Rosetta West don’t write songs so much as conjure them. And with ‘Gravity Sessions’, the long-running Illinois trio step into Chicago’s iconic Gravity Studios and do what they’ve always done best: capture lightning in a cracked mason jar, then hand it to you still buzzing. This isn’t a greatest hits collection, nor is it some slickly packaged retrospective. It’s a séance. A bloodletting. A reminder that this band still plays like they’re exorcising something just beneath the floorboards.
Across these live-in-the-room cuts, Rosetta West turn their signature blend of rust-belt blues, lysergic folk, and cosmic discontent into something both ancient and urgently now. Frontman Joseph Demagore is still the emotional helm, his voice weathered like riverbed stone, worn by time and truth. With bassist Herf Guderian anchoring the low-end with slow, tectonic grooves and Mike Weaver cracking thunder behind the kit, the trio waste no time reminding us why their legend has outlived trends.
Lead track ‘Dora Lee (Gravity)’, already previewed in a video equal parts mythic montage and militaristic fever dream, is a standout; haunted, heavy, and holy in its own rough-edged way. But across the EP, it’s the unfiltered chemistry that give these tracks their shining edge. You can hear the amps hum. You can feel the push and pull. There’s space to breathe and plenty of bite, like you’ve stumbled into a backroom ritual and no-one stopped the tape.
There’s no pretension here; just atmosphere, conviction, and a current of danger that runs just under the surface. The guitars growl. The drums drive. And the lyrics? They’re riddles and roadmaps, half-whispered spells and worn truths delivered like a gospel for the midnight hours.
Rosetta West have never played by anyone else’s rules. Their catalogue is the stuff of true cult devotion. And ‘Gravity Sessions’ fits right into that mythology. These are the songs that get passed around like sacred artefacts.
In an era where “retro” blues-rock is often sanitised for Spotify playlists and denim commercials, Rosetta West continue to howl from the edge of the firelight. And ‘Gravity Sessions’ is here to prove they never needed polish in the first place. This is music made the old way: live, loud, and a little possessed.
Play it after midnight. Play it loud. And if the room starts to flicker, don’t say they didn’t warn you.
