Lew Card is an expert in the grace that comes from a song constructed at a slow and steady pace. “Nothin’ to it but to do it,” the Chattanooga transplant says of his full-length solo debut, Low Country Hi-Fi, a rustic, refined collection nine songs born without a true timestamp. “This is something that, 30 years down the road, you can pop it in and it’ll be the same thing.”
The Austinite has branched out from the bands he has led since relocating from Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2002. His music is “jug band meets county blues.” A style that harkens back to when he first started writing at age 12.
“I’ve written hundreds of songs,” he says. “Being in bands for so long, I saw the process of what was working and what wasn’t working and wanted to try my own hand.”
That means fewer banjos, more guitar leads and small, skin-run drum kits. “I think there are only six or eight cymbal crashes on the whole record,” Card reveals. “Less is more.” It’s all rustic, but without a cheap feel, refined but without too much polish.