Johnny Bertram and the Golden Bicycles

I’ve been going through the piles again lately, and mostly it’s a pretty thankless job. (I know, boo hoo, listening to music that’s not very good, poor me.) But what’s cool is when you find something good in amongst the dross, and in that regard, the more dross the more you appreciate it. I found Johnny Bertram and the Golden Bicycles a few days ago, for instance, and I’m glad I did.

Johnny Bertram is, apparently from Boise, Idaho, and pursues a sort of mildly countrified psychedelic pop. Of his latest album Days that Passed, I am really liking “Fortification” which has a kind of open-roads, alt.Americana swagger to it, with high, lonesome harmonies and a pretty kicking mandolin solo mid-cut. “Private Land,” the mp3 giveway, is a little harder-edged, a little less dreamy and dissolute…and I like it, too, but not quite as much.


Here’s a video of “The Fall” also from Days that Passed, which is pretty good, too.


The album came out in April on the Esperanza Plantation label, which is the only indie rock label I can think of based in Mississippi.