THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Shotgun Sawyer are a three-piece blues and rock ’n’ roll band from Auburn, California. Singer-guitarist Dylan Jarman, bassist Brett (The Butcher) Sanders and drummer David Lee absorbed deep, Americana roots from childhood. Growing up listening Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Allman Brothers Band — and expanding into the Delta and Chicago blues of Son House, Elmore James and Howlin’ Wolf — Shotgun Sawyer combined these influences and more into a raw, authentic, and explosive performance, night after night, and in the recording studio.
Shotgun Sawyer released their riotous debut Thunderchief in 2016, followed by Bury The Hatchet in 2019. Having tirelessly toured the U.S. West Coast from 2015 to 2020 (including a month-long campaign across Europe in 2018), Shotgun Sawyer were forced off the road by the pandemic. With a 2020 return to Europe shelved, creative differences came to a head, and in 2021, original drummer David Lee left the band, triggering a protracted hiatus. But now, joined by Cody Tarbell (Slow Season, Westing), Shotgun Sawyer back in force with their new self-titled album.
“In many ways, Shotgun Sawyer is the culmination of every hard-learned lesson from the band’s first five years and ever since, synthesized,” says Jarman. “The songwriting, orchestration, recording process, and instrumentation are all leaps and bounds improved and more sophisticated than anything we’d ever attempted.
“Cody’s drumming, Brett’s bass runs, backing vocals, guests on harmonica and keys, new effects and my own humble development on guitar and lyrical development are all put across like never before by the recording/mixing genius of Patrick Hills out of Earth Tone Studios in Sacramento. Cody is an accomplished engineer in his own right, and watching him collaborate with Patrick to achieve what I consider ‘the best drum sound ever recorded’ was a master class. When Shotgun Sawyer started, I never could have dreamed we’d ever sound this good.
“Then there are the song themes,” Jarman continues. “These tunes were written during lockdown, a hiatus and some emotional and musical upheaval for the group and myself. I learned I have ADHD, and began a long journey of forgiving myself for personal failings and rebuilding relationships with loved ones I had estranged. I selfishly destroyed a friendship and collaborative musical relationship with David Lee, Shotgun Sawyer‘s original drummer.
“I thought for a while I wanted to start a solo project. I lost much of the spiritual faith I had been raised with. I watched the United States descend into political and economic turmoil on a mass scale in the wake of Covid-19. I became a schoolteacher, and have been forever stamped with the hope and humility my students demonstrate every day. I fell further and further in love with my wife, my best friend and hero of 10 years. I went through countless musical obsessions, from Motown to rockabilly, and wished I could emulate them all. This record tells all of these stories and more, if you listen carefully.
“It might seem counterintuitive to wait till a third record to release a self-titled album, but I couldn’t think of a better way to communicate that THIS is Shotgun Sawyer. Definitively. Something new is starting here.”
