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= Number One = + = T W A N G I N' ! = + = May, 1994 =
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"Both Kinds ~ ~ Of Music"
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Editor: Cheryl Cline cline@well.sf.ca.us
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Sidekick: Lynn Kuehl
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Twangin'! is a monthly e-zine about country western music,
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covering what some people call "real country," others "western
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beat," and still others "alternative country." I usually call it
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"Real country, western beat, alternative country, whatever". If
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the names Tim O'Brien, Rosie Flores, Jimmie Dale Gilmore or
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Shaver mean something to you, then you're in the right place. If
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you're curious about bands with names like Hank McCoy & the Dead
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Ringers, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Voodoo Swing, or the Bad Livers,
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keep an eye on this space. Twangin's focus is country music, but
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it's a wide focus, since we see American music as more interwoven
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than the purists in any one camp like to allow. When it comes to
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musical purity, Twangin' is slutsville. We love country music,
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but we're unfaithful and ramblin'; we've got roving ears. So
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Twangin' strays constantly into the arms of the blues, folk, and
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rock, and we review, interview, and otherwise promote bands that
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do the same.
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Twangin' is also a quarterly print fanzine, available from Cheryl
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Cline, 2230 Huron Drive, Concord, CA 94519. Subscriptions are
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$8.00/four issues -- a bargain at 32-36 pages an issue! Ask for a
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copy; the first one is free. The print version and the electronic
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version are not identical, though material will be swapped
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between the two. Twangin' has gotten good reviews from FACTSHEET
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FIVE, TOWER PULSE, ROCK & RAP CONFIDENTIAL, SING OUT!, ALARM
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CLOCK, THE FEEDLOT, and MUSIC CITY TEXAS.
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Twangin'! is always looking for contributions in the way of
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reviews, interviews, essays, and discographies. We are especially
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interested in reports on local country, bluegrass, old-time and
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rockabilly scenes.
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C O N T E N T S
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---------------
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Interview: Hank McCoy talks to Jimmie Dale Gilmore
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Reviews: CD's and cassettes by Junior Brown, Cactus Brothers,
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Barbara Lamb, Del McCoury, Hank McCoy & the Dead Ringers,
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Nashville Bluegrass Band, Monte Warden and Dwight Yoakam.
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Country music 'Zines
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Books: Cooking With Queen Ida by Queen Ida Guillory and Naomi
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Wise
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All unsigned material is by Cheryl Cline
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=================================================================
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H A N K M c C O Y
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- T a l k s t o -
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J I M M I E D A L E G I L M O R E
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------------------------------------
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Jimmie Dale Gilmore's latest album, SPINNING AROUND THE
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SUN (Elektra) has received rave reviews across the country, and
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his live shows -- he has been touring pretty steadily since last
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August -- have received equally rave reviews. (I saw him both
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times he came through San Francisco, playing to a packed house
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at both shows.) On his current tour, Monte Warden is opening, but
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last fall Hank McCoy & the Dead Ringers opened for Gilmore when
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he played Columbus, Ohio. Hank caught a few words with him when
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they played at Stache's, an alternative music club in Columbus.
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--Cheryl
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McCOY: Tell me about this tour; are you playing new cities?
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GILMORE: Well, Chicago I have a pretty good base in, and St.
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Louis is good, but some of the other ones, it's the first time
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through, other than the few times--I went through with Bob Dylan
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a couple of years ago, and that same season with John Prine--so
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a few of the places I've seen before. But most of them are pretty
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new to me.
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McCOY: What kinds of places have you been playing?
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GILMORE: It's some kind of rock clubs and theaters--it's a
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little bit different from the honky-tonks.
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McCOY: Are honky-tonks where you usually play in Texas?
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GILMORE: Well, it varies a whole lot, but with a band, it's dance
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halls in Texas. But, I've played different stuff, you know; I've
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played solo folk-kinda gigs for years.
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McCOY: About your new album--you've said that you wanted to
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introduce people to your influences and such, playing less of
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your own material. Is that a result of things being shuffled
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somewhat in the move to a major label? Your records on Hightone
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did indicate your influences...
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GILMORE: Well, see my thinking was that this is the first record
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that's got the chance for really broad distribution. You know, my
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really hardcore fans have that stuff and know what I'm about
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kinda, you know... and AFTER AWHILE was all my own songs, and
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that was deliberate. That's what they asked me to do. But, I
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always liked doing this whole broad spectrum of stuff, I always
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want to do my friends' songs, and the old songs and my songs, so
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it was my choice. I could have gone either way; the label didn't
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pressure me in any way to do my own or not to do my own. They
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also let me choose my own producer.
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McCOY: What role did producer Emory Gordy play in selecting
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material for SPINNING AROUND THE SUN?
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GILMORE: What I did was, I submitted a tape of about thirty songs
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to David Bither at Elektra. I said I'd like to do any of these
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songs, so that was my choice. Then David picked out about twenty
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of those, and we sent those to Emory, who then boiled it down to
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the final thirteen and we worked on them and then got it down to
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the final twelve. So it was a kind of committee decision, but the
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whole choice was made out of my original list. The whole thing
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was my choice, but with their take on what was best. Elektra has
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always been more prone to let the artist do their own thing, you
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know. And then they told me real specifically, and they told
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Emory in Nashville, just don't think about trying to make the
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hooks and the radio-friendly thing, just make the music.
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McCOY: Gordy's done some pretty radio-friendly production work.
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GILMORE: Exactly. He knows how to do it, and that's what they
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hire him for in Nashville normally, but Elektra's different. They
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say make the music and we'll find the market for it, rather than
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squish me into a marketable product. They perceived it as having
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more potential for longevity. It's smart, I think. My entire
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dealings with Elektra have been completely counter to what my
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prejudices were about major labels.
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McCOY: How did you come to be signed with Elektra? Was it due to
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the success of AFTER AWHILE--was there the intention, from the
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beginning, to move from Nonesuch to Elektra?
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GILMORE: Well, I don't know for sure, because for AFTER AWHILE it
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was a one-record deal...it was David Bither and Natalie Merchant
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who got me that deal. Between the two of them, they kind of
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engineered it, and I sort of think, but I don't know this, but it
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just seems to me that David was looking way ahead even back then.
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But he never said that to me, he never said, "Hey, come do this
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record and we'll get you a deal on Elektra." But I think he
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envisioned that it would work that way. I think he thought I had
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potential, all the way back there. And see, he's the head of the
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label now. But...there wasn't the kind of planning--the kind of
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back-room conniving--about this, at all.
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McCOY: The Nonesuch American Explorer series struck me--with the
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glaring exception of your album--to be a series that celebrated
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artists who, due to their ages, were closer to the ends of their
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careers.
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GILMORE: Well, I'm old enough! (laughing). I'm still a lot
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younger than the rest of the guys on the series. I've never had a
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broad-based career, I've never had any hit songs that I wrote, or
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anything. But I've had this very loyal following spread around
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the world for a long time--but it's been small. To me, at the
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time, Nonesuch was a major label. They don't have a big promotion
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budget any more than lots of other independent labels. They're
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distributed by Elektra, and owned by Elektra, but they operate
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totally independently. They put out their kind of artistic stuff
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--that's their whole motif. So talking about being on a major
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label, what that means is now there's tour support, lots of
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advertising. They believe enough in my potential to sink a lot of
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money into it out front.
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McCOY: What was it like to be on Hightone? On a small label?
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GILMORE: To me, at each step, it seemed like a big success. The
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first Hightone album brought my profile up, and, in a way, I've
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been feeling like a--a star for six or seven years, because at
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each point, it raised my profile from what it was before, so each
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year the gigs were bigger than they were before...it's been a
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slow but steady progression.
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McCOY: Have you started thinking about the next record yet?
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GILMORE: I've been writing a few songs....
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Jimmie Dale Gilmore's four solo albums are FAIR AND SQUARE
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(Hightone, 1988), JIMMIE DALE GILMORE (Hightone, 1989), AFTER
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AWHILE (Nonesuch, 1991) and SPINNING AROUND THE SUN (Elektra,
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1993). Hightone's address is 220 4th Street #101, Oakland, CA
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94607.
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Gilmore appears with Butch Hancock on TWO ROADS: LIVE FROM
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AUSTRALIA (Virgin, 1990) and of course, on THE FLATLANDERS: MORE
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A LEGEND THAN A BAND (Rounder, 1992). Rounder's address is: One
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Camp Street, Cambridge, MA 02140.
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Hank McCoy & The Dead Ringers can be heard on STILL FEELING
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BLUE/LATELY MY LUCK HAS BEEN CHANGING (CD) on OKra Records. McCoy
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also appears on the recently released OKRA ALL-STARS (CD), and a
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new Dead Ringers album will be released this fall. Write to: Okra
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Records, 1992 B. North High Street, Columbus, OH 43201.
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R E V I E W S R E V I E W S R E V I E W S R E V I E W S
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Junior Brown =+= GUIT WITH IT =+= Curb Records (CD)
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We got a monster here. Take equal parts Ernest Tubb, Hank
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Thompson, George Jones, Leon McCauliff, and Dick Curliss, add
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just a dollop of Jimi Hendrix (maybe just a little bit more), mix
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well and pour into a pair of tooled cowboy boots, outfit 'im in
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spotless brown slacks, white nylon shirt, and brown sportjacket,
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top with a dazzling white straw cowboy hat, and pair him up with
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a recombinant double-neck guitar, part Fender Telecaster, part
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lap-steel, and you got yourself one hell of a monster country
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musician called Junior Brown.
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This here's the second album for Brown on the Curb label.
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He's been kicking around the Austin scene for many years, and
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this album's a bit of a breakthrough for him. OK, so now he's a
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bubblin' under cult figure rather than a best-kept secret. Until
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a few years ago, what Brown is doing was almost unthinkable to
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the mass market. His version of hard-bopping country pop recalls
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the best of a musical style that once seemed as relevant to
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contemporary music as the buggy whip, but has recently been
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stirring up the country fans (since the revival of Buck Owens'
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career and the success of various historic LP reissues).
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What Junior Brown is doing is more than mere recreation
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though. If he'd been born thirty years earlier, he'd have been a
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major star, right up there with the names I mentioned above. His
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own songs stand up straight and strong next to any of the old
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time hits, "Doin' What Comes Easy To A Fool" and "You Didn't Have
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To Go All The Way" could easily be lost George Jones classics and
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"So Close Yet So Far Away," his duet with his wife Tanya Rae, is
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as good as anything George and Tammy ever recorded together.
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Brown specializes in hook-laden country pop songs filled with
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clever lyrics, witness "My Wife Thinks You're Dead" and "Highway
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Patrol" (which I just discovered is a cover version; it's
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difficult to tell, which makes my point).
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Yet it's his unique double-neck guitar -- the guit-steel--
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and his prowess with that instrument upon which Junior Brown's
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reputation rests. The man's a guitar monster as one listen to
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"Sugarfoot Rag" or "Guit-Steel Blues" will prove. The casual
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listener might not recognize this, most modern albums bein' the
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result of collaboration between lots of expert session players,
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but having seen Brown playing and doing it all in concert
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recently, I'm all the more in awe of this man's extraordinary
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talents. Plus, he twangs like crazy!
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I can continue to rant and rave about this album but you all
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could make it a lot easier on yourselves if you just went out and
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bought the thing. Junior Brown is loose and roamin' the land,
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layin' waste to the silly notion that the Texas two-step and
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truckdriver favorites are dead. He's a monster alright... there's
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just no stoppin' him. --Lynn Kuehl
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Cactus Brothers =+= CACTUS BROTHERS =+= Liberty Records (CD)
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The Cactus Brothers are one of those bands that combine country,
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pop, and a little punk in a way that sounds like none and all of
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the above. They've got a driving beat, they've got finesse.
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They've got a big sound, and a deft touch, a pop sensibility and
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a punk intensity. They've got virtuoso flash but never let it get
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in the way of a good song.
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They've also got seven members -- Will Golemon, John
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Golemon, David Kennedy, Paul Kirby, Sam Poland, David Schnauffer,
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and Tramp -- playing more than a dozen instruments between them,
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including four kinds of guitars, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer,
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dobro, fiddle, drums and other percussion, and jews harp. With
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all that going on, the music could easily become cluttered, but
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it never does. Instead, a simple song (like "Devil Wind") is
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given a lot of musical depth by the interplay and layering of
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different instruments and vocals, with Paul Kirby's gruff lead
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vocals always riding on top.
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Their cover of "Sixteen Tons" immediately made me a convert.
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It's so easy to do a novelty-song take on country standards, and
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god knows I've heard enough punk covers of country songs, most of
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them served up with a sly and knowing wink. Not this one. While
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they pump it up to a volume that'd have Ol' Rockin' Ern spinning
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in his grave, it's tough and heartfelt, more along the lines of
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what Steve Earle might do with it than say, John Doe. Likewise,
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they do two traditional bluegrass tunes, "Fisher's Hornpipe" and
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"Blackberry Blossom" in a manner that's hardly traditional, but
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translated to rock (or country rock) in such a way that seems
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natural, not to mention damn fine.
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The Steve Earle comparison comes to mind with the original
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"Crazy Heart," a fast-rocking song about one of those guys who
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can't keep his heart in line. They do a great cover of the Everly
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Brothers' "Price of Love," then it's punk riffs kicking off
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"Swimmin' Hole," and a pop take on "Devil Wind." I can't name a
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song on here that I don't like; this is definitely one of the
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more satisfying CDs I've pulled out of the bins. --Cheryl Cline
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Jimmie Dale Gilmore =+= SPINNING AROUND THE SUN =+= Elektra
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a rawboned romantic, a dreaming
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twangy kind of dude. At the forefront of what he calls "western
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beat," he defines and redefines country music as he goes along,
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gently but surely prying pieces of rock, blues, and country loose
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from their traditional moorings and adding them to his bag. Some
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critics have called Gilmore avant-garde country, but I prefer to
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think of what he does--what all of the western beat artists
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do--as recombinant twang.
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SPINNING AROUND THE SUN starts out with some low, tough,
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Johnny Cash-styled guitar on "Where You Going." One of those
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songs reviewers like to use the C-word (that's "cosmic") on, it
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contains my favorite line on the album: "You can see the future,
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it don't make no difference / let's don't talk about it babe, you
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know I love the suspense."
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Singing hard and anguished over some nerve-jarring
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guitar work, Gilmore turns the Hank Williams standard, "I'm So
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Lonesome I Could Cry," a song most often described as "wistful,"
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into a howl of pain. It's the only version of the song I've heard
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that raised the hair on the back of my neck. Strong stuff. Other
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standouts are "Reunion," (written by Jo Carol Pierce) a beautiful
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and old fashioned duet with Lucinda Williams; "Just A Wave,"
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written by Butch Hancock, a remake of the song Gilmore originally
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recorded for the Hightone album FAIR & SQUARE, and "I'm Gonna
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Love You," which Gilmore played on a segment of Texas Connection
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aired not long after the release of AFTER AWHILE, saying, "This
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is my favorite song that I left off of the album." I'm glad he
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didn't leave it off this one.
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Gilmore pays tribute to fifties rock & roll by wrapping that
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angular warble of his around "I Was The One;" his rendition
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probably would have given rock fans of the time the willies. But
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you know, a song that'd be perfect for Gilmore is Ritchie Valens'
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"Donna." Wonder if he's done it live somewhere...
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The song that instantly added itself to my inner jukebox is
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"Nothing of the Kind." Like "Deep Eddy Blues" and "When the
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Nights are Cold" (both on JIMMIE DALE GILMORE), it's an
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unassuming, deceptively simple song that catches you unawares and
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then won't let you go.
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It's possible that Jimmie Dale Gilmore could do a bad album,
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maybe in some grim, godforsaken alternate universe where the
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young Gilmore never picked up a hitchhiker named Townes Van
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Zandt. Good thing we all live in this one. --Cheryl Cline
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Barbara Lamb =+= FIDDLE FATALE =+= Sugar Hill (CD)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Barbara Lamb steps out from the shadow of her band Ranch Romance
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to do an album of mostly traditional instrumental music. She's
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ably assisted not only by her Ranch Romance band mates but also
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Tim O'Brien and Scott Nygaard from the O'Boys and a host of other
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fine musicians.
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It's a pleasant little CD, although if I was forced to find
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fault with it, I'd have to say that Barbara Lamb isn't featured
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strongly enough, either instrumentally or vocally. She's got a
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nice voice, but the first vocals to be heard are Tim O'Brien's on
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"A Good Woman's Love" -- which is not by itself a bad thing, but
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it's kind of startling to hear him before you hear her -- and
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sometimes Lamb's fiddling isn't given the center stage treatment
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she deserves. It's not all that hard to imagine some of these
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songs as out-takes from a Ranch Romance or Tim O'Brien and the
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O'Boys album.
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Despite these nitpicks, Fiddle Fatale contains a pretty fair
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display of Barbara Lamb's fiddle virtuosity. She goes the gamut,
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from Texas-style country swing to French reels, from old sea
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chanteys to Zydeco, and she makes it all sound great. My favorite
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is a song called "So What," an up-tempo Zydeco number that made
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me wish she'd been braver and sung a lot more. In any case, the
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music and musicianship on FIDDLE FATALE is nothing but first-
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rate. FIDDLE FATALE is less hip and more tradition-minded in
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general than a Ranch Romance album, but most folk and old-timey
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country fans will find this a very pleasant addition to their
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collections. --Lynn Kuehl
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Del McCoury =+= A DEEPER SHADE OF BLUE =+= Rounder Records (CD)
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I'd summarize my reaction to Del McCoury's new album as "more of
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the same," but this is one case where that's cause for
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celebration. In less talented hands, the material and its
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treatment might seem to be becoming a bit predictable, but when
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this band applies its formula of bluesy, book-matched vocals,
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hard-driving Scruggsy banjo, fiery mandolin, and lonesome fiddle
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to transform diverse material -- much of it originally straight
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country -- into instant classic gems of traditional-inspired
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bluegrass, there's something, new, fresh, and energizing in the
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familiarity of the results (whew! thought I'd never get out of
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that sentence alive!). For those who count such things, the word
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"blue" appears in five of the song titles on this album, making
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it possibly Del's bluest yet.
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I'm still digesting this, but so far an early favorite cut
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is the (need I say bluesy?) version of "True Love Never Dies,"
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previously a country hit for Kevin Welch, who co-wrote it with
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Gary Scruggs. This one reminds me a lot of this band's treatment
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of "Trainwreck of Emotion" a couple of albums back.
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Jerry Douglas, who co-produced this CD with Ronnie McCoury,
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has demonstrated (if there was any doubt) that he can do as well
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nailing that traditional lonesome sound in the studio as he does
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with more progressive efforts. --Jeff Miller
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Hank McCoy & the Dead Ringers =+= Still Feeling Blue/Lately My
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Luck Has Been Changing =+= OKra Records (CD)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Hank McCoy & the Dead Ringers specialize in uptempo country
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with an old-fashioned feel, twangin' guitars anchored by a strong
|
|
beat (rock, two-step, waltz), and infectious Louvin-style
|
|
harmonizing, with McCoy's fine nasal voice out front.
|
|
The CD is really a double album, containing (count 'em!) 24
|
|
songs. The first fourteen songs are a mixture of covers and
|
|
originals; the last ten--originally released on vinyl--are all
|
|
written by McCoy and the man's got a gift. He writes songs that
|
|
sound like they were written before he was born, helped along by
|
|
a couple of muses named Charlie & Ira. Songs like "Have You
|
|
Forgotten" and "Back in the Front of My Mind" hold up fine next
|
|
to a Louvin classic such as "I Wish You Knew," ably covered here.
|
|
The problem with long CDs--and this one is 72 minutes long--
|
|
is that it's hard to listen to them all the way through. Life
|
|
intrudes. The mail comes, your mother phones, dinner burns, your
|
|
brothers come home from the war, the polar ice caps melt... The
|
|
last couple of songs on this CD began to take on an air of
|
|
mystery, like boxes pushed into the back of the closet. So
|
|
finally I shoved the CD into the player and punched it to #24,
|
|
"When I'm Gone." A jumpy, uptempo, nose-thumbing number, it
|
|
turned out to be one of my favorites. But there are lots of other
|
|
great songs here too: "Long White Train," a funeral song in the
|
|
tradition of "The Longest Train," is straight out of church; the
|
|
covers of the Louvin Brothers' "I Wish You Knew" and Gram
|
|
Parsons' "Still Feeling Blue" are gorgeous, and the Dead Ringers'
|
|
version of "Vaya con Dios" is among the sappiest I've heard (and
|
|
that's a compliment). --Cheryl Cline
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Nashville Bluegrass Band =+= WAITIN' FOR THE HARD TIMES TO GO =+=
|
|
Sugar Hill (CD)
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
It's daunting to try to review the Nashville Bluegrass Band.
|
|
Their musical virtuosity and the sheer wonderfulness of this cd
|
|
rather overwhelms my feeble powers of description. I keep falling
|
|
back shame-facedly on the inadequate description of their music
|
|
as reminiscent of Hot Rize (remove your hats and take a moment to
|
|
silently reflect on their passing). It is, but that doesn't begin
|
|
to tell what makes NBB so fine in their own right.
|
|
Like Hot Rize, NBB takes a very modern approach to bluegrass
|
|
music: their playing is extraordinary, the arrangements
|
|
faultless, all the rough edges are rounded off smooth (as
|
|
compared to old-time bluegrass; I have to pull out an old J.E.
|
|
Mainer LP once in a while to remind myself of just how rough
|
|
around the edges the old timers were).
|
|
Where I think NBB truly excels over Hot Rise is in their
|
|
tremendous harmonizing. So strong are they vocally that their a
|
|
capella "Father, I Stretch My Hand To Thee" and "We've Decided To
|
|
Make Jesus Our Choice" make you forget that they're not playing
|
|
their instruments.
|
|
On the other hand, their instrumentals are just as fine. On
|
|
"Kansas City Railroad Blues" and "Soppin' Gravy" (a fiddle
|
|
showcase) they make it all sound so easy. In fact, from first
|
|
cut to last, NBB puts the lie to the complaint that nothing good
|
|
comes out of Nashville. Hot Rize may be gone (though not
|
|
forgotten), but the Nashville Bluegrass Band is more than up to
|
|
the task of filling their shoes. --Lynn Kuehl
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Dennis Robbins =+= MAN WITH A PLAN =+= Giant Records/Warner Bros.
|
|
(Cassette)
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Attention Billy Hill fans! Check out this 1992 solo album by
|
|
Dennis Robbins, slide guitarist and one of the lead vocalists for
|
|
that late lamented band. He's captured a lot of the same flavor
|
|
and fun the Billy Hill Band used to dish out. Most of the songs
|
|
are written by the Billy Hill songwriting trio -- Robbins, John
|
|
Scott Sherrill and Bob DiPiero -- and every song is solid,
|
|
rocking, redneck country, unless it's a sentimental, redneck
|
|
weeper like "My Side of Town" or "All the Way to San Antone."
|
|
There's just no way to pick out the best songs here, they
|
|
just flow along together in seamless, foot-tapping harmony.
|
|
There's an ode to "Home Sweet Home," ("Well now, the rain keeps
|
|
a-fallin' on that old tin roof/Listen to it honey, don't it get
|
|
you in the mood?"), a poor boy's tongue-in-cheek promise to take
|
|
his girl to "Paris, Tennessee," a declaration of intent to a
|
|
hard-to-get lady from a "Man With A Plan" and a loving tribute to
|
|
"The Chapel of the Friendly Bells," and with a tip of the hat to
|
|
ol' B. Hill, he does a cover of "I Am Just A Rebel." Through it
|
|
all Robbins never falters. His voice is a sweet, clear, masculine
|
|
twang that carries the hard freight of the blues and the lighter
|
|
burden of fun with equal ease. Get it, get it, get it!
|
|
|
|
For those of you unfamiliar with Billy Hill, their I AM JUST A
|
|
REBEL, released in 1989 is a great, overlooked country-rock
|
|
album. Look for it in all the finest cut-out bins.--Cheryl Cline
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Monte Warden =+= MONTE WARDEN =+= Watermelon Records (CD)
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Great news: the man behind the Wagoneers has returned. Four years
|
|
after the band broke up with notices indicating he'd been dropped
|
|
from A&M and signed to RCA as a solo act, Monte Warden pops up on
|
|
an indie label, showing himself as sweet and charismatic as ever.
|
|
On first listen I knew this was a good album, but I couldn't
|
|
help feeling a bit let down; my great love for Warden's
|
|
songwriting was bound up in the moody, wide open, country and
|
|
western feeling of the two Wagoneers albums. When I wasn't seeing
|
|
western vistas in his songs, I was seeing barnlike, smokey
|
|
roadhouses. On this new album, the production is clean, clear and
|
|
enclosed, deriving more from rockabilly and an overall tension
|
|
that gives you a sock-hop feeling of the fifties. A casual
|
|
listening leaves you with the impression of good-time happy-feet
|
|
dance music, but if you spend time with it, the Wardenesque
|
|
moodiness comes falling in with a sweep of beautiful harmony and
|
|
back-up vocals ("It's Amazing") or the juxtaposition of hard-
|
|
driving full-tilt rockabilly slapback vocals and shivery intense
|
|
harmonica with lyrics that are completely full of self-loathing
|
|
("Feel Better").
|
|
The album's strong flavor of fifties pop just coming out of
|
|
country, and its heavy, sometimes fevered romance (check out "Car
|
|
Seat"!) keeps reminding me of Marshall Crenshaw, who wouldn't be
|
|
out of place doing some guest leads on this album (maybe the next
|
|
one...?). There are also some good stretches into the outer
|
|
fringes of pop R&B ("Everyday We Fall In Love" and "Til She
|
|
Walked In") and yet other songs that would have fit right into
|
|
the Wagoneers' canon, such as "Just To Hear Your Voice," "All I
|
|
Want Is You," and "The Only One," a duet with the overrated Kelly
|
|
Willis.
|
|
The songwriting and vocal delivery are serious, beautiful,
|
|
exquisite, and perhaps more self-assured than on his previous
|
|
work. As with the Wagoneers, there's a heart-wrenching simplicity
|
|
that reaches deep and holds on to me: I know this will be music
|
|
I'll hold dear for the rest of my life. --William Breiding
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Dwight Yoakam =+= LA CROIX D'AMOUR =+= Reprise (Japanese Import)
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
This import-only album released in 1992 is most notable for the
|
|
fact that it contains six hard or impossible to find songs, songs
|
|
not available on the domestic Yoakam albums. We here at Twangin'
|
|
HQ went out and deliberately spent an inordinate amount of money
|
|
on this but I do believe it was worth it. This one might be
|
|
subtitled "Dwight Yoakam's Rock & Roll Album" since it rocks
|
|
harder than many rock albums I own.
|
|
The well-known songs, "If There Was A Way," "Dangerous Man,"
|
|
"Let's Work Together," "Takes A Lot To Rock You," "Suspicious
|
|
Minds," and "Long White Cadillac" are certainly nice, but it's
|
|
his choices in cover songs that're especially intriguing. We get
|
|
his version of "Truckin'" (which was one of the highlights of
|
|
DEADICATED, the Grateful Dead tribute album) and his covers of
|
|
the Beatles' "Things We Said Today" (!), Them's "Here Come's The
|
|
Night" (!!), and the Syndicate of Sound's "Hey Little Girl"
|
|
(!!!).
|
|
Yoakam is true to his roots; it just so happens that this
|
|
mainstay of the New Traditionalist Movement has very deep roots
|
|
in rock & roll as well. These are tough renditions that owe a lot
|
|
to the original garage attitude if not the original
|
|
instrumentation. His own songs, "What I Don't Know" and "Doin'
|
|
What I Did" exude the same sure sense of cool.
|
|
LA CROIX D'AMOUR makes an interesting comparison with This
|
|
Time, since Dwight is evidently makin' more of an overture to the
|
|
mainstream on his latest. I highly recommend this CD for hard-
|
|
core fans and newcomers alike, although it may take a major
|
|
effort of will-power to let go of the 25 bucks this booger goes
|
|
for. Hey Warner's! Why don't you do us all a big favor and
|
|
release this right here in the good old U.S. of A. --Lynn Kuehl
|
|
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
Z I N E S
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
=+= The Feedlot =+=
|
|
|
|
2101 Chicon Street, Austin, TX 78722. $8/year, free locally
|
|
Edited by Austin music writer Lee Nichols, who's even more cranky
|
|
about the state of country music than I am, THE FEEDLOT is
|
|
devoted strictly to what Nichols calls real country music. The
|
|
premiere issue started right in with slam-bang reviews of Junior
|
|
Brown's GUIT WITH IT and Don Walser's Pure Texas Band's THE
|
|
OFFICIAL SOUVENIR OF PURE TEXAS MUSIC and goes on to review
|
|
albums by the Austin Lounge Lizards, Rosie Flores, Jimmie Dale
|
|
Gilmore, Nancy Griffith, and Butch Hancock--well, you get the
|
|
idea. He's done two more issues, chiefly record reviews, and he
|
|
plans to branch out in future issues, adding news, interviews,
|
|
commentary, and a guide to essential classic country. Nichols is
|
|
knowledgeable about the music, straight-forward in his opinions,
|
|
and a fine and enthusiastic writer.
|
|
|
|
=+= Music City Texas =+=
|
|
1002 South First, Austin, TX 78704. $12/year, free locally
|
|
|
|
This freebie monthly entertainment calendar/magazine is different
|
|
from most. Most entertainment calendars don't feature Townes Van
|
|
Zandt on the cover, to start. The editor, John Conquest, focuses
|
|
on the alternative side of country, folk, and Tex-Mex, reviewing
|
|
in one issue recordings by Van Zandt, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tony
|
|
De La Rosa, Rosie Flores, David Halley, and Freddy Fender. He's
|
|
a real big fan of Tex-Mex, so get this if you're looking for more
|
|
Tejano music.
|
|
|
|
=+= WESTERN BEAT =+=
|
|
1738 Bay View Drive, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.
|
|
Phone: 310/374-7108, FAX: 310/374-5345. $15/6 issues.
|
|
|
|
Billy Block is a musician, promoter, writer, and all-around
|
|
booster of the L.A. country scene. Under the umbrella of Western
|
|
Beat Entertainment, he runs a small label and music publishing
|
|
company, publishes a newsletter, and writes a country column for
|
|
the trade magazine Music Connection. He also organizes the
|
|
monthly Western Beat American Music Showcases at the L.A.
|
|
coffeehouse Highland Grounds, where you can hear people like
|
|
Rosie Flores, Alan Whitney (reviewed this issue) and the Bum
|
|
Steers. His newsletter's pretty nifty, though it has much more of
|
|
an "industry" slant than this publication. It includes local
|
|
notes, spotlight articles on L.A. country musicians, photo
|
|
spreads, and short reviews of albums of interest, and a calendar
|
|
of Southern California shows. I like his philosophy: "I sincerely
|
|
believe that the popularity of acoustic music and the re-
|
|
emergence of the singer/songwriter in popular music will continue
|
|
to grow as the predominant trend in the coming years. As the
|
|
boundaries of country, rock, folk and blues become more difficult
|
|
to define, one must admit that it is truly great songs and
|
|
singers of great songs that make up the most important element of
|
|
our industry."
|
|
|
|
=+= Will Ray's Roundup =+=
|
|
PO Box 1150, Burbank, CA 91507. Phone: 818/848-2576
|
|
Free, but sending postage never hurts
|
|
|
|
This one-page newsletter brings you news of the Los Angeles
|
|
country scene, as filtered through the zany gossipmongering of
|
|
L.A. guitarist Will Ray, a man of apparently boundless energy who
|
|
has recently appeared on records by Wiley & the Wild West Show,
|
|
Far West, and the Hellecasters. Mr. Ray proves to be a man of
|
|
many hats, and he appears here wearing a pretty funny one.
|
|
Sometimes he's so funny it's hard to tell whether he's telling
|
|
the truth or, well, stretching it for laughs. Check out this
|
|
tidbit:
|
|
"Brisi Kae Hall, the female Dwight Yoakam of Los Angeles,
|
|
was in studio "C" with Will at the helm mixing songs for her new
|
|
album "Buenos Noches de Brisio." Brisi is also a designer of fine
|
|
western fashions as seen on the TV show "Real Stories of the
|
|
Highway Patrol."
|
|
I should warn you, don't read the ROUNDUP on the bus, you'll
|
|
have everybody looking at you and thinking you're one of those
|
|
nuts who giggle to themselves. It's really, really funny.
|
|
If you write for a copy in the near future--which you should
|
|
definitely do--you'll no doubt also get a copy of CAMP
|
|
HELLECASTER: A Newsletter dedicated to the study of Abnormal
|
|
Guitar Behavior--otherwise known as the official fan club
|
|
newsletter for the group in question. On the other hand, you
|
|
might well get a newsletter for some other band Will Ray is in,
|
|
who knows? In any case, CAMP HELLECASTER is full of newsy stuff
|
|
about that band.
|
|
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
B O O K S
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
COOKIN' WITH QUEEN IDA Queen Ida Guillory with Naomi Wise
|
|
Prima Publishing, PO Box 1260Q1, Rocklin, CA 95677
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
My advice to folks who pick up this book is to turn straight to
|
|
the recipe for Thelma Lewis's Sweet Potato Pawn and make yourself
|
|
a pan of it. While it's cooking (about an hour), sit back in
|
|
your favorite chair and read the wonderful stories Queen Ida
|
|
tells about growing up in Louisiana and California, and her
|
|
philosophy of cooking--kind of a down-home Ma Cuisine. She's a
|
|
natural storyteller (you knew that) and a great cook. And not
|
|
just Queen Ida: many of the recipes were collected from her
|
|
family and friends, all of whom know how to use the right end of
|
|
a soup spoon.
|
|
Queen Ida was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where her
|
|
family farmed. When she was a child, her father moved the family
|
|
to San Francisco, looking for better times in the Golden State.
|
|
Ida admits that growing up, she wasn't fond of either cooking OR
|
|
zydeco! But everyone in a farm family has to work, and she was
|
|
helping her mother in the kitchen from an early age. As for
|
|
music, she came to that much later. Girls weren't supposed to
|
|
play the accordion, it wasn't considered "ladylike." Ida's
|
|
brother (Zydeco musician Al Rapone) had an accordion, and she
|
|
would sometimes pick it up and fool around, but "I wasn't much
|
|
into zydeco music, anyway. I liked the blues, but you didn't hear
|
|
much of it over the radio. I liked country and western because
|
|
that's what I heard most of on the airwaves. I wasn't much into
|
|
jazz, either, but I started liking it because you like what you
|
|
hear. You like what's around you. And I used to listen to pop
|
|
music. Would you believe, playing zydeco now, that I used to
|
|
listen to Perry Como all the time? Andy Williams, Frankie Laine,
|
|
all those guys--I had albums. I used to go out and buy albums by
|
|
pop singers, and the kids would ask, 'You like that music?'"
|
|
She didn't really learn to play seriously until she was
|
|
married (to Ray Guillory) and the mother of three; and she didn't
|
|
begin to play in public until her kids were all in high school.
|
|
Even then she was very shy about playing "with all the guys," but
|
|
she was gently pushed onto the stage by her husband and her
|
|
brother. In 1975, she sat in with the band at a Mardi Gras bash
|
|
in San Francisco, where she was jokingly introduced by George
|
|
Broussard, who said, "Tonight we're going to crown you, Ida:
|
|
Queen of the Zydeco Accordion and Queen of Zydeco Music." A
|
|
writer and a photographer from the San Francisco Chronicle were
|
|
there, and two weeks later, Ida found herself on the cover of the
|
|
Chronicle's Sunday supplement. The rest, as they say, is history.
|
|
The book is rounded out by an appendix of cajun ingredients,
|
|
techniques and sources for foods and spices that may be hard to
|
|
find it you live back east, out west, or up north.
|
|
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
= Twenty-Five Reasons Why Your Record Isn't Played On The Radio =
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
If you want people to hear your record, you have to get it played
|
|
on the radio, and if you what you play ain't exactly boot-
|
|
scootin', it can be an uphill battle. Bluegrass and old-time
|
|
music have an especially hard time getting airplay when even
|
|
country stations don't play anything that's TOO country. The
|
|
following is a from list sent to Ken Irwin of Rounder Records by
|
|
a independent promoter. Ken says he's heard a number of these
|
|
personally. "We actually called stations when J.D. Crowe's album
|
|
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN came out, which featured Keith Whitley on
|
|
vocals, and were told by a few stations that they already had
|
|
Merle Haggard and they didn't need more than one traditional
|
|
singer on their station."
|
|
|
|
No local sales
|
|
No national action
|
|
Considering
|
|
Watching & waiting
|
|
Wrong image
|
|
Nothing hits me
|
|
The jocks don't like it
|
|
I don't like it
|
|
I like it but the P.D. doesn't
|
|
We're gonna wait & see what the competition does
|
|
Waiting for the reviews
|
|
We don't have the album yet
|
|
Will wait for the single
|
|
The record's not in the stores yet
|
|
Need approval from Atlanta (or the Owner, a Consultant, etc.)
|
|
Trade numbers don't merit airplay
|
|
It was vetoed in the music meeting
|
|
Too hard
|
|
Too soft
|
|
Too many women
|
|
Not enough guitar
|
|
Overproduced
|
|
Underproduced
|
|
Too Modern
|
|
Too traditional
|
|
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
=+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+= =+=
|
|
=================================================================
|
|
TWANGIN'! is copyright (c) 1994. Forwarding or otherwise
|
|
reproducing this zine electronically is okay, but if you want to
|
|
reprint any of the contents in, say, your own zine, ask first.
|
|
|
|
That number again is cline@well.sf.ca.us
|
|
|
|
Contributors ---------------------------------------------------
|
|
Cheryl Cline: Editor, publisher, chief cook & bottle-washer
|
|
Lynn Kuehl: Sidekick
|
|
Hank McCoy: Frontman for Hank McCoy & the Dead Ringers
|
|
He can be reached c/o OKra Records,
|
|
1992 B. North High Street, Columbus, OH 43201.
|
|
Ken Irwin: A founder of Rounder Records. Contact Ken at
|
|
One Camp Street, Cambridge, MA 02140
|
|
E-Mail: keni@ROUNDER.ROUNDER.COM
|
|
Jeff Miller: Banjo player for the East Coast bluegrass band
|
|
Yankee Division. E-Mail: jmiller@ksr.com
|
|
William Breiding: Ramblin' writer last seen driving a Dodge Dart
|
|
in Tucson, Arizona |