Every once in a while, Levon Helm of The Band opens his upstate New York home to friends and family (and those with about a hundred bucks) and has a Midnight Ramble, an open group session of riffs and trills. We have not been, unfortunately, but friends who've attended describe the communal twang as universally transcendent. We want to go to both relive the ’60s blowing-in-the-wind freedom, and to celebrate the fact that the era's unwieldy creativity still breathes. Chief, new signings to Domino, have clearly felt similar pangs, as evidenced by "Mighty Proud," from their 7-inch released earlier this week. They're long-haired flannel and denim wearing dudes like many of us, but they've earned their stripes (or patterns), with smoky hooks and group singalongs of tracks tailor-made for union rallies. We'd say they were born in the wrong era but then we'd have no peers.
Download: Chief, "Mighty Proud"