Peaced And Slightly Pulverized

David Nance had been writing songs and recording them on the cheap for years before 2016's More Than Enough earned him a well-deserved cult following. But while Nance initially caught the attention of discriminating music fans for his songwriting, he seems to be more interested in showing off his guitar heroics on 2018's Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, a raw and raucous exercise in no-frills hard rock recorded in someone's basement in a single day. Nance wrote the seven tunes on Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, and they're solid work, especially the moody "When I Saw You Last Night" and the languid but potent "110 Blues." But this material seems to exist primarily as a framework for Nance to stretch out on extended solos, where he reveals a style that splits the difference between Neil Young's primativist noise and Keith Richards' fractured blues, with a bit more slop than either but a similar passion for volume and blissful crunch. It remains to be seen if David Nance is the new guitar whiz America has been looking for, especially since his style seems to be better suited to a small club on a Wednesday than a basketball arena on a Friday; he's a fine player, but his work is much more about passion and feel than technique, and the typical Joe Bonamassa fan isn't likely to be much impressed by Nance. Then again, if J. Mascis can develop a loyal following, there's no reason Nance can't; his work comes from a similarly noisy outlook, and he's less flashy but more soulful, while Nance's rhythm section (guitarist and keyboard player Jim Schroeder, bassist Tom May, and drummer Kevin Donahue) gives him the right loosely tight backing that he needs. Somewhere, there's a bong-equipped man cave waiting for an album like Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, and it's a sure bet that David Nance would be honored to be heard in that context. ~ Mark Deming