New Album Release

Alex Abel, a Nashville-based alternative rock artist, will release his powerful album debut

September 20. “Calavera” features Abel, a singer, songwriter and guitarist, in a classic heavy

rock power-trio format with his band members, bassist Chris Harrah and drummer Dalton Smith.

Abel, Harrah and Smith recorded the first version of Calavera at Louisiana’s legendary

Studio in the Country in 2018 with Ben Mumphrey (Pixies, The Breeders, . In early 2022, Abel re-recorded vocals and guitar parts for nine of

the album’s 11 tracks at producer Joe V. McMahan’s Nashville studio. He also rejoined Harrah

and Smith to re-record two tracks, “Feel Her Fire” and “Calavera,” top to bottom.

Abel and McMahan began their Calavera revision by carefully listening to the 2018

Louisiana recordings. Although Abel loved Harrah’s and Smith’s rhythm-section work, he was

dissatisfied with the sound of his singing and guitar playing. For one thing, he judged the

recordings contained much use of the Blue Orchid guitar pedal.

“It’s not something that you can use on a whole album,” Abel said of the distortion-inducing

device he invented.

Abel and McMahan opted to re-record all of the guitar on the album, including “the clean” parts

that didn’t use the Blue Orchid. They also added organ and vocal harmonies to several songs.

“We used Joe’s arsenal of amplifiers and some of his pedals and guitars,” Abel said. “The guitar

tones sound much better now.”

Abel further updated Calavera by re-recording his vocals, a result of vocal coaching in

recent years with Ron Browning.

“Ron reshaped my vocal performance,” he said. “I used to scream a lot, but I’ve found another

way to project my voice.”

Abel moved to Nashville in 2016, mostly so he could work with McMahan. He’s known

McMahan since 2015, when the producer recorded an album for Abel’s Baton Rouge band, the

Chambers. Although that project wasn’t released, Abel’s sessions with the veteran producer were

a great learning experience.

“I was so impressed with Joe during those sessions that I stayed in touch with him over the

years,” Abel said. “He has an incredible ear and a keen sense of how to bring the best out of an

artist.”

McMahan, a guitarist and sideman who evolved into a producer, has produced more than 50

albums since 2000. Also a touring sideman, he’s performed as a guitarist and multi-

instrumentalist with Jo-El Sonnier, Lee Ann Womack, k.d. lang, Allison Moorer, Shelby Lynne,

Shannon McNally and many more.

Abel’s 2022 studio reunion with McMahan followed the subsidence of the coronavirus pandemic

and health challenges that sidelined his music making for a few years.

Abel grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hearing the alternative rock of Nirvana and the Pixies

and classic heavy metal of Black Sabbath. A video cassette copy of Walt Disney’s classical

music-filled Fantasia influenced him most of all. Blending his influences, Abel envisioned

Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain playing an electric guitar rendition of the Fantasia soundtrack. His other

influences range from surf guitar hero Dick Dale to master Baroque composer J.S. Bach.

“I am as fond of Bach as I am of contemporary heavy artists,” Abel said. “You can hear many

influences in this album, so I don’t fit neatly in one genre or another.”

Making Calavera, the album that Abel and his bandmates can be proud of, was a long and

difficult journey lasting more than four years.

“This album means a lot to me, because it’s the final production for songs I wrote between the

ages of 15 and 24,” the 25-year-old Abel said. “The songs encompass my teenage angst, and

growing up feeling different.”

Abel is planning album-release shows in Nashville. In addition to Calavera’s release on

September 20, he’ll issue three digital singles, all with corresponding music videos filmed in his

native Louisiana.

-John Wirt