Dex Romweber
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LOCATION: ChapEl Hill, North Carolina
GENRE: Rockabilly, Roots-Rocker, Blues Rock
INFLUENCES: Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Patsy Cline, Frederick Chopin, J S Bach, Django Reinhardt, Frank Sinatra,The Rolling Stones, Hank Williams Sr, Marlene Dietrich,The Beatles-In Hamburg 1962, Edith Piaf, Tammy Wynette, Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Benny Joy, Sarah Vaughn, Chet Baker, Harry Belafonte-Sings The Blues Record.
Publicist: CHRIS ESTEY / ESTEY@XOPUBLICITY.COM / 206.728.0457
Label: Propeller Sound Recordings
"Dex Romweber was and is a huge influence on my music. I owned all of his records as a teenager, and was thrilled at the fact that we were able to play together recently on tour. His attitude towards music is remarkable. And his songwriting, along with his love of classic American music from the south, be it rockabilly, country or R&B, is one of the best kept secrets of the rock n roll underground." - Jack White/White Stripes
For a quarter century, Dex Romweber has trolled the dark corners and back shelves of the haunted thrift store of Americana ephemera and honed an extraordinarily idiomatic sound, a particular and readily identifiable DEXness for those in the know. It’s a creepy doll collection of surf, proto-rockabilly, garage, dark and vengeful blues, and nobody, but nobody, plays it like Dex.
First with the legendary Flat Duo Jets and then as the Dex Romweber Duo with his sister Sara on drums, Dex distilled the punk ethos of less-is-more to the essential guitar/drums template. Left in the wake of his lecherous and slithery Silvertone guitar were early acolytes like Jack White, Neko Case, and the Reigning Sound as well as a current crop of the indie pack like Ty Segall, No Age, Japandroids, and The Black Keys. All owe an unclaimed pawn ticket of debt to his sublime and spine-tingling sound. He is a live wire back to the murky, sometimes dangerous and always unpredictable headwaters of real rock and roll.
Dex Romweber is back with Good Thing Goin’- his first new studio album in seven years. It is a homecoming of sorts. Dex has signed to the new label of his old friend, Jefferson Holt. Holt had originally signed Dex’s Flat Duo Jets in the late 80s to his then Athens, GA- based label, Dog Gone Records. With their long-standing friendship, it only made sense for Holt’s new label, Propeller Sound Recordings, to be the home for Dex’s new studio album. Propeller Sound also has plans to reissue key titles from Dex’s past albums along with some out-of-print Flat Duo Jets material into the future.
Flat Duo Jets – so often emulated, so rarely duplicated – released the first of nine albums in 1990 to rave reviews worldwide. They starred, alongside R.E.M. and The B-52s, in the 1987 cult classic film Athens, GA: Inside/Out. Their first national tour in 1990 was as opening act for The Cramps and they made a stunning impression on Late Night with David Letterman.
Dex was name-checked by Jack White in the guitar superstar documentary It Might Get Loud, and the Duo recorded a single and live album with White for his label Third Man Records in 2009. The Duo has shared the stage with dozens of rock icons including Wanda Jackson, Cat Power, Neko Case, Exene Cervenka, Detroit Cobras, Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band, Southern Culture on the Skids and The White Stripes.
Guitar fans take note. Dex ain't one of those guys who needs series of effects pedals the size of a table top to destroy a room; all that noise, that beautiful beautiful noise he makes just comes his guitar, his fingers and his brain. If only 10% of guitarists played with HALF his conviction, the world would be a much better, and wilder, place.
