The Bonnevilles

The Northern Irish duo the Bonnevilles came together in 2009 in Lurgan and Banbridge as a bare-bones guitar-and-drums outfit devoted to the hard-edged roots style they label "garage punk blues." Guitarist and singer Andrew McGibbon, Jr. and drummer Chris McMullan make up the lineup. McGibbon, already drawn to blues, found his approach overturned after hearing R.L. Burnside's raw collaboration with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on Ass Pocket of Whiskey. Exposure to similarly inclined groups such as the Immortal Lee County Killers and the Soledad Brothers prompted him to pursue his own blues-wailing direction. Linking with McMullan, the pair hit the road and issued their first album, Good Suits and Fightin' Boots, in 2010. While touring behind the record, both members dealt with losing a parent—an experience that shaped their follow-up, the 2012 release Folk Art and the Death of Electric Jesus. Continued European and U.K. dates placed them alongside Bob Log III, the Black Diamond Heavies, T-Model Ford, and Kid Congo Powers. Their intense stage presence was captured on the 2014 live set Tape Saturation Overdrive: Live in Belfast.

Invited to Clarksdale, Mississippi's Deep Blues Festival in 2015, the Bonnevilles performed in one of American blues' historic heartlands. The same year they signed with Alive Naturalsound Records, the U.S. indie known for raw blues-rock acts. Their third studio album and Alive debut, Arrow Pierce My Heart, arrived in March 2016. Steady U.K. and European touring followed, and Alive put out the limited-edition vinyl-only Record Store Day collection Listen for Tone, drawn from early recordings, in 2017. That year Norway's Blues for the Red Sun Records also reissued Folk Art and the Death of Electric Jesus on LP with the band's approval. The group then returned to the studio for its fourth album. Dirty Photographs, which brought added nuance to their rugged sound, came out via Alive Naturalsound in March 2018.