The CAVE REVEREND
The smell of cigarettes, amplifiers and stale beer.
Nietzsche, Van Gogh, Hendrix and Baudelaire.--
The Cave Reverend is a band playing rough, raw, rock and roll music accentuated by lyrics of extreme erudition. It is three men attempting nothing less than the analysis of the universal problems of human existence, through the integration of music, philosophy, and poetry, in a sincere and unvarnished manner. Blues-based and guitar-driven, yet melodic with a modern sound and message, the Cave Reverend is what rock music was supposed to evolve into.
Their songs document the self-destruction of our civilization (Circuses and Bread);the hostility of the modern world toward individualism and everything untamed (The Renegade, Snivilization, Star Bright, Country Girls); the fleeting nature of time and the transience of all that is dear to us (the Sailing Moment, Mnemosyne); the powerful desire of modern man to return to the safety of an idyllic past (CanÃ?Â?Ã?Â?t Get Back Home, the Last Buffalo, the Garden of the Forgotten Favorites); and the dream world, both waking and sleeping (Mulberry Lane, Get Out Alive, the Hour of the Poet, the Backroom).
The music is a reflection of the contradictory personalities of the band members themselves. In the 1990s anthropologist/commercial horticulturalist Jimmy James (guitar, vocals) teamed up with poet/mauler Buck Board (bass, vocals) in a Louisiana prison and began writing songs to form the basis of the Cave Reverend. Once released, they kidnapped Gerald Wells (Colonel Rabies--drums, vocals) outside his high school in rural Texas, forcing him to perform percussion for them, and then fled to Houston. All three were born in, and are resident disgraces of Texas.
The Cave Reverend are new age minstrels with an ethereal sound that beckons us to tap into the other side, beyond the horizon. They could be Mr. Mojo Risin's reincarnation or Donovan's younger brothers finally come to lead us all to Atlantis. Then again, the cave-like vocals wafting from the fathomless abyss bring back memories of Eric Burdon, while alternating sensations of the immortal Mr. Hendrix, and the surprisingly still mortal - Keith Richards, stream through me as I listen to guitar work scalded with blues-infused riffs that would make Jimmy Page proud. With lyrics of a profound perception but that seem to inherently understand the "Question of Balance", the Reverend proves that they're "experienced", but graciously deal gently with their acolytes and do not resort to heavy-handed preaching but rather extend an invitation to see the world in a different way. If Jim Morrison taught us that "no one here gets out alive", the Reverend seems a little more forgiving as evinced in "Get Out Alive" and "Mnemosyne". A powerful sermon, haunting and melodic, The Cave Reverend is not for the faint of heart.
I freely proclaim that I have very easily become an enthusiastic proselytizer for the best CD that I've heard in a while--The Cave Reverend. Drop a coin into the collection plate; buy the CD, and you too will become a believer. --- CD review, David Richardson, the Houston Press
The Cave Reverend fuses blues and rock into a forceful musical expression that explores the universal yearnings and misgivings of mankind while ultimately divining the essence of his journey.