Somewhere between the front porch and the garage, with a voice as strong as the lyrical content it is known to bellow, is Pierce Edens. With enough credentials to prove his status as both a leading songwriter and as a leading performer in the Southeast, the accolades still pile up from regional, national, and international reviews, critics, and fans. Receiving such praise as "a frenetic mix of rock-inspired carnival barker, part troubadour/part guitar-slinging vagrant" and "gritty, visceral and about as subtle as a flamethrower duel at a gas station, Pierce Edens and the Dirty Work [area] handily one of the defining bands in the current Asheville music scene" seemed a decent enough response. Then, after the release of their CD, constant rotation on several regional stations, and packed road-houses and dives, Edens and crew were voted one of the best Alt-Country bands of the area by Mountain Xpress readers...and then again by WNCW a few weeks later.
Growing up in rural western North Carolina - Madison County, to be more precise - Pierce was instantly inundated with the feral story-telling and musical ramblings of the area. The red clay ramblings soaked into his blood and became him. Since the early days of learning to play guitar (with a hand me down electric with the head stock leaned up against the window to create a poor man's amplifier), Pierce began weaving his own stories into the sounds of the mountains. Then 1990 happened, and the effects of the Seattle Sound would infiltrate and poison the purity of his songs, mixing to create some illegitimate child born of both worlds.
With an EP (Four Songs) under his belt, he was soon joined by Dave Mack on drums and bassist Michael Olivier on upright and electric bass. Soon, Matt Smith, down from Charlottesville, VA joined on pedal/lap steel, and the boys took Pierce's songs to an all new level. Within that first year, the first full-length CD (Partydress) was recorded (appropriately in Madison County, a few mere miles from Edens childhood home) and released (appropriately, a few mere miles from Edens then home) in 2006. They are currently wrapping up another full length album, set for release this December.
Instrumentation
Pierce Edens- guitar, harmonica, vocals
The Dirty Work
David Mack- drums, percussion, upright bass
Michael Laurence Olivier- upright bass, electric bass, mandolin, banjo
Matt Smith- lap steel, pedal steel, slide/lead guitar, dobro
