The narratives -- or what he calls "talking-songs" -- of Adam Gnade (pronounced "guh-nah-dee") come from his urge to document life in America. Drawing from early music, old American talking blues, and protest ballads from the 1930s, Gnade is accompanied by his band the Confederate Yankees: Thaddeus Christian (guitar), Shiloh Halsey (bass), Johnny Askew (organ), and Brian Smith (drums). After a few self-released experimental recordings, he released his first official album, Run Hide Retreat Surrender, on Loud + Clear in 2005. In the following year he issued the limited-run We Are Bones and Ghosts Down Stone Walled Wells. Gnade signed on with U.K. label Drowned in Sound, which released the EP Shout the Rafters Down! in November 2006. Gnade's first book, which continues the stories from his records, arrived that winter, while a collaboration with British outfit Youthmovies resulted in the Honey Slides EP the following fall. ~ Kenyon Hopkin