Best Band: The Dirty Guv’nahs

Whatever pressure the various accolades earned by The Dirty Guv'nahs put on the band members, none of it could compare to that they put on themselves.

Winning the Best Local Band category in Metro Pulse's annual Best of Knoxville poll ... cultivating a rabid local following ... when it came time to record a new album, all of that paled in comparison to the determination guitarist Justin Hoskins and his bandmates had to surpass all expectations.

"We wanted to live up to the expectations of our fans," he told The Daily Times this week. "We've built ourselves a good following around town, and we owed it to those people to give them the best music we could come up with and the best CD we could possibly make. We realized that we were lucky enough to make it this far, because you never know how long this ride will last.

"We didn't want to halfway do anything. We wanted to put our heart into it and make the best music we could make."

Of course, most local rock bands would say the same thing -- there's no shortage of exposition in a music scene about heart and soul and respecting the fans. The Dirty Guv'nahs are no different in that arena -- but it's the finished product that lends gravity to their statements.

The band's self-titled new record -- which will be celebrated tonight at The Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville -- is a passionate, jubilant slice of rock-meets-Americana that raises the bar for the group's local peers. As a point of reference, it stands up in terms of sound next to "Amorica" by The Black Crowes or "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones.

From the rollicking opener, "We'll Be the Light," the album surpasses the band's 2007 full-length debut ("Don't Need No Money") on every level. It's not that "Don't Need No Money" is a bad record; on the contrary, it's a fine entry in the local scene canon. But "The Dirty Guv'nahs" takes everything the band did well two years ago and amplifies it.

"'Don't Need No Money' was good for what it was at the time," Hoskins said. "We didn't know much about songwriting, and we knew we needed to record something to get shows. We were just winging it and doing it on the fly without a whole lot of preparation.

"For that one, we did the best we could with the songs we had. I mean, we mixed it ourselves in the UT library. For this one, we were dedicated to honing our craft. We had a clear idea of what we were going for, and we wanted to find a great producer who was going to push us and not let us be comfortable. We wanted someone, production-wise, who would give us the sound we heard in our head."

The Dirty Guv'nahs came together in 2005 as five guys without a name and no previous band experience. They loved playing music and landed a gig for their fledgling outfit opening for Sister Hazel at a benefit concert in Knoxville's Old City. An enthusiastic fan inspired the band name, and by early 2007 the guys had released a four-song EP.

Winning a battle of the bands contest at the University of Tennessee earned the guys studio time to record "Don't Need No Money," and the album led to a steady string of shows around the area that gave the Guv'nahs street cred and a reputation as performers who pour everything they have into a live performance.

For the new record, however, the guys looked south to Athens, Ga., where they hooked up with noted producer Dave Barbe, a guy who's worked on records by the Drive-By Truckers, among others.

"We went in there, and he found our sound and made it work," Hoskins said. "Between Dave and James (Trimble, the band's vocalist), they really created something magical."

Trimble's vocals are perhaps the most remarkable thing about the new album. On "Don't Need No Money," his rough-and-tumble approach to the songs gave the album a certain charm, but this time around, he rises up to claim his place as one of the area's finest rock vocalists. On the opening track, he channels Chris Robinson; on "Little Brown Bird," he plugs into Dickey Betts circa "Ramblin' Man"; and on one of the album's finest tracks, "Born to Thieves," he sounds like Eddie Vedder's haunting harmonies on Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike."

"James has really found his voice," Hoskins said. "The evolution of him as our singer is really unbelievable, especially since he volunteered by default when we started because nobody else wanted to do it. We didn't even have a microphone then; he would just yell over us in practice. It was absurd.

"Because his craft was so new, it wasn't all it could be. He took it upon himself vocally to learn and improve, and his songwriting has totally taken off because of that, too. It's just been unbelievable."

Going down to Athens, Hoskins said, the guys packed their influences up along with their instruments. They didn't have a particular theme or sound picked out for the new album; they just wanted to pack in what moved them and, in turn, use that inspiration to move others.

"We didn't say to ourselves, 'Let's try and make this type of song,' or, 'Let's make X type of music,'" Hoskins said. "We just wanted to make a great rock 'n' roll album that shows our influences but isn't a copycat of anything else. We just wanted to give an example of where we're at as a band right now, of the music we're hearing in our heads and at practice.

"The highlights on here vary, from a good, catchy, pop-rock song like 'We'll Be the Light' to a song like 'Leaving Roads,' where we weren't afraid to get a little more out there and do some things different than we've ever done before. And then there's 'Afternoon Eyes' -- we wanted to rock as hard as possible at the end of that song and capture that, hold-up-your-beer-can-and-your-lighter type of moment."

Tonight, the guys will celebrate "The Dirty Guv'nahs" with a show that will include some special guests (rumor has it that some of the horn players from the now-defunct groove rock outfit Gran Torino will play) and a lot of should've-been-there moments, Hoskins added.

"We want it to be sort of a celebration of everything from rock 'n' roll to country to soul to funk," he said. "It's going to be a real special night with a lot of other Knoxville musicians we're honored to call friends."