Stepping outside of his main gig as lead guitarist of
the Foo Fighters -- he, like
Taylor Hawkins, had to find some way to pass the time while
Dave Grohl busied himself with
Them Crooked Vultures --
Chris Shiflett threw himself into Americana with his band the Dead Peasants. It’s a departure from his pre-
Foo résumé, when he played in the punky
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, but it fits right alongside the relaxed Californian shimmer of
Hawkins' work, albeit something of a distant cousin.
Shiflett and the Dead Peasants work up a pleasing rustic groove throughout their eponymous 2010 debut, never pushing too hard but never succumbing to laziness. Unlike most alt-country singers,
Shiflett favors the genre-bending Americana of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s to stark, stripped-down purity; it’s a mellow mood album, usually colored by steel guitars but sometimes getting its flair from a 12-string chime. Frankly, that contrast works in
Shiflett’s favor: too many Americana bands are concerned about authenticity but the Dead Peasants are all about vibe, all about band interplay, so their album winds up as quite pleasing in a low-key way. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine