When your band’s frontman runs off to play with a rock legend, what’s a guitarist to do? If you’re Foo Fighters axeman Chris Shiflett, you start your own side project.

While Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants doesn’t boast the rock-legend cred Dave Grohl gets palling around with John Paul Jones in Them Crooked Vultures, it appears to be an equally ambitious departure. The self-titled Americana record features pedal steel, a Joe Strummer cover, and from the looks of that album art, a lot of flannel.

The group has not released any music from the album, which drops July 13th, but the press release describes it as being influenced by Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, and the rootsier side of the Rolling Stones. The core band comprises Shiflett on guitar, Foo Fighters studio engineer John Lousteau on drums, and Derek Silverman on keyboards.

This band comes on the heels of Shiflett’s previous short-lived project, Chris Shiflett and the Campesinos, who according to a Foo Fighters message board, posted a few songs on MySpace last fall. The Dead Peasants have now taken over that page and the songs are gone, so whatever that was, it apparently didn’t work out.

Of course, The Dead Peasants continue a busy time for the various Foos. In addition to Grohl’s project, drummer Taylor Hawkins recently released his second album with the Coattail Riders (he talked to CoS about it a few weeks ago) and bassist Nate Mendel begins recording the next Sunny Day Real Estate album this month. Then, having gotten the solo stuff out of their system, the Foo boys reunite in September to work on their “heaviest album yet.”

Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants Tracklist:
01. Helsinki
02. Get Along
03. Bandaged
04. God Damn
05. Burning Lights (Joe Strummer cover)
06. An Atheist’s Player
07. Not Going Down Alone
08. Baby, Let It Out
09. Death March