock. In addition to new material, their songbook reaches into previous bands and solo projects involving Filthy Kittens members. The band consists of Henry James Patterson, Mitchell Nelson, and Irene Manning, with additional live members.