FIDELITY

GIRLS, GUNS AND GLORY

By LUKE O'NEIL

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It wasn't so long ago that Girls, Guns and Glory, winners of the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, couldn't even get a show. "No one wanted to book us," says front man Ward Hayden. "We kept being told we were too country and people couldn't figure out a bill to put us on. It was really tough to break in."

Add that victory to an impressive list of "best" this and that accolades and a Boston Music Award, and, yeah, sounds really tough.

What's the big deal? "It could just be that it's something slightly different from the norm, so it's perking people's ears up," he offers. "I think we all believe in what we're doing though, so hopefully that translates to the listener."

What they're doing is something of anomaly in Boston—a town that's always been a bit more Costello than Presley, more Rotten than Cash, more Lennon than Fogerty. "I think with my voice we're always going to get labeled country," Hayden says. Growing up in Scituate, Mass, singing in choral groups, that voice, with its natural breaks and scratches, was something of a liability. Not anymore.

Like every other good band ever, GG&G's genesis comes down to the influence of a woman. Two, actually. "My country background is pretty much from the old stuff that my mom always played." When he went off to college at UConn, he says, "We had an old Oldsmobile that only had a tape deck, so when I used to drive to and from school I'd grab some of her tapes because I didn't have anything to listen to. I really felt like I discovered something the first time I put on Johnny Cash."

He paid careful attention. Hayden shows keen eye for storytelling on their debut CD Inverted Valentine with songs like "Ramblin Old Daddy," a banjo-and-fiddle waltz dripping with a tearful cascade of slide guitar. Credit that to the second influential woman in his life, the one that done did him wrong. Before that, "I never really tried to pen a song," he says. We're glad he did. Now, for the well-being of Boston's music scene, someone go out there and break this kid's heart again.

[Girls Guns & Glory at Church Boston. Sat 5.31.08. 69 Kilmarnock St., Boston. 617.236.7600. 8pm/21+/$8. churchofboston.com]

[Girls, Guns & Glory at the WBCN River Rave. Sun 6.1.08. 885 S. Main St., Mansfield. 508.339.2333. 4pm/18+/$25-$45. ticketmaster.com]