What I'm about to say may cause me to lose all credibility. Dismiss it as the ravings of a hopeless fanboy if you will, but I'm sticking to it.



I'm pretty sure the Blueheels are the best band in Wisconsin.



"Long Gone," the Madison band's debut album, never left my CD player until I received a copy of their new album a few weeks ago.

Now I can't stop playing that on repeat.

"Lessons In Sunday Driving" is officially released in Milwaukee at Points East Pub on Friday, July 18.



Can't. Stop. Listening. To Blueheels.

I'd say the Blueheels might be the band that Ryan Adams started if only he hailed from the Fox Valley, but the truth is the Blueheels don't share his melodrama and issues. Instead, their alt-country style has the maturity and authenticity that comes with finding your identity while growing up and out of a small Wisconsin town.



The Blueheels have since moved to Madison, where they've become a favorite of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.

"I can't wait for these guys to go public; I'm buying stock," declared the mayor, who invited the band to play his re-election party. Yes, Madison city government is hipper than ours.



Formed in Neenah, there wasn't much else for the founding band members to do but focus on music. They spent years formulating their style and sound at coffeeshop open mics and small clubs like Cranky Pat's.

"When I was 15 or 16," said guitarist Justin Bricco, "the question wasn't what are we going to do. It was, 'Where is the punk rock show?' That's what got us interested in actually playing live music."

The old-school country music collection of Bricco's father influenced his taste just as much as those shows. Vocalist Robby Schiller, meanwhile, was studying American roots music. When the two got together, the result was alt-country with an electric guitar edge.

"Lessons" is true to those punk rock roots on their new album with more up-tempo anthems like "Keep Your Mouth Shut" and "Stupid Little Smile." This direction isn't too surprising given the depature of Rebecca Krafft, who's beautiful vocal interplays with Schiller haunted the last album. Her exit is a loss, but they've compensated by playing up their muscular rock 'n roll strengths. Yet the themes from the last album are still there with introspective ballads like "Desperate" and "Small Western Town."

Bricco calls their style "a high-energy classic blend of all the traditions of American music."

"There's blues inflections, there's country inflections, there's folk, there's gospel, and we certainly haven't shed that skin that shows we were involved in the punk rock community 10, 12 years ago.

Their live show is something to behold, especially now that they've added so many barn burners to their repoirtoire. The last time I caught them was in a Sturgeon Bay tavern at the Steel Bridge Songfest. They were the last act to go on after a long night of one performer after another. But that didn't slow them down at all.

"We're the Blueheels," Schiller said, kicking off the set. "And your chairs have just become useless."

 I can safely say I've never seen that many people dancing at 1:30 a.m.