Bound by a love for the sounds of Townes Van Zandt, Slobberbone, James McMurtry, Lucero, and the Drive By Truckers, these boys decided it was time to wake up the cover band sated denizens of the Queen City with some original music that would exhilarate, challenge, and, yes, even offend, the staid mindsets of the financial district.
Armed with a cache of original material that covered such topics as murder, suicide, self-destruction, and various other forms and consequences of bad decisions, they unleashed themselves on an unsuspecting public.
The punk rock scene was the first to embrace Cattletruck's hard-edged take on Outlaw country, and, not soon after, the singer/songwriter crowd caught on to the literate, gallows humor infused tales of things gone wrong. Such luminaries as David Childers and Bill Noonan have become supporters of Cattletruck's Southern Gothic Rock and Roll.
In a short period of time, Cattletruck has built a loyal and very vocal fan base that runs the social gamut from motorcycle clubs to academes, and has created a stir in Charlotte's original music scene with a style that been described as everything from "Goth Country" to "Outlaw Americana."
Whatever you want to call it, climb onboard and buckle up, because it's going to be a dark ride.
Bourbon and Black Crepe
A Bottle and Six Strings
By David Pilot
"It’s brutal, and maybe it’s dark, but it’s also something you and me and that guy over there and the girl behind the bar and everybody else in the whole damned world has thought and felt at some point. And that’s the point of good music: to take us to places we already know and allow us to finally see them in a saving light. Cattletruck does this as well as anyone.
Cattletruck
by Kevin Baldner
Amps 11
"Few ever venture into the darkness of the persona that these guys do. their style has been called Outlaw Americana, to Outlaw Country, to Goth Country. Call it what you want, jump in, listen, and be prepared for a wild and sometimes dark ride! Getting the lyrics, at least hearing them is required. Cattletruck is a crisp new $100 dollar bill, belting out original songs in a sea of the cover tune laden, wrinkled-up dollar bill Charlotte music scene.Their songs let the listener know that they have been around the block (no pun intended). They reveal the "Dark Side" of life that a lot of folks have seen and fear discussing. These songs are written by folks like us. Those of us who dream and sometimes make questionable choices in life. They cover topics from lost love, to dreams of success, to Nebraska family values. Their lyrics are bold, provacative; enticing one to think."
Bourbon and Black Crepe
By Tamar Alexia Fleishman
Southern Fried Magazine
"Cattletruck has some hard living stuff -- good for an angry long drive or probably pretty terrific live."
Bourbon and Black Crepe
By Dave Pilot
Miss Lana's Texicana Music Central
"It’s a brutal, bitter little record, this one. It’s also insightful, probing, and intelligent on a level rarely seen anywhere in the music business these days. Cattletruck will question your faith and question your beliefs and make no apologies for stoking the firing of every synapse in your brain. They will make you think, deeply, about just exactly who and what you are – and why. And they offer this introspective service on an aural buffet that’s worth the price of admission on its own.Trip Rogers’s axe mastery, and Jud’s vocals (which sound, frankly, as if Townes Van Zandt were fronting Lucifer’s own house band), the musical components finds a cohesion that drives the searing lyrics white-hot and unerring into your soul."
CattletruckWhere the Ride Never Ends!
