Backyard Tire Fire CD Release Party (and how two guys and their guitars stole the show)

Those two guys are not Backyard Tire Fire. The gentleman on the left is Jake Van Horn and the man on the right is the one and only Peter Adriel. You see, these two guys stole the show on Saturday night, for me at least. I went to Paulie's Bar to see an energetic Midwestern Rock Band and fell in love with a rich, dark country singer named Peter Adriel. The songs that he was spinning were rich and strong, rootsy, funny, warm, and perfect.

That night, when Adriel was strumming and sliding through an incredible song, "No More Will", I had a moment. It was one of those moments where the exact right music is playing for the exact right mood and it sounds exquisitely perfect. As if this particular song is what I need right this second, this song is perfect. And it was. The rumble and depth of his songs were comfortable like a worn in pair of jeans and your favorite blanket. They were cozy in that "shoes that feel like socks" way, and simultaneously refreshing and honest like a cold, crisp beer sweating on a cement step, still sun-warm on a steamy, late-August night. His Dylan-esque croon, his humor steeped in folk tradition, his mellow storytelling, his 'sit right down and let me tell you somethin' personality were all breathtaking.

This is the opener that a band should never have. In a perfect world (for BTF, anyway), Peter Adriel wouldn't have been quite this good, that way, when BTF took the stage and launched into their brand of Old Style-soaked beer balladry and whiskey-tinged rockabilly, they would have shone brighter than a thousand Bics raised drunkenly in a non-smoking establishment. As it happened though, Adriel was the shining star, albeit quietly and humbly. Company of Thieves were a competent middle-band, but the lineup seemed to have gone awry somewhere between Woodford County and Bloomington, IL. Backyard Tire Fire should have been opening for the stellar Peter Adriel.

"Everybody's Down" Backyard Tire Fire
"Book With No Pages" Peter Adriel (hilariously whimsical)
"Julia Belle Swain" Peter Adriel (stunning and warm)

Peter Adriel: Official MySpace Buy
Company of Thieves: Official MySpace Buy
Backyard Tire Fire: Official MySpace Buy