Dryewater - Southpaw (1974) [US Original]

Dryewater - Southpaw (1974)

Original U.S. private pressing
J.T.B. Records – NR5122  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip at 96 kHz / 24 bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

"A highly pro-sounding hard-rock album: tight rhythm section, solid heavy guitar playing,
excellent backing vocals, strong lead vocals." ~ Aaron Milenski

"Very skillful band with fluent fuzz and good use of keyboard ... [and] vocals which are way
above average, full of soulful teenage smalltown dreams..." ~ Patrick Lundborg

"... a confident, sinister quality to it that satisfies." ~ Clark Faville

Southpaw is the sole album from North Carolina rock band Dryewater, released in 1974 on the private J.T.B. label. As well-known reviewers such as those quoted above have already plentifully described, the LP is a full-blooded serving of Southern hard rock that ranks among the best of its style. Recorded between two small studios in Taylorsville and Charlotte, N.C., the recording (and pressing) sound more like a major label's professional studio job than the band-sponsored micropressing that it is. While Richard Drye's treblely vocals receive mixed reviews -- for me, they took some growing-on -- the convincing lyrics, backed by heavy guitar, electric piano, and animated drum work are more than compelling enough to qualify it for this blog. Personally I find that its dynamic arrangements support tuneful melodies at the level of radio hits. Given these tremendous strengths, the record has become well-known by collectors, and though there are a few reissues, its rare original pressing still sounds the best.

A huge thanks to R.D. for lending out this rarity transcontinentally for its proper digital preservation!

Front cover artwork for the Dryewater LP, designed by lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Richard Drye

The opening track to Southpaw, "Winterground," offers a good précis for the album's overall style: fuzzed-out guitar-driven melodies accented by keyboard flares supported by a strong rhythm section. Drye's vocals at times feel a bit strained, but not out-of-tune; at its best, this creates a sense of urgency to what he sings. His guitar solos are powerful yet avert lightning-speed disorientation of modal scales. Garland Stidham, like all good drummers, avoids the temptation to be a simple metronome and constantly changes his patterns and fills, uplifting tunes that otherwise might sound repetitive. I've seen this album described as slightly progressive, and though I don't immediately hear it that way, it's a comparison which correctly captures the instrumental familiarity these musicians have.

Perhaps the best song from side one is "Don't Let Her Sleep Too Long," a darker song that emanates what the Record Phantom describes as a "creepy, foreboding vibe." The lyrics are a bleak portrait of poverty and dire straits (apparently between a brother and a sister), accented by the dark, repeating melodic undertones which cycle between the minor 3rd and 7th. The lyrics are realistic enough to make one wonder what events inspired the writing of this song.

Like all great albums, side two is just as strong or perhaps even stronger than side one. For me, "Set Out On The River" is an especially impressive room-shaker, but the shining moment is perhaps the closer, "After All (I Ain't Sleepy)," which reminds me in a way of "Baby Come Rising" off the Anonymous LP: following the single verse, the track follows an extended guitar solo which cycles back into a powerful closure, including some Roky Erickson-style shrieks that are executed surprisingly well. More than any other, this track matches the dark, high-contrast photo that graces the front cover, which to me feels like a pure white light reaching out from the darkness: perhaps an innocent soul trying to escape its impossible fate.

Back cover of the Dryewater LP

Following a vinyl-sourced reissue on the Void label in the late-1990s, the first digital reissue of this album appeared in 2006 thanks to the infamous British bootleggers behind the Fallout / Radioactive axis: needless to say, it was a mediocre vinyl rip. A few years later, in 2011, the German label NuMusi Records gave it an (official?) reissue, which for the most part sounds surprisingly good, and could even be from tapes. However, it's evident that the source either had faults (having suffered damage over the years) or that the transfer was inferior, as there are some strange artifacts throughout certain tracks, and weird noises fart through quiet moments like the introduction of "Thunder."

Then just a couple years ago, in 2024, Dillon Smith at Noble Records announced an all-analog (AAA) reissue from the original master tapes, evidently after some test pressings from a vinyl rip had already been prepared. As Smith has apparently garnered some following as a YouTuber, the reissue was released to moderate collector fanfare, and sold at $40 a pop plus shipping. I decided to buy a copy, and was sadly disappointed when I gave it a spin. The (quite excellent) inner booklet, featuring Klemen Bleznikar's interview of Shaye Drye (now Shaye Rhodes), has a page thereafter where Smith writes "this is the only issue from the original tapes," which to me seems exceedingly difficult to believe given that the majority of it sounds like a poorly transferred cassette tape with the treble heavily rolled-off, cutting out completely around 11 kHz. Even the 2011 German edition is like night-and-day compared to the Noble release. Maybe it was just a crappy tape transfer? A digital version of the Noble master was released shortly thereafter on all streaming platforms. Curiously, "Winterground" sounds uniquely superior than the other tracks, but it's a different mix from the original LP... The unreleased bonus track "Don’t Believe Your Mother" which closes the B-side of the reissue is nonetheless worth hearing and sounds great, even if only from YouTube.

All of that being said, I felt it necessary to produce a better digital master of this album for the world to enjoy. Thankfully, the original vinyl was manufactured at the legendary Nashville Record Productions during the peak analog era and, as such, is an audiophile-level effort. When listening to this record, it feels like the tape used to record it nearly bursts at the seams at every moment; there are no doubts that this album was mixed with the VU meters bouncing into the red, and the effect sounds truly awesome on these South-rockin' numbers. Thanks to the kind efforts of R.D. in lending out his pristine personal copy of this remarkable rarity, we can now all enjoy this album exactly as the Dryes and crew meant it to be heard back in 1974.

I must reiterate that, as always, I have not applied any re-EQ'ing or other processing here that would otherwise alter the presentation of the original LP. It just sounds that good -- yes, really!

Track listing:
1) "Winterground" -- 3:03
2) "Trouble" -- 4:06
3) "Give Yourself Time To Live" -- 3:21
4) "Don't Let Her Sleep Too Long" -- 2:56
5) "Let Me Take You" -- 3:28
6) "Thunder" -- 2:57
7) "See Them Run" -- 2:05
8) "Revelation" -- 2:23
9) "Set Out On The River" -- 2:47
10) "After All (I Ain't Sleepy)" -- 6:24

Vinyl condition: M-
Dynamic Range: 11

Equipment / Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2024 (recording)
– iZotope RX 11 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.x.x (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v2.x.x (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

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