Telluride Blues and Brews Festival: Dead Confederate alive and kicking

"Artist To Watch… a raw howling take on Southern rock…" – Rolling Stone

The alt-country/grunge rock quintet, the Dead Confederate, is alive and well at the 17th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, September 17 – September 19.

The Dead Confederate – Hardy Morris (vocals, guitar), Walker Howle (Guitar), John Watkins (keyboards), Brantley Senn (bass) and Jason Scarboro (drums) – came together in high school in Augusta, Georgia, as the Redbelly. Shape-shifting into the Dead Confederate, they appeared on the Athens music scene in 2006. The band's first self-titled release plus an appearance at the South by Southwest Fest in Austin, Texas, gave the Dead Confederate its start. "Wrecking Ball" followed in 2008, with its hit single, "The Rat."

Dead Confederate has been often put into the same indie basket as My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses, but the band can go darker than its mellow bedfellows, more like the bittersweet southern rock angst of Drive-By Truckers, recently featured at Pig & Whiskey event at the Telluride Conference Center. Throw in the swagger of the Black Angels and you've got the picture –  sorta kinda.

The Dead Confederate is now touring in support of its sophomore record, Sugar, just released in late August. Sugar takes the Dead Confederate beyond the aching, bleak psychedelia to explore new styles.

You can also check out Dead Confederate at Telluride's Fly Me to the Moon Saloon, Friday night, September 17. Sweet.