Sinners & Saints
Whiskey is the cause and cure for many terrible moments in a lifetime. It’s no wonder, then, that this devil’s libation goes so well with alt-country blues music, the soundtrack to broken hearts and dark nights of the soul. Sinners & Saints are a duo from Charlotte, North Carolina whose songs embody the spirit of both. Their music is a unification of several different styles, but with an emphasis on Americana — sort of a reckoning of past deeds and old ghosts through an amber-soaked glass.
Perry Fowler and Mark Baran have been kicking around and slinging their sounds since 2011. They have toured extensively and developed a knack for sharing bills with a diverse but kindred roster of musical acts, everyone from Celtic punkers Flogging Molly to indie folk darlings Sun Kil Moon to Southern soul band St. Paul and the Broken Bones to fellow acoustic two-piece Shovels & Rope.
Live and on a pair of LPs, including 2017’s more country-flavored “On The Other Side,” the duo favors instruments and arrangements that keep the sounds layered and the roster slim: guitar, banjo, stand-up bass, harmonica and harmonies, and, for both of them, “foot-powered percussion from an abandoned drum kit,” in their own words.
“I like to say we play mountain music,” Fowler told Middle Tennessee Music magazine.
While Fowler and Baran write of heartache and bad times, there is an uplifting camraderie in delivery. Even the most the most dire murder ballad has a cathartic ring that says no matter how bleak things look, everything will turn out alright. Sinners & Saints are about having people to laugh and cry with; so basically: friendship. As they say in their online bio, “We’re all sinners and we’re all saints, and we’re all in it together.”
When Sinners & Saints bring their acoustic P.M.A. to South Florida, with the Wandering Girls and Boston Marriage as support, it should be a nice mélange of folk, country and experimental. Let’s see if we can conjure some laughs, a healthy dose of mischief, perhaps some puppy love, and drink it all down with a double shot of brown liquor.
Sinners & Saints perform December 15 with The Wandering Girls, Boston Marriage at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. ~ Tim Moffatt
