Break out the cowboy' boots! Girls Guns and Glory come to Johnny D's.

By Andrew Firestone

Girls Guns and Glory is a band that is utterly personified by their name. What could be more distinctly American in aspiration?

Is it honky-tonk? Is it classic rock? One can’t say. Is it Americana to the core? Yes. Does that swang of the banjo make you feel the blues when Ward Hayden, lead singer and songwriter croons, “Night time’s a hard place to be”?

Yes. Yes it does.

This band of gallivanting bopperesque blues-rockabillies come to Johnny D’s this next Saturday, August 20, for what should be a show of wonder and glory. Girls Guns and Glory will be playing for their namesake off their newly dropped disc Sweet Nothings.

“I like to think of it as something primal that’s in that early rock-and-roll sound that gets you at a soul level,” says Hayden. “So that even if people aren’t into country music, they can still hear that primal energy that’s created by the band.”

Girls Guns and Glory has recently returned from a national tour, having recently played through the south, where their country-flavored tunes have found an audience. But don’t be fooled. Hayden, a native of Scituate, is all New England.

The fourth album off their three year hiatus, Sweet Nothings, features some of the most whimsically roots tracks in the band’s career, and has been lauded by both The Boston Globe and Maverick magazine across the pond in England.

“For three albums it was just the best collection of songs that we had, and now for the fourth album we had a purpose of creating an album that sonically would keep our listeners invested,” Hayden said. While the group previously won the Act of the Year from the Boston Music Awards, and the WBCN Rock ‘n’ Roll Rumble.

This time, Hayden found production from Paul Q. Kolderie and Adam Taylor at Camp Street Studios, and produced an album that sounds like the sublime postmodern fusion of Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Johnny Cash. Apparently, only two of the 30 tracks recorded in the original sessions, including the title song, made the cut.

“I’m sitting there as the songwriter being like, ‘I like those songs, but there’s 28 other songs there’,” recalled Hayden. The group reconsidered, and built the rest of the songs around them, amounting to the most mind-blowing roots act this side of the Mississippi.

Hayden, Paul Dilley, Michael Calabrese and Chris Hersch will rock out 110 percent guaranteed for the local crowd this Saturday. Do yourself a favor and go.