Dry River is a guitar-harmonica duo from Southern California, playing “songs of death, desperation, and redemption.” Or, as some have said, “gloom, raunch, and madness.” Oliver A. plays guitar, sings and writes most of the original songs. Dave S. plays amplified blues harp, and occasionally sings, too. They play mostly within and around the Folk/blues/Americana genres. Some of their original songs have a rather mystical bent, incorporating themes that may be familiar to readers of this blog. For example, here are the lyrics to their song “Divided for Love”:
When I step outside myself, I become what I was born to be
the only thing that’s in my way is my individuality
beneath the surface, I’m really not like this at all
everything changes when the curtain fallsDivided for love
big mama divided for lovePeople walking ’round, going where they need to go
thinking that they’ve found everything they need to know
but it’s all an illusion, everything you think you see
cuz there’s really no difference between you and meDivided for love
big mama divided for loveYou gotta take off all your clothes, your skin and bones and attitude
step out in the dark and cold, leave behind what you thought was you
ain’t no guardian angel gonna keep you safe from harm
you just fall through the blackness into big mama’s armsDivided for love
big mama divided for love(Copyright 2013 Oliver Althoen, all rights reserved)
They have one home-made album so far, which you can buy here: www.cdbaby.com/cd/dryriver
Dry River’s website: https://dryrivermusic.wordpress.com/
Dry River’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dry.river.music
You can listen to a few of their cuts here: https://soundcloud.com/dry-river
And watch a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQX563GHr_k
