When a band leans this deeply into the Grateful Dead lineage, utilising the stage as the true proving ground, where songs are routinely flipped, stretched, and twisted into new shapes, any studio album of entirely fresh material lands with a real charge of anticipation. Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders embody that ethos so fully that taping and trading their shows is tolerated; in fact, it is positively encouraged as part of the culture, a way of reinforcing the communal energy that surrounds them. That sense of kinship extends to the album’s cover image, a snapshot of Alexander’s late friend Donnon (honoured too with the album title), taken at a Dead show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo in 1989. The photo has a warmth that threads through the record, its presence echoing the strange ways people reappear in our lives, especially for Alexander, who found that connection resurfacing with unexpected force after his own brush with death. It all contributes to the very fluid elements that make up ‘Liquid Donnon’ (June 12th – Riot Season Records/Feeding Tube Records) an album that proves the ancient monoliths of psych and prog still come alive when ignited by the potent forces of real-life feelings, personal connections, and a free-form explorative spirit in the playing.
Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders emerged in 2019 after Alexander’s return to his native East Coast, quickly becoming the latest hard-touring outlet for a musician whose fingerprints are all over the last quarter-century of American fringe music. His path runs through the spectral folk of The Iditarod, the transcontinental drone-folk of Black Forest/Black Sea, the long-loved improvisational sprawl of Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band, and a web of collaborations with Jackie-O Motherfucker, Kemialliset Ystävät, Avarus, and countless others. The Heavy Lidders fold that history into a sound built from dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improvisation, and flashes of indie-rock melody, attracting everyone from curious wanderers to the die-hard tapers who treat each gig like a pilgrimage. This is a band growing through mileage, instinct, and a shared appetite for stretching songs until they reveal new colours, all while adding another chapter to Alexander’s vast and ever-expanding discography.
This is a record that gives every track the space and time needed to reach its destination. From Loch Raven to Fells Point is arguably the most song-based track on the album, thanks to the languid indie-like melody sung in places, but the meat of this track is a conversation between two electric guitars and the bass. These are played by Jeffrey and his core collaborators, Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard; the axemen trading lines in reaction to each other and yet still impressively on the same page, alongside percussionist Scott Verrastro. Calliope Wailer is, by contrast, quite far out, a free-form jazz breeze blowing by in sympathy with guitars that walk the line like a bomb disposal unit, unchained from the restrictions of rhythm. Tightroping stays in this experimental lane, this time featuring Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on eerily wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in 20 years. Critical Masses prove the band can lock into an alt-rock groove with ease before the twelve-minute epic Reservoir Drop – The Summer Son’ takes us into another dimension, a place loosely identifying as ‘space rock’ in days gone by. It begins more like an electric wig-out, all acid fretwork over a driving beat, but ends in realms of Pink Floyd, warning Eugene about his axe, deep echoing chasms of sound that rise and fall, accompanied by more ghostly vocal noises, as if they are the house band on the moon. For something that sounds so spontaneous and in the moment, it is actually very intricately structured, however the potential for future probing journeys in these freshly built vessels should keep those concert tapers happily nourished for a long time to come.
Liquid Donnon (June 12th, 2026) Riot Season Records (UK) and Feeding Tube Records (US)
Bandcamp: Riot Season | Feeding Tube | Jeffrey Alexander
UK Tour Dates:
2nd August — Sheffield, Alder
3rd August — Sowerby Bridge, Puzzle Hall
4th August — Cambridge, Portland Arms
5th August — Stoke-on-Trent, Artisan Tap
6th August — York, The Crescent
7th August — Nottingham, JT Soar
8th August — London, Cafe OTO (Upset The Rhythm)
9th August — Builth Wells, Kozfest 2026
10th August — Hereford, Weirdshire