Whistle the Dirges is the debut album from Savannah’s General Oglethorpe & The Panhandlers and was released earlier this month.

It contains twelve songs that are held together by a strong sense of rock and roll; of the eclectic; of classic themes (untimely death, lost love, gentrification, summer sweat); of traditional folk; of varied influences (Modest Mouse to The Beatles by way of the Elephant Six Collective); and the knowledge that, as southern writer Thomas Wolfe wrote, “you can’t go home again” – all these find their way into the music where they seem to get along famously.

It is not a demanding or difficult album, but it is most certainly an inviting and rewarding one. It easily and confidently mixes pace and styles – as easy with the vulnerable as with the vibrant – and scalpel sharp lyrics are observed throughout, saying more in a couplet than many bands achieve in a whole song.

“Well I’ve learned more from a cigarette,

than all my schooling taught.”

Check out the upbeat bounce and pace of the suggestive Sick Sick Lover, and download the album from Amazon here.

Download General Oglethorpe & The Panhandlers – Sick Sick Lover mp3 (from Whistle The Dirges)