High On The Hog - a debut album by Meanstreet Riders
Cycle Matters Editors Review - May 5, 2011

Creative and engaging! That’s how we experienced High On The Hog, the debut album by the MeanStreet Riders rock music group. High on the Hog is music for dreaming about future adventures, rolling down the highway, and destinations. High on the Hog is ten tracts and approximately 43 minutes of music that resonates with one’s cerebral capacity for memories of things past and visions of things to come...on a motorcycle!

Each song is a story brought to life by excellent voices and instrumentation. Stories that take you to places you have been and to places you want to go. 

From the title track "High on the Hog," about camaraderie, deep-rooted friendship, and avoiding the status quo, to the ballad “Rolling On,” based on the travels of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper during their ride filming the movie “Easy Rider,” both songs deal with getting away from the day to day pressures, and the pursuit to be free and ride with the wind in your hair, like they did so long ago. The song “I’ve had a good ride” is based on a return to the Sturgis Rally, the Badlands, and riding through the Black Hills of South Dakota.  In addition to the reunion with old friends theme, the song’s chorus also references real life teachings and not believing everything you hear or read with the line: “don’t read all the writing on the wall.”  It invites you to take life “all in” and enjoy the good times. It also takes an inner look at the end of the day at your life and asks if you have “Had a Good Ride?”  The song "Where I was born" is rich with harmonies, and tells about a veterans triumphant return back home to his bike and his family after defending our great country.

The rest of the LP is nestled deep in Americana rock with country overtones and arrangements about family, friends, relationships, roads, trips, and towns.   Lyrics weave stories about how the American dream for freedom and its pursuit seem to be continually challenged and shaped by the media, corporations and government bureaucracy.

The MeanStreet Riders were formed from a group of songwriters that have ridden motorcycles their entire lives.  The group writes music about their love of the open road, its culture, and the freedom it brings. Members of the band include Shannon Wallace. guitars/vocals, Dowlin Mayfield. guitars/vocals, Greg Torres. keyboards/vocals, Eric Lampley. bass/vocals, and Kevin LaCour. drums/vocals. With each musician contributing to the lyrics, the band members were able to incorporate their own thoughts/ideas into the meanings behind each song.

The Riders were formed in the fall of 2008, when they were riding their motorcycles through the southern United States on their way through the Tennessee mountains to ride one of the most challenging and dangerous roads in the world; Highway 129, " Deals Gap," or as its also known “The Dragon”. The “Dragon" is an 11-mile stretch of road with 318 curves and is considered a motorcycle legend for riders around the world.

High On The Hog is mostly upbeat, but also realistic. Life is like that! Motorcycling provides millions of people in the world with a sense of freedom – hitting the road to discover great times, good friends, and maybe…themselves again. The MeanStreet Riders not only speak to those people, but people in all walks of life, using lyrics and music as an invitation to go somewhere they haven’t been before – to discover this great country and world before it might be too late.

If you would like to listen to excerpts of MeanStreet Riders new album HIGH ON THE HOG, click here to check out their web site.  HIGH ON THE HOG is due to be released in June of 2011.