Last week’s piece on Chris Knight’s album, The Jealous Kind, has inspired this post. Floyd’s Market is Moreland & Arbuckle’s second album and it was released way back in 2006. I first heard of/about M&A when I was doing research into the Deep Blues Festival 2007 lineup. I have had Floyd’s Market for quite some time now and wasn’t writing about it based on the 1+ years ago release date. As sometimes happens with me from time to time, I got distracted from my own vision…blame it on the whiskey, I do, I didn’t mean to hold out on you. So when news came down last month that the band signed with Northern Blues, I had a great reason to finally tell y’all about Moreland & Arbuckle’s awesomeness.

Moreland & Arbuckle are a Mississippi Hill Country Blues outfit coming out of the plains of Kansas. Consisting of the band’s namesakes, Aaron Moreland on guitar/vocals and Dustin Arbuckle on the harmonica, and joined by Brad Horner on drums, they write and perform traditional Hill Blues, and they do it in fantastic fashion. Floyd’s Market was recorded the way the blues albums should be, live. Over the course of 17 hours in a studio, the band knocked out 12 tracks of electric blues with just enough acoustic numbers sprinkled in to give you time to top off your drink. If you are a fan of the juke joint/back porch/Mississippi brand of the blues with no silly twists, then these fellas should hit your ‘to check out’ list. Aside from being voted best non-rock album in Wichita and reaching #21 of the Living Blues charts, Floyd’s Market is about to get it’s greatest endorsement yet by finding it’s way onto the ninebullets.net essential listening list.

Now, hopefully they will be at the Deep Blues 2008 Festival so I can see them live and in person.

Moreland & Arbuckle - Date With the Devil
Moreland & Arbuckle - Long Past Midnight
Moreland & Arbuckle - Long Way Home

Moreland & Arbuckle’s Official Site, Moreland & Arbuckle on myspace, Buy Floyd’s Market