Lonesome Shack

Lonesome Shack emerged in New Mexico when guitarist and vocalist Ben Todd began channeling the gritty, emotive textures of postwar blues and boogie through a sharp post-millennial lens. Originally raised in the Pacific Northwest, Todd moved to the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico just before the millennium, sharing a trailer with his girlfriend. Beside that trailer he constructed a shed for honing his guitar skills and developing new material rooted in vintage blues; he eventually dubbed the structure “Lonesome Shack,” borrowing the name from a Memphis Minnie song, and adopted it as his own musical moniker. In 2006 he shifted to Phoenix, Arizona, where he acquired skills in guitar construction and repair. The following year he established himself in Seattle, Washington, after securing employment at a guitar shop. There he encountered percussionist Kristian Garrard, whose work with Thousands prompted him to suggest that Todd’s solo guitar sets would benefit from a drummer. The project therefore became a duo, issuing its debut album Bound to Die in early 2010. Later that year Slidin Boa followed, and in 2011 bassist Luke Bergman, another member of Thousands alongside Garrard, completed the trio. In April 2012 the group captured a performance at Cafe Racer, one of its preferred Seattle clubs; tragedy visited the venue in late May when a gunman opened fire without warning, killing four patrons and wounding a staff member. The Cafe Racer recordings appeared in October 2012 under the title City Man, with proceeds and dedication directed toward the victims. Burger Records reissued Slidin Boa and City Man together as a two-for-one cassette in June 2013, and later that year Lonesome Shack joined the roster of Alive Naturalsound Records. Its first release for the label, More Primitive, arrived in May 2014.