Nine studio records, a worldwide following, viper-like riffs, and over a decade of global touring with ample cold beer in the green room to boot.
Enter Robert Jon & The Wreck and the rockstar reality they’ve cultivated since 2011.
Hailing from Orange County, California, that ninth record is Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes, an earnest Americana-blues-rock collection that hit streaming this past Friday, August 22nd. The release comes via Joe Bonamassa’s very own Journeyman Records, which is a testament to a group that rips between melt-your-face-off energy and poignant lyrical anthems.
Having shared stages with current blues masterminds like Blackberry Smoke and Bonamassa himself among others, Robert Jon & the Wreck — which consists of Robert Jon Burrison (lead vocal, guitar), Andrew Espantman (drums, backing vocal), Henry James Schneekluth (lead guitar, backing vocal), Warren Murrel (bass), and Jake Abernathie (keyboards) — have been around the block and back, gaining a timeless rock n’ roll complexion at every turn.
Among notable tracks on the album is the stop-you-in-your-tracks stunner, “Sittin’ Pretty,” which seems to contradict itself, oozing grooves that leave you anything but sittin’ still. The jam track bleeds of timeless blues rock and Americana while maintaining an original wah-backed grit. Set in Pioneertown, California, the tune’s music video kicks up dust as the band rocks the desert just like they do any stage, big or small.
“Old Man” is something out of a contemporary western coming of age number, packed with unfeigned reminiscence and humble hardiness. As keys and guitar weave, a quick percussive pivot commands your heart strings to listen up. “From a broken home / I learned to stand,” Burrison calls with a seasoned Southern timbre.
The group’s latest release before the anticipated album, “I Wanna Give It,” talks to the playfully practical side of romance while serving as a testament to the group’s unique flair of storytelling. From burning the house down to skipping town to miss the debt, “I Wanna Give It” says all the unsaid unconventionalities that come with the clash between capitalist responsibility and a child-like love.
“Keep Myself Clean,” released in June of this year, enjoins the listener. A cautionary tale of life in the fast lane, the tune reaches its authentic peak as it unfurls in religion, drinking, incarceration, and man’s strategic freewill. All of that floating above a helluva powerfully rich rocking structure, the song is at minimum an automatic head banging ponderance.
Steeping Californian rock in the Appalachian south, thirteen-time Grammy winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell) assembled the album in Savannah, Georgia, where the band lived during the recording process. Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes delves into personhood with familiar yet unmatched rawness and rigor, which augments previous albums Red Moon Rising (2024) and Ride Into the Light (2023).
Always on the road or in the studio, Robert Jon & the Wreck will see spans of the world once again with a 2025 tour through North America and Europe, while kicking it at New Orleans Jazz Fest, Askena Rock Festival, Hookrock, and more along the way.
