Review | Dave Hause, ‘Blood Harmony’

Recorded in Nashville with an all-star band including Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit) and Gary Tallent (Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band), Blood Harmony is the fifth solo album by Dave Hause. A Philadelphia native with roots in ’90s East Coast punk through his earlier band The Loved Ones, Hause has grown into a distinguished songwriter in the vein of American masters like Tom Petty and John Mellencamp. On Blood Harmony, he shares songwriting credit with his younger brother Tim and writes from a place of hard-earned security as a husband and father living on the Mesa in Santa Barbara. Whether he’s riffing on summers at the Jersey Shore, as in the single “Sandy Sheets,” or picking up where the late Gram Parsons left off with “Surfboard,” there’s always something clever and a lot that’s authentic in every tune on this accomplished album. 

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on August 13, 2024. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.