They're the two left in the juke joint when the hurricane's about to make landfall, when the revelers have gone home, sweat-soaked and exhausted. The bulbs are blown out, the floors full of glass, but two men are honour bound to keep playing, pouring their sweat into the parched earth like libation. In the best traditions of two man blues and roots, Swamp Thing are a duo that you know are playing to stay alive. While Michael Barker's chops are legendary to the legions of JBT fans whose jaws dropped in that Better Man solo, and Grant Haua's no stranger to the folks in NZ, it's possible that harping on about the pedigree of the players gets in the way of the story this album is telling. Swamp Thing are very much their own monster. In all of two days Swamp Thing have made a totally unique first album - Balladeer - a work that distills the inspired energy of two guys playing their hearts and souls out on songs that talk of love, loss, hope and salvation. With no overdubs, no production wizardry and blood and sweat evident in every track, the recording was done with engineer Neil Baldock and assisted by Benjamin Knapp at Roundhead studio Auckland. The mixing was done by Eddie Rayner.