Music fans should have no reservations about catching Ha Ha Tonka at the Mercury Lounge on April 13 (photo by Todd Roeth)
Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston St.
Wednesday, April 13, $12, 7:30
212-260-4700
www.hahatonkamusic.com
www.mercuryloungenyc.com
Ozark Mountain indie daredevils Ha Ha Tonka play good-time music that gets into your soul, mixing southern pop, gospel, bluegrass, country, blues, and rock on their intoxicating new album, Death of a Decade (Bloodshot, April 5). Singer-guitarist Brian Roberts, guitarist Brett Anderson, bassist Lucas Long, and drummer Lennon Bone have been developing their down-home style since changing their name from Amsterband five years ago and releasing Buckle in the Bible Belt in 2007 and Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South two years later. For Death of a Decade, they left their Springfield, Missouri, home for a two-hundred-year-old barn in New Paltz in upstate New York, where Felice Brothers producer Kevin McMahon helped shape such tracks as the jangling “Usual Suspects,” the shanty “Westward Bound,” and the propulsive “Problem Solver,” featuring plenty of mandolin and four-part harmonies throughout. Ha Ha Tonka is not content with the status quo; “We can blame it on the circumstances / At least we took the chances / We had to,” Roberts sings on “Lonely Fortunes.” On “Made Example Of” he explains, “They say that if you don’t change where you’re going / you’re gonna end up right where you’re headed.” Following a bunch of SXSW shows in March and a guest appearance on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain that involved music, food, and target shooting at beer cans, Ha Ha Tonka is headed to the Mercury Lounge on April 13, on a bill with the Spring Standards, Lucius, and Alec Gross.