Earlier this month, we got word that a new band featuring members of Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, and At the Drive-In had formed. Now, another rock ‘n’ roll supergroup has emerged. Seattle-based Levee Walkers are comprised of Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, and Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees.
The seeds of the supergroup were sown some 25 years ago, according to the band’s biography. “That’s when Pearl Jam guitarist Mike first saw Duff playing bass in Guns & Roses, and around the same time, Mike saw Barrett playing drums in the Screaming Trees. Musical ideas began to form with all three men, like shadows that move across the landscape yet cannot be defined.”
Fast forward to 2014, when the remaining members of Mad Season, McCready and Martin, reunited with the help of McKagan and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. The reunion brought all three artists together again, and, not long after, the Levee Walkers were officially born.
They describe themselves as “firmly dug into the foundational music of blues, rock, and punk, reinterpreted through the filter of the Pacific Northwest”, adding, “To become a Levee Walker you must have at least 25 years of musical experience, survived battles with the forces of darkness, and perhaps even kissed death on the cheek. More importantly, there must exist a deep reverence for the music of your comrades, and the commitment they made to this hardest of paths.”
Although they only recently formed, Levee Walkers have shared their very first pieces of new music in the form of “Freedom Song” and “Tears for the West”. Both feature additional vocals from Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke; the latter in particular is a melancholy, politically-charged number.
Stream both below.
More material from Levee Walkers is likely on the way, complete with a revolving door of guest vocalists. In the same bio, the band said that Coleman is only one in “a handful of select singers who be putting words and voice to the music of the Levee Walkers. More walkers are coming, as they emerge from the shadows.”
