The Harleys and chainsaws, rebels and outlaws, three-legged gundogs and craggy western edges, well-traveled, but rooted in Jersey, all find insistent harmony in Old Man Lee, the rock act taking terrain fast and hard and playing at Bille's Old Tavern on Friday night in Hamilton.

"We aim for music either overlooked or missed by the mainstream, music that has character, which has spoken to us in one way or another," says Larry, bassist and lead vocalist.

Whether it's Johnny Cash, Gaslight Anthem, or the Interrupters, metal, country, or punk. a rebel-outlaw vibe dominates the sound of the band named after the ghost of a west Jersey scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project.

"All of it has the goal of getting people moving, shaking - and thinking," says Joe, drummer and vocalist.

The band operates with a strong sense of dissent at the heart of a musical tradition going back to Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis. "Rock and roll really began as the punk of music," says Larry, hence Old Man Lee's self-identification as punk rock.

If you're looking to hear Taylor Swift covers, you won't find them at Bille's Old Tavern when Old Man Lee takes the stage in Hamilton, the crossroads of New Jersey politics.

In the words of the father of lead guitarist Whit, "Where did all these great songs come from that I've never heard?"

Old Man Lee mines the obscure, to paraphrase vocalist Justine, fused with a sound they made out of sessions in a house once wired for the best acoustics to play the Zombies and the Misfits as loud as possible.

Who is Old Man Lee exactly?

Really, the gas station attendants, waiters, ice cream scoopers and tree fellers raging from COVID lockdown and looking to make something out of the madness. They're front porch pickers with a three-legged pit bull named Rosie in the backyard, motorcycles circled up on the gravel drive, who just keep pulling other people wandering the wilderness, in the direction of the one thing that finally matters to a five-piece unit champing at the bit on Thursday ahead of Friday, ready to unleash their hard-edged, hard-lived, hard-won weapon called music.

Larry: Lead vocals, bass, guitar

Whit: Lead guitar, mandolin

Joe: Drums, vocals

Lance, Guitar, vocals

Justine (JD): Vocals

Old Man Lee plays at Bille's Olde Tavern in Hamilton, 2694 Nottingham Way, on Friday, August 1, from 7-11. There's no cover charge, and the band will be accompanied by the Bourbon Neat Trio, a project featuring other members of the band.