Zingerman’s is an Ann Arbor original, a foodie university of its own providing in-depth instruction on eating well and fully savoring the experience. Last week, on their Eat American road tour, my friends Cheech and Lisette toured the ZingEmpire (I tagged along too), and found both incredible hostpitality and the kind of quality food products that their trip is all about finding and highlighting and protecting. As we were working our way through some of chef Alex Young’s transcendental BBQ at Zingerman’s Roadhouse restaurant, I was thinking that 3hive should have been providing the soundtrack to our dining experience. We tend to be pretty committed to things that are obscure and high quality — most importantly, things that we like — a philosophy that pairs well with Zingerman’s approach to food.
With this in mind, here’s Oakley Hall, offering straight-up boy-girl Americana folk rock from Brooklyn. Listening through the tracks below will gove you a good sense of the band’s various sounds. “No Dreams,” off the forthcoming album I’ll Follow You, rocks out in a way that seems from a totally different world than the restrained sounds of “Living in Sin in the USA.” This diversity shows of instrumentation, vocal style (and vocalist), tempo, volume, and just about every musical aspect you can think of gives a welcome sense of freshness to Oakley Hall. Too bad the closest they’re coming to Detroit is Chicago.