Patrick Sweany

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Amazon

Patrick Sweany may hail from the industrial town of Akron, Ohio, but the music he plays is all over the map.  The 11 self-penned cuts which make up Every Hour Is a Dollar Gone, his fourth and strongest album to date, swagger and swing from the Led Zeppelin-influenced blues-rock opener “After Awhile” and the lazy, grinding groover “Them Shoes” to the audible hints of ‘60s garage raunch ‘n’ roll on instrumental “Burma Jones”.  Elsewhere, Sweany deftly touches on a crooning ragtime revival with gazoo ("Two or Three") and guitar ("Mom and Dad"), while longtime friend and collaborator Dan Auerbach of local duo the Black Keys steps up to provide backing vocals (he also produced the album) for bluesy rocker “Think About It”.  But it’s the handful of excellent soul tunes, like the rhythmic cha- cha-shuffle of “Million to Me” and the smouldering gospel-blues on “Hotel Women” with their echoes of Sam Cooke and Marv Johnson, that bind this record together and capture the Rust Belt rocker’s soulful drawl.

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