Review Roulette: Dan Baird, Marshall Chapman, David Schnaufer, Tone Patrol (1990, 1993, 1995)

DAN BAIRD
Love Songs For the Hearing Impaired
(Def American)
    Former Georgia Satellite songwriter and frontman Dan Baird “fired” himself from that band after their wonderfully complex and darkly emotional third album and struck out on his own. That he should hit the often-traveled trail of the journeyman should certainly come as no surprise; the Satellites were always just a group of inspired journeymen at heart, as loose as a pick-up band in a one-night jam session, as tight and cohesive a unit as any well-practiced bar band could be. It should not come as any surprise, then,  that Baird’s solo debut would draw upon the same influences and inspiration as did the band’s best work: the Stones, Chuck Berry, The Faces...all those musical pioneers who defied the expectations of their time and defined an art form. Love Songs For the Hearing Impaired is no-frills, straight-ahead, gut-level, guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll. A vastly underrated songwriter in a Woody Guthrie/Hank Williams “keep it simple but convey a lot of thought” vein, Baird has always had a flair for penning both lyrical and musical hooks, he provides both here in quantity. Tunes like “The One I Am,” “Jule + Lucky,” “Seriously Gone,” and the grammatically-correct “I Love You Period” are meat and potato tunes for fans who like their rock unpretentious and undiluted. From Baird, I would expect no less... (The Metro, 1993)

MARSHALL CHAPMAN
It’s About Time...Recorded Live At The Tennessee State Prison For Women
(Margaritaville Records)
    With two decades of toiling away in the music biz under her belt, Marshall Chapman has amassed a resume of songwriting credits and major and indie label releases that would make even the most hardcore alternative rocker blush with envy. The talents of Ms. Chapman have long been overlooked by all but her loyal legion of fans, however, making her one of Nashville’s best kept musical secrets. Only time will tell if It’s About Time...Recorded Live At The Tennessee State Prison For Women will win Chapman the long overdue success that she deserves, but one thing’s for certain: she’s a hell of a performer. Chapman’s blending of country, rock, and blues tends to make her too difficult to pigeonhole into any ready-made format, and that’s just the way that it should be. Chapman’s live delivery of songs like “Real Smart Man” or “Good-Bye Little Rock & Roller,” her throaty, sensual vocals, and energetic guitar playing as gleeful and electric as they were twenty years ago proving that there really is still magic to be found in the streets of the Music City. (T-Bone, 1995)

DAVID SCHNAUFER
Dulcimer Player
(S.F.L. Records)
    Dulcimer master David Schnaufer may well be one of the Music City’s best kept secrets…’tis a shame, too, because Dulcimer Player, Schnaufer’s second album for Nashville’s S.F.L. Records, is a sheer delight. This collection of tasteful originals and inspired covers offers a Celtic-flavored romp through the dulcet tones of Schnaufer’s dulcimer, a traditional instrument making a welcome comeback. With the help of skilled session folks such as Mark O’Connor, Tone Patrol’s talented Dave Pomeroy, “Cowboy” Jack Clement, and the Cactus Brothers (also known as members of Walk The West), Schnaufer expresses pure emotion through his instrument, creating a wonderful and spirited sound which needs no words to encumber the anarchistic freedom of its soaring notes. (The Metro, April 1990)

TONE PATROL
5.19.89
(Earwave Records)
    For those of you who caught Tone Patrol’s wonderful performance at The Metro’s Second Annual Nashville Music Awards show, then you’re already familiar with this talented quintet. For those of you who sadly missed the affair, this tape – recorded live at Nashville’s Douglas Corner – would serve as an excellent introduction. Stepping out from their various roles as session players, Tone Patrol’s Dave Pomeroy, Kenny Malone, Biff Watson, Larry Chaney, and Sam Bacco placed their creative skills together to deliver an energetic and mesmerizing performance, captured here in all of its beauty and grace. Tone Patrol performs an original and unique blend of jazz, rock, and so-called “New Age” music, instrumental tapestries delicately woven by the combined skills of the musicians, played to perfection in the spirit of the performance. I’d suggest catching these guys their next time out…and after you see them live, you’ll search high and low for a copy of this tape (as well you should). It’s creative efforts such as this which serve Nashville’s image as the “Music City” best. (The Metro, April 1990)

Vintage Review: Giles Reaves' Nothing Is Lost (1988)

It may surprise you, but Nashville is rapidly gaining a reputation as a hotbed of “space music,” that ethereal art form which includes a myriad of musical styles and genres, consisting mostly of instrumental pieces and including everything from experimental jazz and esoteric classical works to aggressive noise and electronic wizardry. Creative and innovative musicians such as Anthony Rian, Kirby Shelstad, and William Linton have put the Music City on the New Age music map. The best-known of all our local creators is Giles Reaves.

Reaves, known locally for his engineering skills while associated with the Castle studio, released his first collection of space music a year ago, the brilliant and effervescent album Wunjo. Inspired by the clairvoyant Nordic runes and performed on keyboards and synthesizers with the aid of a computer, Wunjo was a highly-textured and forceful work, and captured the attention and imagination of listeners all over the globe.

As wonderful as his previous album was, Reaves’ latest, Nothing Is Lost, is a more realized work. Exploring a different reality than that on his first recording, Reaves’ new album is a masterful and introspective creation, a rare combination of artistic vision and technical proficiency. Blending traditional instrumentation with synthesizers and the computer, Reaves has created a fully-developed, cohesive collection of pieces. Nothing Is Lost draws from a more diverse sphere of influences and inspiration than Wunjo. An Asian feel pervades side one, incorporating the rhythms and syncopations of the islands to create a textured veil of sound and sensory appeal not unlike the lesser-known works of Brian Eno or the magnificent, Malaysian-influenced dream works of Jon Hassell. The second side of Nothing Is Lost is equally enjoyable, more fragile and mystically oriented than the first side.

Reaves deserves any success or accolade heaped upon him and I, for one, hope that he continues to follow this particular muse in creating further works of this nature. Space Music composers are often ridiculed and patronized by lesser talents in other fields as mere panderers to spiritual muzak. But at their best, they are our generation’s equivalent to the classical composers of centuries past. Nothing Is Lost is no mere New Age snooze, but an intelligent and demanding work of art. It deserves to be listened to, judged and appreciated on these lofty terms of sophistication. It requires nothing less. (The Metro, 1988)

Vintage Review: The Cactus Brothers' The Cactus Brothers (1993)

The Nashville rock ‘n’ roll scene of the mid-’80s was an exciting and invigorating tonic of youthful innocence and energy, with unbridled creativity matched by awkward inexperience. One the many bands working to define this scene and garner world-wide critical acclaim (albeit without commercial success) was Walk The West. One of the area’s most popular outfits, these country-influenced rockers hung up their spurs at decade’s end. Their achievements included an excellent self-titled album for Capital (which has become a bona-fide collector’s item) and the creation of an innovative hybrid of country and rock which owed as much, thematically, to Johnny Cash as to the Byrds and Gram Parsons.

The nucleus of that band has been reincarnated as the Cactus Brothers, and both sides of the rock/country equation are much better for it. Their self-titled Liberty Records debut manages to capture the intimacy and acoustic-oriented style which made the Cactus Brothers a live draw equally as popular as their predecessors ever were. This is a band awash in instrumental talent, from master dulcimer player David Schnaufer to dobroist Sam Poland, from the multi-talented Tramp to the Goleman Brothers, Paul Kirby, and drummer David Kennedy...and they make the most of the talent they’ve got.

The music here is a hybrid of country roots and rock spirit, with covers like Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons” and the Everly Brothers “The Price of Love” performed in a manner unlike any you’ve ever heard. Traditional instrumentals such as “Fisher’s Hornpipe” and “Blackberry Blossom” showcase the band’s musical abilities while the originals fall somewhere in between. Whereas singer/songwriter Paul Kirby comes across like a stone-cold country crooner on material like “Bubba Bubba” or “Crazy Heart,” songs like “Devil Wind” and “Big Train” are strongly reminiscent of Walk The West’s best stuff. All in all, The Cactus Brothers is a solid album, a fine introduction to a highly talented group of guys who have the vision, the skills, and the hard-won experience to achieve whatever they wish. (The Metro, 1993)

Vintage Review: Intruder's A Higher Form of Killing (1989)

Intruder may not have been Nashville’s first but they were definitely the city’s best-known thrash band. Veterans of various local punk and metal outfits, Intruder built upon the speed-metal sound pioneered by bands like Metallica and Megadeth, adding elements of what would later become known as “progressive metal” to their unrelenting aural attack. Fueled by the phenomenal virtuosity of guitarist Arthur Vinett, the throaty growl of vocalist James Hamilton, and the songwriting skills of drummer John Pieroni, Intruder built a large cult following across the United States and in Europe on the strength of their brutal live performances.

A Higher Form of Killing, the band’s second album and their first for Metal Blade Records, picks up the pace pretty much where Intruder had left off with their self-produced debut, Live To Die. Taking its title from the ground-breaking 1982 book on chemical and biological warfare by British journalists Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman, Pieroni’s lyrics on A Higher Form of Killing mix a high-tech doom-and-gloom world view with a science-fiction landscape that has much in common with Voivod. “The Martyr” compares Middle Eastern suicide bombers with radical Christian fundamentalists, “Genetic Genocide” touches upon DNA therapy a decade or so before its widespread use and “Killing Winds explores the use of chemical weapons on the battlefields of Europe.

The high point of A Higher Form of Killing, however, is a manic cover of the Monkees’ hit “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone,” the pop/rock chestnut revved up and delivered with all the subtlety of the business end of a sledge-hammer. A strong collection of chainsaw speed-metal, A Higher Form of Killing put the so-called band from “Thrashville” on the musical map alongside genre giants like Nuclear Assault. (The Metro, 1989)

Review Roulette: F.U.C.T., The Grinning Plowman, Jet Black Factory, Today Is The Day (1990, 1995)

Welcome to the first “Review Roulette”column, a collection of various short album reviews of Nashville bands that were first published by The Metro magazine and other outlets during the 1980s and ‘90s…

F.U.C.T.
Dimensional Depth Perception
(Carlyle Records)
    Nashville’s bad boys of thrash set out their first CD with the expected results: Dimensional Depth Perception is a monster of a release, a no-holds-barred leap into the abyss of otherworldly reality; thirty-plus minutes of industrial strength rock ‘n’ roll fury. Set beneath the multi-decibel mix of howling guitars, pounding drums, and throbbing bass lines, you’ll find vocalist Clay’s twisted, painful King Hell vocals kicking out some serious jams about life, morality, society and our endangered existence upon this spinning, twirling sphere that we call home. Forever Ungratical Corinaric Technikilation have a whomping good time musically, but they also have a positive message to relate to their listeners with their songs. Hear it! (The Metro, August 1990)

THE GRINNING PLOWMAN
I Play Jupiter
(Carlyle Records)
    With their long-awaited second album, Nashville’s the Grinning Plowman tread much of the same stylistic ground as their first disc, but that’s good, for there’s so much territory to explore in the musical realms that they journey through. Their sound is dark and aggressive, like a soul on fire, with the music building from a somber funeral dirge to a frenzied, dervish-like howl within the space of a few seconds. The Grinning Plowman are redefining the boundaries of music, delivering material with a Gothic feel and a vague lyrical poetry akin to Lovecraft or Crowley. This is heady stuff, exhilarating yet disquieting, and well worth the wait. (The Metro, August 1990)

JET BLACK FACTORY
House Blessing
(391 Records)
Nobody was really watching, but even though it should have come as no surprise, while everyone was involved with – and enthralled by – a dozen-and-one other bands, Nashville’s Jet Black Factory quietly became one of the more creative forces to be found in the city. On the heels of two successful and widely-acclaimed EPs, House Blessing is Jet Black Factory’s first full-length album and their most mature and engaging creative effort to date. Dave Willie’s voice has grown into a magnificent instrument: dark, haunting vocals caressing the somber, oblique poetry that is the band’s lyrical forte. Bob German’s six-string work perfectly complements the material while the remainder of the band skillfully manipulates the texture and tone of the material. Treading a stylistic ground which owes as much to the Velvet Underground as it does Joy Division or R.E.M., Jet Black Factory has delivered a debut LP, of sorts, which is sure to make the coastal trendsetters sit up and take notice. (The Metro, April 1990)

TODAY IS THE DAY
Willpower    
(Amphetamine/Reptile)
I’ve been predicting that Today Is The Day will become the "next big thing" in alternative circles for a couple of years now, and there’s nothing about Willpower, their latest, to sway me from this opinion. This Nashville-based trio knocks down an exciting, high decibel blend of cacophonic instrumentation, metal-edged rock and industrial-strength noise that will blow the listener out of their seat. With vocals that sound like the singer is undergoing a root canal without the benefit of anesthesia and harsh backing music that walks a tightrope between bludgeon-like simplicity and razor-sharp complexity, Willpower provides an appropriate soundtrack for a society in decline. Throw these guys on tour with some like-minded big name like Nine Inch Nails and they’ll walk out of the joint with the audience in their back pockets ... bet on it. (R.A.D! zine, 1995)