Exclusive magazine - CD Review

Title - Tales From The Black Swamp 
Artist - Southbound 75 

For those not in the know, Southbound 75 are set to officially release their highly-anticipated first full length studio album, Tales From The Black Swamp, on Friday, October 29th, 2021 via Bad Jeu Jeu Records and The Orchard. 

The new set of tunes was recorded at Omni Sound Studio in Nashville, and produced by music city hitmaker Bill McDermott (Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, George Strait), who credited the Florida-based quintet by saying, “I think these guys are great for today’s country music because they have a rock ‘edge’ that I think country is already moving towards, and I think they want more of. I think these guys are primed to be there when that happens, and they’re gonna help spearhead it.” 

1. Let It Burn 
2. Not Ready To Say I’m Sorry Yet 
3. Wild & Young 
4. Crazy 
5. Spilled Champagne 
6. Friend of the Bride 
7. Stumble 
8. Daddy’s Liquor Cabinet 
9. Long Way Home 
10. Whiskey & Wine 
11. Missing Carolina 

This vibrantly alive and fully heartfelt full-length debut album, opens on the gently raucous Let It Burn and the one-two country rock punch of Not Ready To Say I’m Sorry Yet and backs those up seamlessly with the foot-tapper Wild & Young, the mid-tempo balladry of Crazy and then we get both the free flowing rhythms of Spilled Champagne and the beautifully crafted Friend of the Bride. 

Up next is one of my own personal favorites, the upbeat, fun and loud sing-along of Stumble which is itself followed by the euphorically-charged Daddy’s Liquor Cabinet, then come the melodic country rock of both Long Way Home and the lyrically addictive Whiskey & Wine, the album (sadly) closing on the lonesome hipsway of Missing Carolina. 

“We are so excited to finally get our debut album out on October 29,” said chief songwriter and front man Mark Lorenzo. “I am pretty sure we’ve experienced about every delay we could with the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’ve finally reached the finish line, and are excited about our new partnerships with Bad Jeu Jeu Records, Bob Morelli at Cool Is Forever, and everyone else on our team that has helped us reach our goal of getting this record out in a big way!” 

The band recently introduced the album’s newest single Spilled Champagne to country radio on PlayMPE, where more than a dozen stations throughout the south and midwest have already picked up the song for airplay. 

Exclusively premiered by SCENES Media in May, the song has a somewhat laughable backstory about spending entirely too much money on a girl that is just way out of your league. 

“When we wrote the song, it started out as just a funny story,” said Lorenzo. “But as we began playing the song live, fans started telling us about their own life experiences with similar situations. Not necessarily flying to the islands, but a few actually got to the ‘Diamonds’ stage, so that helped make the song way more authentic!” 

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