To say that 2024 was a great year for Piper & The Hard Times would be a huge understatement. The Nashville-based band won the 2024 International Blues Challenge in January and released their debut album, Revelation, in August. That album made many Top 20 lists last year, including this reviewer's, and won the 2025 IBC Best Independent Produced Album and the 2025 Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Artist Album.

Striking while the iron is hot, the band recently released their follow-up, Good Company (Hard Times Records), a rollicking set of 12 originals. The band consists of Al “Piper” Green (vocals), Steve “The Conductor” Eagon (guitar), Dave “Sexy Boy” Colella (drums), Amy “The Professor” Frederick (keys), and Parker “Porkchop Funkstick” Hawkins (bass), with guest artists Eddie Mayer (tenor sax), Charlie DiPuma (sax), John “Hotfingers” Wallum (organ), and background vocalists Lisa Oliver-Gray and Etta Britt.

The title track opens the disc, and it's a terrific rock n' roller driven by Green's robust vocal and Eagon's soaring fretwork. “Now I'm Lovin' You” is an upbeat soul number that adds saxophones to the mix about a lady's man changing his ways for the right woman.

The gritty “Tear It Down” ventures into funk territory, while “Cowboy Gucci” is a sturdy roadhouse rocker with Wallum guesting on organ,. The moody “In The Meantime” takes a look at a relationship fraying over different points of view on a variety of topics.

“Turn The Tables” is a stripped-down piece, with Green, backed only by Eagon's  guitar, addresses infidelity, growling out the lyrics with gusto. “Runaround Man” picks up the pace considerably, a fierce, rocking number that grabs you by the collar, and “Cheatin's Gotta End,” is a mid-tempo mix of rock, soul, and blues.

“Keep It To Yourself” is a soulful tune with rock-edged guitar work from Eagon,” and “Not Your Fault” brings the horns back for some tasty funk. “My Place” is a gripping blues rocker that encourages the hard-pressed among us to step back from the stress and strife and just listen to the blues.

The closer is the powerful “Those Days,” which looks back on the simpler times that most of us grew up in. It makes listeners look back fondly at what was then, lamenting how complicated and senseless a lot of life is now.

In June of 2025 Al “Piper” Green was diagnosed with cancer, and the band, as well as the blues community, has rallied around the singer. One of the highlights was a benefit concert in Nashville in late July, as well as a GoFundMe page set up to help offset Green's medical expenses.

Hopefully, the treatments will bring Green back to full strength (he reports regularly on his progress at the band's Facebook page), and Piper & The Hard Times will be on the road again soon. In the meantime, fans can enjoy their outstanding sophomore release, Good Company.

--- Graham Clarke