Soledad Brothers The Hardest Walk LP (Splatter Vinyl)

Limited splatter edition. The band's fifth and final studio album. Out of print for more than a decade.

Few bands are so revered by their contemporaries as the Soledad Brothers, who formed in 1995 and hail from the same Detroit scene that spawned the likes of the White Stripes, Brendan Benson, and the Greenhornes.

At their best, Soledad Brothers recall the Rolling Stones when Mick and Keith were fresh-faced bluesheads in the mid-Sixties: The prolific Detroit foursome kicks out solid, harmonica-laced blues riffs without sounding derivative or cheesily nostalgic. Meet the Motor City's newest hitmakers.

Originally a Detroit neo-blues twosome that was inevitably compared with the White Stripes, the Soledad Brothers have expanded significantly, and not just in personnel. The band's album, The Hardest Walk, features four players - only three officially Soledad sibs - and a style that employs the blues as a foundation rather than as a straitjacket. The album opens with a brace of bluesy rockers, 'Truth or Consequences' and 'Downtown Paranoia Blues,' but these days that's not all the Brothers can do.