Sam Russo goes full-band with new ‘Refuse To Lose’ EP (listen & watch a new video)
The pandemic has seen a lot of bands stripping down their sound and doing acoustic versions of their songs due to necessity, but UK folk punk artist Sam Russo has done the opposite. He got together (virtually) with Dan Andriano (Alkaline Trio, The Falcon, etc), Chris Stockings, and Garth Lee Vickers to record full-band versions of three songs from his 2020 album Back to the Party. The original versions are folk punk songs fueled by little more than Sam’s voice and guitar, but these three new versions are revved up heartland punk in the vein of The Lawrence Arms, The Gaslight Anthem, The Menzingers, etc. The new EP really gives these already-great songs a second life, and they sound just as awesome like this as they did on Back to the Party.
Sam and his band also made a quarantine performance video for the new version of “Young Heroes,” which premieres in this post, and here’s what he tells us about it: “We wanted to put these recordings out to give people a different take on Back To The Party and to say thank you for listening to it and supporting the music in such rough old times. I hope it helps people get excited about the future again. The video is a classic, by the book, 100% serious playthrough we shot during our 3rd national lockdown and it sums up perfectly where we all were by that point in time. Enjoy!”
Watch the video and stream both the Refuse to Lose EP and the original Back to the Party below. You can pick up Back to the Party on LP or CD from Red Scare.
—