exy – September 5, 2016 at 11:29AM
Tags:_AMERICANA
Justin Wells first made his name in music as the frontman of the Southern rock/country band Fifth on the Floor. At one point considered one of the most promising new torch bearers of the Southern rock traditions, like so many outfits, especially in the Hank3/Shooter Jennings underground scene, the band was never able to find that next level of true sustainability like many of the Southern rock bands budding out of the Texas scene and other places. They were starring at a future of touring the country in a smelly van and playing to half empty barrooms ’till kingdom come, and soon band members started falling off. Instead of carrying on under the same name but with the original nucleus of the band lost, Justin Wells decided to dissolve the band and step off the road.
320 kbps | 86 MB UL | MC ** FLAC
But you knew Justin would not be gone for long, and the disillusion of Fifth on the Floor and all the lessons of his experiences constitute the inspiration for his solo release, Dawn in the Distance. One of the reasons Fifth on the Floor did not resonate to a wider audience was they were not the right band for the right time. Timing is so imperative to launching a band or artist, or to crushing their dreams for what might seem as unjust circumstances. Though Justin had contributed some decent songs through Fifth on the Floor and they put on one hell of a live show, the sound on their Black Country Rock/eOne Music release Ashes & Angels relied too much on heavy riffs, power chords, and production, in an era when everything was moving towards less guitar, and more emphasis on songwriting.
Justin’s writing always had the hallmarks of good songs, but they felt more like the interpretations from his heroes and opposed to truly original sentiments. In country music and Southern rock, the past legends of the genre loom so large in the minds of acolytes, it’s not strange to see new artists mimic the style, attitude, and even mannerisms and dress of the artists who came before them through both homage and influence. But there’s not always enough of something original to make it resonant in our time, or ultimately sustainable. And when Justin Wells did have a good lyric or a poignant moment in the Fifth on the Floor era, it was many times drowned out by the band or the production behind it.
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