Growing up in the country outside of Florence, SC never really leaves you, even though as a teen you look for every way to leave it. That youth will always be full of memories and nostalgia. First loves, first drugs, farms, country roads, and playing in a band as a teenager that the locals adore.
Elim Bolt frontman Johnnie Matthews knows all about it. He owes the savvy of his new project to not only his rural roots, but to Sequoyah Prep School. The band that drove him out of Effingham in a 16 passenger van, eventually landing him in Charleston, SC. Before leaving the band last year, Matthews gave his previously hidden songwriting skills, and voice that he had truly yet to find, a test run on the bands latest album Spells. “Suits” was resolute and turned out to be more reflective for Matthews future than for the bands specifically.
“Farm Kid” is the first single from Elim Bolt’s first significant release, and is a spot on introduction to Nude South. An album that moves from the country to the city in perfect harmony. Vintage in a way that works, avoiding the clutter of what most vintage is. A vocal vibrato that sits comfortably on guitars washed in reverb and on melodies familiar to blue hairs in rural churches.
Nude South comes out November 6, 2012 on Charleston record label Hearts and Plugs.
