EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Deering and Down Release Their Soul/Rockabilly Breakthrough Album, 'OUT THERE SOMEWHERE,' Recorded At Willie Mitchell's Royal Studio In Memphis, TN. Deering & Down, Memphis's best kept secret, are now ready to take on the world with their boldest, most confident album yet, "Out There Somewhere." Lead singer Lahna Deering and lead guitarist Rev Neil Down have finally translated their exhilarating live show into a terrific studio album with the help of some of Memphis's greatest R&B legends. Weaving the two main streams of Memphis music-rockabilly and Southern soul-the duo has created a hybrid sound that should transform them from local heroes to roots-rock stars. As Washington Post music critic Geoffrey Himes puts it in the album's liner notes, "As Deering & Down play one hypnotic dream-song after another, it is clear that this is a classic male-guitarist-and-female-vocalist duo in the tradition of Buddy & Julie Miller, Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks, Charlie & Inez Foxx and Ike & Tina Turner. There are echoes of all those antecedents in the way Deering and Down play off one another-her bell-like soprano against his left-of-center guitar, her hymn-like yearning against his gritty realism. This is a duo that only needs the right record to launch themselves into the wider world." "That record is now here in the form of "Out There Somewhere,' recorded at Memphis's legendary Royal Studio, where Al Green, Ann Peebles and more cut some of the best soul tracks ever recorded. Green's producer Willie Mitchell helped out with horn arrangements and mixing (before tragically dying halfway through the project); Green's band, the Hi Rhythm Section, played on three tracks, and Mitchell's son Boo co-produced the album with Deering & Down. Together this team somehow expanded the duo's live sound without ever obscuring the one-on-one chemistry that is at the heart of the Deering & Down sound." Deering and Down first met in Skagway, Alaska, in 1998. They recorded their first album, 2001's "Coupe de Villa,' in the Yukon. They recorded Down's solo album, 2003's "When a Wrong Turns Right,' in Ireland with Woodstock veteran Henry McCullough (Joe Cocker Grease Band, Paul McCartney and Wings). After touring the lower 48, they chose Memphis as their home in 2005. That's where they recorded 2007's "Break This Record" and the brand new "Out There Somewhere." Now they are ready to criss-cross North America to bring their spiritual, sensual sound to new audiences everywhere. Geoffrey Himes has written about music for the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Rolling Stone, Jazz Times, Paste Magazine, the Nashville Scene and other outlets for 35 years.

REVIEW
Album Review in Down Beat Magazine Jazz, Blues & Beyond (August 2012): Blues: by Frank-John Hadley (p. 79) Deering & Down: Out There Somewhere (Retsina Glow; 56:44 ***1/2) Enter the unusual Memphis soul-rock-blues domain of Lahna Deering and Rev. Neil Down. Her spectral soprano brings home innocence and kittenish sensuality, alienation and acceptance, hurt and healing. His guitar, based in the blues, is partial to trance-grooves and traveling where the album title says. They write their own songs, mostly good ones, about floods, spirituality and cryptic romance. Soul giant Willie Mitchell mixed five tracks and arranged the horns on two before dying midway through the project. (Mitchell s son, Lawrence, helped finish the album.) It s no coincidence that the tunes involving the elder Mitchell are special. Lots of fine Memphis supporting players in the studio, like the Hi Royal Rhythm Section. --Down Beat Magazine (by Frank-John Hadley)

Out There Somewhere captures Deering and Downs exhilarating live show without sacrificing the one-on-one chemistry at the heart of their soul. --Washington Post music critic Georffrey Himes

Out There Somewhere captures Deering and Downs exhilarating live show without sacrificing the one-on-one chemistry at the heart of their soul. --Washington Post music critic Georffrey Himes

Out There Somewhere captures Deering and Downs exhilarating live show without sacrificing the one-on-one chemistry at the heart of their soul. --Washington Post music critic Georffrey Himes