Eddie 9V teases gritty new album at Oct. 16 show

Atlanta musician Brooks Mason, better known as Eddie 9V, is having quite a moment now. His new album, Down Here, is weeks away from release. The album, his fifth, is probably the best distillation of his sound yet. It’s a greasy, raw-boned rock ’n’ roll record with barbed-wire slide guitar and rumbling rhythms all over the place.

Eddie 9V (pronounced as “Eddie 9 Volt”) has a Charleston show at the Music Farm on Oct. 16. The opening track from Down Here, which is called “Whole Lot Coming For You,” is the perfect example of what fans can expect to hear.

It’s a vicious tumbling boulder of a tune, a distortion-caked rocker with drums firing off like cannons, absolutely filthy guitars and a swaggering lead vocal that makes Mason sound like a very wired Chris Stapleton.

Other highlights of the album, produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, include a mid-tempo stomper called “Blowin’ Up” about rolling into Nashville with dreams of stardom, and a ragged cover of — wait for it — the 1974 proto-disco hit “Rock Your Baby” by George McRae.

Didn’t see that one coming?

“I didn’t either, man,” said Mason in an interview with the Charleston City Paper. “We’d just gotten done recording all day, and Dan has a million 45’s in the studio. He just comes up to me and puts on ‘Rock Your Baby.’ I’d obviously heard the song before, and I said, ‘I really like this one.’ So Dan said, ‘Let’s go cut it.’ I said, ‘What?’ ”

Apparently Auerbach’s gigs as a DJ taught him something about “Rock Your Baby.”

“He told me he’d done these things called record hangs, and whenever he played that song, people went crazy,” said Mason, 30.

When he plays at the Music Farm, the new album actually won’t be out yet. It comes out Nov. 6. So this show is a great chance to preview some of Down Here for the crowd.

“We’ve actually been playing about 50% of the album live, and those tunes are going over better than our old ones!” Mason said. “That’s always a good sign.”

The new album sounds a lot like a great live show, anyway. It was largely recorded live in the studio in Nashville, Tenn., by Auerbach, an apt decision for a sound this vital. It was common sense, but for a former indie artist who was used to making music by himself, it was a bit of an adjustment.

“This was completely different from anything I’ve ever done,” he said. “I’m used to setting up the mics myself and doing the drums myself. This was basically as close as you could get to how they did it in the old days in Nashville. When you showed up, there was a house band, and everyone worked really quickly. We literally did 11 songs in two or three days.”

Auerbach, no stranger to stripped-down rock as a member of the Black Keys, recruited some equally raw players like guitarists Marcus King and Pat McLaughlin and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Tashian.

King, a South Carolina native, made a significant contribution to the album. He was meant to play guitar on one song and eventually appeared on seven of the 12 tracks. He even co-wrote “Blowin’ Up,” which is the first single off the Down Here album.

“I had actually met Marcus a while back,” Mason said. “And we just really clicked. In fact he canceled all his meetings to stay and play on the record.”

So far, things seem to be trending well for the Down Here album. “Blowin’ Up” is in regular rotation on SiriusXM and has already been named an “Editor’s Pick” by the long-running magazine Guitar World. And earlier this year, Mason appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC.

Mason’s career has been the model of a slow build. He started off playing in a group called Preachervan, where he picked up the nickname “Eddie 9V” for the nine-volt batteries he used in his guitar pedals.

He released his first album under the Eddie 9V moniker in 2019 with Left My Soul In Memphis. Since then, he’s slowly expanded his fan base through killer live shows and word-of-mouth. His most recent release, 2024’s Saratoga, has been streamed nearly 30 million times on Spotify alone.

For Mason, the Music Farm show is practically a home game, because he’s relocated from Atlanta to somewhere even closer.

“I actually just moved to Greenville,” he said. “And I love Charleston. When I first started out, I used to play at The Royal American all the time, and now it’s going to be my beach destination.”

“I’m now technically a ‘South Carolinian,’ ” he added. “Is that how you say it?”

IF YOU WANT TO GO: Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at Music Farm, 32 Ann St., Charleston. Tickets are $26. musicfarm.com