Reed Turchi & the Caterwauls at the Mercury Lounge

Reed Turchi

Reed Turchi grew up just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, where he learned to play boogie woogie and New Orleans style piano before moving to slide guitar. He learned to play Hill Country style of blues and founded his blues-rock trio, Turchi. Two years ago, the guitarist began collaborating with Italian guitarist Adriano Viterbini, leading to Scrapyard, a guitar duo album. Around the same time, Turchi the man disbanded Turchi the band and moved from North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee, digging into new sounds and writing songs that incorporated all the styles he had learned. Turchi's debut album, Speaking in Shadows, will be released on March 4, 2016.

Reed Turchi & the Caterwauls (guitarist Joey Fletcher, keyboardist Heather Moulder, drummer Andrew McNeill) performed at several New York venues over a few days. At the Mercury Lounge tonight, Turchi showed a variety of bluesy influences, as his guitar playing, his vocals and his songs all resourced the swampy grooves of America's backwoods. Residing somewhere between J.J. Cale and ZZ Top, Turchi's music had an Americana earthiness while shimmying with sparkling blues guitar-fueled jams. This rocking boogie music came with a swagger of bravado, and while it was not anything new, it was a style of music that is not heard enough.

Visit Reed Turchi at www.reedturchi.com.