Cordovas – “High Roller”

Nashville-based folk rockers Cordovas just released “High Roller”, the second single off their upcoming fourth studio album, The Rose of Aces, due out August 11th. This is a band that flies way under the radar in terms of how good they are versus how many people know about them.

Cordovas have played here in Charleston a handful of times over the years, including a time or two at the Royal American, and entire month’s worth of Friday evening deck shows at the Charleston Pour House. Every time I caught them it has been excellent. They aren’t afraid to improvise and jam, and they’ve also written an entire catalogue’s worth of songs that stand on their own two feet.

Their songs have a classic Americana feel to them, in a style that leads me to believe frontman and songwriter Joe Firstman is a student of Robert Hunter. Of course, they played the Grateful Dead deep cut “Easy Wind” off Workingman’s Dead the last time I saw them, which lends credence to that assumption.

“High Roller” is a story song that chronicles an all-night bender at the casino, in which two pals fly completely off the rails on whatever drugs they can find. It takes place not in Vegas or Reno, but in a low-rent casino that’s close enough for the two gentlemen in the song. Naturally it brings to mind Fear and Loathing.

Listen to “High Roller” by Cordovas below, and stay tuned for more on the album dropping August 11th.