It has taken eight years for The Hushpuppies band to release its second independent CD, but lead vocalist Todd Cowart said fans will find the wait to be more than worthwhile.

Sweet Magnolia follows the band’s 2001 acclaimed album Songs from the Big House ; not a reference to Reidsville State Prison, but rather to the band’s sharecropper’s shack rehearsal spot south of Millen, Ga.

“This new CD blows the first one out of the water,” Mr. Cowart said last week from Bogart, Ga., where he works as a mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo.

A CD release party will be held at 8 p.m. Friday at the Country Club nightclub, 2834 Washington Road. Tickets are $5. Copies of the CD will be available for $5.

The title cut is a country kicker that is worthy of any major country label.

Mr. Cowart sings of bluegrass artist Doc Watson in Carolina, Tootsie’s nightclub in Nashville and other Southern landmarks, and then notes, “But it ain’t that sweet magnolia. Man, it’s the way that she holds you that keeps Georgia on my mind. She keeps Georgia on my mind.”

You can hear that song and also This Old Town (about Mr. Cowart’s growing-up years in Millen) and Free As A Bird (a tribute to the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd) at myspace.com/thehushpuppies.

Other band members include Mr. Cowart’s brother-in-law Matt Thomas on lead guitar, Cary Cooper on drums and Jared Stubbs on bass guitar.

Some of the band members came together for a benefit in 1997, but the band really gelled in 1998.

Ben Roberts, of Waynesboro, Ga., writes of the band on the CD jacket of Sweet Magnolia , “They are storytellers, road-weary troubadours, in the likes of REK (Robert Earl Keen) or Waylon (Jennings) himself. You don’t have to live below the Mason-Dixon to appreciate their sound, but you’ll be reminded of why you do every time you hear ‘em play.”

I loved the Hushpuppies’ first CD and have been writing about the band since February 2002. They’ve become one of the few area bands without a hit single to consistently pack large nightclubs such as the Country Club.

Mr. Cowart said it was intentional to make this new CD as much of a Southern theme as possible.

“Alan Walden, former manager of Lynyrd Skynyrd, told me one time at a show in Macon, ‘If you can make an album that brings dignity to the South and its people, you’ll have something.’ We have certainly tried to do this with Sweet Magnolia and are extremely optimistic about where it will take us.”

It looks like the Hushpuppies have pulled off a good album with Sweet Magnolia . It’s a powerful tribute to the South but an even more of a powerful statement to this fine band.

Don Rhodes – Augusta Chronicle (Oct 22, 2009)

Click on link below for article.

Mary-Kate Roan – Statesboro Connect (Oct 21, 2009)

I once took a road trip from Burke County to Texas under the guise of seeing Willie play Austin. In truth, the trip was as much about the journey as it was the destination: shrimp and beer overlooking Mobile Bay; coffee to refuel a long New Orleans night; Pat Greene playing Luckenbach. The Hushpuppies sing of such travels, everyday lives set to the backdrop of a six-string guitar. Its dirt roads and blacktops; canned beer and Tennessee whiskey; a harvest moon on slow-moving black water. It’s honest work for honest pay; that thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning; and, of course, the sweet drawl of your name as it passes from the lips of a Southern belle, that may not always act the way her momma raised her. They are storytellers, road-weary troubadours, in the likes of REK or Waylon himself. You don’t have to live below the Mason-Dixon to appreciate their sound, but you’ll be reminded of why you do every time you hear ‘em play.

Ben Roberts (Sep, 2009)

“It’s party time down South!  The Hushpuppies with a new album that will have the Puphead Nation singing along with the CD on dirt roads, highways and city streets all over the South and beyond.  In the studio or live, these boys know how to make the crowd come alive with their original brand of hard charging, down home Southern Fried Country songs.  The Pups are born and bred, red clay, loud and proud Georgia boys who bring it how and rowdy everytime.  Get ready to rock!  Get ready to roll!  Get ready to GET DOWN!

“I’ve never seen a Magnolia tree anywhere north of the Maxon-Dixon line.  I can’t say I blame them.  Why would they want to put down roots anywhere else?  Magnolias may just be God’s finest Southern artwork.”

Don Lively; Shellbluff, GA; columnist/southern writer

Don Lively (Oct 12, 2009)

“Like beautiful white Magnolia tree blossoms, the Hushpuppy band members are appreciated throughout the Southern states that they play. They always bring to the stage an amazing level of high energy coupled of an equal large dose of musical talent.  They are one of the few bands to consistently pack large sized night clubs without having a hit single.  The Hushpuppies — Todd Cowart, Cary Cooper, Jared Stubbs, and Matt Thomas — may call themselves “pups” but they are dogged in their determination to improve each year with their country-rock music as the new CD, Sweet Magnolia, abundantly proves.  Magnolia trees endure for a long, long time and hopefully The Hushpuppies will be around for just as long.”

Don “Ramblin” Rhodes; Augusta, GA; author & music columnist

Don Rhodes (Sep, 2009)