You know, I'm glad this came up because as we speak I'm taping some of the Pine Valley Cosmonauts LP. What strikes me is that the songs which fail do so because they spotlight vocalists who are weak singers. Or, maybe it's that they are trying to adopt the Wills arrangements too strictly, which were able to feature a singer as fitted for those arrangements as Tommy Duncan was. Whatever the case, some of the vocalists on the PVC's album sure sound like they're used to singing rock 'n' roll songs, so they're unable to hide behind (or among) the band because the band is arranged around them. Their vocal "deficiencies" aren't as big a liability in most rock 'n' roll environments because they need only be tunefully enthusiastic, not sensitively collaborative. So, the PVCs band is shit-hot, but more than a few of the singers aren't up to the challenge. This is probably why Merle and Willie and George Strait can pull off Western Swing. It's not that their bands aren't all respectively brilliant, it's just that each of their voices is distinctively complementary. As Willie might say, they're aging with time like yesterday's wine. I hope some of these folks on the PVC do stick with the swing, maybe they'll have a great album before long. Or maybe someone should convince Dwight Yoakam to sing with the band. Lance, smoking T for Texas . . .
