Vintage Review: Lonesome Bob's Things Fall Apart (1998)

Now this, this Things Fall Apart album from this guy Lonesome Bob, this is the way that country music was meant to be. No big-hat, tight jeans posing for photo opportunities, or ‘Music Row’ pop crap, this is Nashville’s greatest fear: a talented and creative singer and songwriter that doesn’t fit into any of their corporate molds. Boasting one of the best baritones this side of Waylon Jennings, Lonesome Bob carries on a musical tradition that has its roots in Hank Williams and Bill Monroe and runs pure through Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Willie Nelson to the songs on Things Fall Apart.

Love and betrayal, death and despair, these are some of the subjects of Bob’s songs, delivered in a rocking honky-tonk style that sometimes gets a little loud and raucous while, at other times, is eloquently genteel. Guest vocalist Allison Moorer contributes her beautiful vocals to several duets on Things Fall Apart. Sounding a lot like a young Emmylou Harris, Moorer’s voice provides an angelic charm that counters Bob’s twangy growl. A satisfying collection of tunes that will continue to grow on you with every listen, Things Fall Apart is the kind of country album Nashville forgot how to make.

Released by Checkered Past Records, a Chicago indie that, with a roster that includes Lonesome Bob, Tommy Womack, and Paul Burch, seems to have their finger on the musical pulse of Nashville better than the dozens of labels that are located here in the “Music City.” (Checkered Past Records)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 1998

Vintage Review: Java Christ's Songs To Confuse Slam Dancers (1996)

Back a few years ago, I had a gig as the night manager of a local newsstand / convenience store in the university area of Nashville. As one of the few places in town that sold the notorious Jolt Cola, we had a regular weekend crowd of young punks, cybergeeks and metalheads who would buy this high-octane gutrot by the caseload. I got to know several of these customers on a casual basis, often talking music/computers/politics with them. I was old enough to be their father, but I listened to them, supported their dreams and accepted them for what they were, which was a diverse, creative lot with a lot ahead of them.

What a couple of these young Jolt guzzlers had in front of them was Java Christ, the finest young band to emerge from the Nashville scene since the Teen Idols first took the stage (which, although not really that long a period of time, says something nonetheless considering the large number of truly mediocre bands that come and go in the Music City in a year’s time). Thanks to the fine folks at House O’ Pain, Java Christ make their vinyl debut with the 7” Songs To Confuse Slam Dancers EP, an altogether red-hot slab o’ punk rock fun that comes with an iron-clad Reverend K guarantee: if you buy this disc from House O’ Pain and don’t like it, send it (in good condition, naturally) to R.A.D! and we’ll give you yer cash back on it. Yes, it’s that good.
   
Side one of the EP kicks off with “Gasoline,” an infectious ska-tinged rocker. Layers of fuzzy guitar punctuate the tune’s rock-steady rhythm, with the entire effort burning as bright as its name and subject matter. “Suburbia” opens with gonzo rock chords, flashing quickly into a fast-paced, mile-a-minute musical romp. The second side’s “Insomnia” is anything but a snooze, hard and fast chords underlining a classic tale of love lost (and delivering a the most effective lyrical “piss-off” since Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street”). The disc closes with “Clue,” another delightful ska-fest, chockful of energy and attitude.

After seeing Java Christ play live at this year’s House O’ Pain/Lucy’s Record Shop Anti-Extravaganza show, I can say that they’ve got a bright future ahead of them. They’re charismatic and likeable, with a solid punk ethic that just can’t be beat. Songs To Confuse Slam Dancers is an entertaining and impressive recording debut that manages to capture enough of the band’s live energy to scorch your turntable. (House O’ Pain Records)

Review originally published by R.A.D! music zine, 1996

Nashville Rock Memorabilia: Jason & the Scorchers' Halcyon Times tour poster

Jason & the Scorchers' Halcyon Times promotional tour poster. Sent to clubs and other venues in PDF form, they could print out the poster, write in their show details at the bottom, and stick it in the window. Back in the old days, bands would have to have a couple hundred promotional posters printed up and mailed to clubs, often at their own expense. How things have changed!

Vintage Review: Jason & the Scorchers' Thunder and Fire (1989)

Jason & the Scorchers are, arguably, the best-known of Nashville’s brash young bands, an outfit with a critically-acclaimed past and an infinitely-open future. Thunder and Fire is their first album for A & M Records, and their first effort with the new band. Folks, they’ve never been better.

This is a mature and fully-realized work: Jason’s songwriting collaborations breathe new life into the Scorchers’ material; Warner’s guitar playing gets better and better; and the additions of bassist Ken Fox and skilled multi-instrumentalist Andy York round out the sound of the band, allowing them more diversity and providing a fuller, bigger feel to the songs. Drummer and co-writer Perry Baggz is like “Old Faithful,” an often (unfortunately) overlooked and underrated percussionist who manages to balance the entire chaotic crew.

The result is an album, Thunder and Fire, that is certain to become the band’s biggest. Artistically impressive, musically powerful, lyrically fresh and exciting, the Scorchers made the album that they wanted to, and it shows. The boys may have gotten older, but they’ve not gotten softer…if anything, they’ve become more passionate, more committed with age. (A&M Records)

Review originally published by The Metro, 1989

Memories: The Electric Cowboy Festival 1983

 

The first and only Electric Cowboy Festival was held over Labor Day weekend in September 1993. The three-day event didn't feature any artists from the fledgling local rock scene, although Gregg Allman was born in the Music City and past sell-by date Southern rockers like the Marshall Tucker Band and the Outlaws had a tenuous connection to Nashville through the business. Leon Russell would end up moving to Nashville, but was never really a part of the local "scene."

The Electric Cowboy Festival was the first event of this sort in the region, however, beating both the ill-fated Itchycoo Park Festival (1999) and the more successful Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (2002) by a good decade and a half. The event had some high-profile performers, too, like Joe Walsh, Joan Jett, Cheap Trick, Humble Pie, and Kansas but offered a somewhat eclectic mix of artists like the Elvis Brothers, Mitch Ryder, Fastway, Quiet Riot, Teenage Head, and Madness. I covered the festival for the first two days for some rag or another and had an overall good time. I don't know if the event made any money but since they never held another one, I'm guessing that it broke even at best. But the Electric Cowboy Festival holds good memories for many who went, so many that there's even a Facebook group for the concert.

CD Review: White Animals' Star Time (2024)

The White Animals were one of the first original rock bands to hit the fledgling late ‘70s Nashville rock scene, and they remained one of the most popular regional acts throughout much of the 1980s. The White Animals’ dub-styled college radio-friendly cover of “These Boots Are Made For Walking” brought the Nancy Sinatra oldie to an entirely different generation but all too often overshadows the truth that the White Animals were one of the first bands to take lessons from Prince Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry by incorporating Jamaican dub influence into what were inherently rock ‘n’ roll songs before the Clash, the Police, or even Killing Joke did so…  

Beneath the novelty and the cover songs, however, was the beating heart of a skilled and creative rock ‘n’ roll band in thrall to a myriad of influences. As the band’s primary songwriters Kevin Gray and Steve Boyd grew in confidence, so too did their original material display heightened boldness and sophistication, albums like 1982’s Lost Weekend, 1984’s Ecstasy, their self-titled 1986 LP, and 1987 swansong, In the Last Days, worthy of reissuing and rediscovery by a new generation. After a seven-year run that included video airplay on MTV and opening slots for bands like the Ramones and Talking Head, the band split up. A modestly-successful, 17-song compilation CD titled 3,000 Nites In Babylon was released in 2000, followed shortly thereafter by a 2001 studio album, The White Animals.

White Animals’ Star Time

Flash-forward 23 years and White Animals (no “The” this time) have released their first studio album in decades in Star Time, a fab 12-song collection that – no surprise, really – shows that the band hasn’t lost a step during its lengthy hiatus. Featuring four/fifths of the original band (keyboardist Tim Coats is AWOL), Star Time provides 37 jam-packed minutes of high-octane rock ‘n’ roll cheap thrills. Album-opener “My Baby Put Me On the Shelf” is the best 1960s-inspired garage-rock rave-up that was never recorded by the Seeds, with Rich Parks and Kevin Gray’s screeching guitarplay propelled by the dynamite rhythm section of bassist Steve Boyd and drummer Ray Crabtree, the band delivering hints of the vocal harmonies they’re capable of embellishing their material with.

Star Time only gets better from this point forward … “In A Post-Apocalyptic World (Would You Be My Girl?)” is a delightfully wry power-pop tune with great vocals and an infectious melody while “Ready To Go” is a bluesy romper-stomper with the best use of echo that I’ve heard since my bong-influenced wayward youth. The Delta-dirty “Chanty” is even bluesier, with serpentine guitar and eerie, prison-gang styled call-and-response vocals. It’s a cool performance with an undeniable presence that unexpectedly switches gears mid-song. “I Tried Like Heck” is vintage White Animals, an unabashed pop song with a rock ‘n’ roll edge, inventive fretwork underlining the vocals, and a driving rhythm that’s heavy on Crabtree’s powerful big beats. The heartbreak of “Back Around” is pure 1980s-era college radio rock with a popish vibe, wistful vocals, and rich instrumentation which weaves a gorgeous melody from the chaos.

Something the White Animals did sparingly back in the day was any song with a hint of country influence (they were young soul rebels living in Nashville), but the twangy country-rock of “When It All Came Down” is provided a counterpoint in Parks’ biting, caustic guitar licks. The song’s honky-tonk rhythms and rootsy Americana sound feel like a road untraveled. The jaunty, up-tempo “Unlucky In Love” evinces a similar alt-country pathos and seems more tongue-in-cheek than its predecessor, if no less entertaining. It wouldn’t be a White Animals album without a fanciful cover tune, and for Star Time that’s a mesmerizing, electrifying dub-styled version of “Man of Constant Sorrow” (titled “Man of Constant Dread”). Suffice it to say that previous covers of the antique folk gem by the Stanly Brothers, Bob Dylan, or even Ginger Baker’s Air Force sounded nothing like this.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

There’s really not a duff song to be found on Star Time, which finds the White Animals to be every bit as daring, creative, and carefree as the best of their 1980s-era albums. I don’t know why they never got a major label deal back in the day – maybe they didn’t really want one, preferring their independent Dread Beat label and the freedom it provided – but the White Animals in their prime were every bit as good as better-known contemporaries like Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, or Camper Von Beethoven while sounding absolutely like none of them. Star Time rocks from start to finish and, hopefully, the guys won’t wait another 23 years before rewarding their fans with another banger of an album! (Dread Beat Records, 2024)

Buy Star Time directly from the band!

Vintage Review: Dave Mallett's This Town (1993)

I’ve long contended that the best talent floating around the “Music City” wasn’t necessarily in the country arena. Aside from the many talented rockers plying their trade in pursuit of the brass ring, there are a slew of performers who can’t be labeled with any sort of adjective albatross. Steve Earle, Nancy Griffith, John Hiatt, and Mary Chapin-Carpenter, to name a few, have all found varying degrees of success in Nashville, country or no. Now the city needs to make room for Dave Mallett.

Mallett is an old-fashioned tunesmith, with equal parts folk, country and rock entering into his songwriting equation. He is an extremely gifted lyricist, spinning beautiful story-songs out of the threads of memory, romance and tradition. His deep, fluid vocals are perfectly suited to the material he creates. Songs like “Main Street,” which commemorates that vanishing American phenomena; “Take Time,” in which a father passes a generation of wisdom onto his son; and “Change of the Seasons,” a tale of the inevitable passing of the years (and, with them, friends dear) showcase the storytelling skills which Mallett brings to his craft.

This Town is a thoroughly enjoyable album, made all the more so by Mallett’s ability, in song, to evoke memories and emotions. We could use a few more writers of Mallett’s abilities here in the “Music City;” in the meantime, we’ll enjoy those we do have...here in This Town. (Vanguard Records)

Review originally published by The Metro, 1993

Vintage Review: Jason & the Scorchers' Wildfires + Misfires (2002)

Cowpunk pioneers Jason & the Scorchers enjoy a lofty standing within the indie rock ranks. They’ve received a minor degree of fame, with a series of critically-acclaimed albums and hundreds of dynamic live shows beneath their belts. They made the jump from their own indie label to a major label back when a band’s credibility wasn’t instantly in question, later going bankrupt due to excessive label expenses.

After a brief early ‘90s hiatus, the Scorchers returned to the indie world with a handful of brilliant, if underrated albums for Mammoth Records. Now they’ve come full-circle, releasing music on their own Courageous Chicken imprint through North Carolina indie Yep Roc Records. For these Nashville rock icons, it’s been a long strange trip, indeed.

This trip is partially documented by the recently released Wildfires + Misfires. The disc is a collection of Scorchers’ obscurities, demos and alternative versions that provides listeners with greater insight into the band’s creative process. It documents the Scorchers’ evolution from brash young punks into one of rock’s most talented, if overlooked bands. The set kicks off with the demo version of “Absolutely Sweet Marie” that won the band a major label contract and also includes red-hot unreleased live tracks like “Tear It Up” with legendary guitarist Link Wray and crowd favorite “Lost Highway.”

Rarities like “Too Much Too Young” and “Break Open the Sky” present the band in a different light while alternative takes of familiar songs like “If Money Talks” showcase the Scorchers’ range and abilities. Rather than a prurient look at a band’s past, Wildfires + Misfires is a vital collection of material that rewards loyal fans for their incredible dedication while presenting a living document of a work still in progress. (Courageous Chicken/Yep Roc Records)

Review originally published by the View From The Hill Community newspaper, Signal Hill CA

Vintage Review: IGMO's Ten Day Potato (1998)

After a long dry spell during which just about any group that knew three chords and could put up an “alternative” image was awarded a major label deal, we’ve finally spun things around where there are some bands out there who don’t sound like Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins. Nashville’s IGMO is one of these welcome departures from the mainstream fare, a talented conglomeration of some of the Southeast’s finest musicians brought together under one roof to make some honest rock ‘n’ roll music.

Vocalist Mark Pfaff, a member of the legendary Will & the Bushmen, is the ringleader on Ten Day Potato, fronting a superb collection of pop, rock, country and psychedelic music that borrows shamelessly from every decade from the dawn of time until today. IGMO present a new twist on the musical lessons they’ve learned so well, however, Ten Day Potato proving to be as refreshingly familiar as it is oddly original. In an era where many of today’s “superbands” have to be taught how to play their instruments, IGMO is creating music that is as intelligent as it is invigorating. (self-released)

Review originally published by R Squared music zine, 1998

Nashville Rock Memorabilia: Chagall Guevara Photo Gallery

Chagall Guevara: the band

Chagall Guevara's self-titled 1991 debut album

Chagall Guevara show posters

Chagall Guevara Christmas Card

 

Metro Magazine cover story