TWANGIN'! - THE NEWSLETTER
Number 2 ~ April 15, 1999 (Hello Uncle Sam)
Cheryl Cline, Editrix
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more stuff like this go to: http://www.steamiron.com
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On the Contrary:
Musings from Your Editrix
Music reviewing is a lot like sports writing. There aren't many
new and original ways to say music is new and original (or
isn't). Some phrases are good candidates for the Myles na
Gopaleen -- his like will not be seen again -- "Catechism of
Cliche":
What is a band's debut release?
Their first outing.
What follows their first outing?
Their sophmore effort.
What does their sophmore effort prove?
That they haven't lost the energy of their first outing.
But my beef isn't with merely overused words and phrases,
although I could stand to see the phrases "the music refuses to
be categorized," and "the artist refuses to be pigeonholed" a bit
less often. And "tasty" licks -- a phrase that conjures painful
images involving steel strings and tongues. Oh, and "I really
wanted to like this record." So what? Do we care? The bassist
isn't *our* brother-in-law.
Sorry. No, what sets my teeth on edge like the ol'
fingernails-across-a-chalkboard effect is yet another description
of fiddle music as "screeching." Or the casual linking together
of "country music" with "cornball," "backwoods," "Deliverance"
and "trailer-trash." Or writin' all buck-toothed and cross-eyed,
lak Jethro Bodine, uhyep, uhyep, hooo-eee, yee-haw and lak thet
by people who don't know okra from Oklahoma.
Here are a few phrases ripe for retirement. Over-ripe. Stinkin'!
Grab your Sharpie and strike the following from your handy-dandy
list of "golden words."
-- "Channeling" the ghosts of Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie,
Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, Patsy Cline, Townes Van
Zandt, Bill Monroe, Gram Parsons, Earl Scruggs or Ray Price.
-- Any phrase that calls to mind "Abbot and Costello Meet
Frankenstein."
-- Comparing a band to the hapless offspring of two very
dissimilar musicians -- one of them usually dead -- such as "the
bastard spawn of Hank Williams and Marilyn Manson."
-- "The Anti-Hank." See: Hank Williams, ghost of, rolling in
grave.
-- "The Anti-Garth," or "Anti-Nashville." Often used as a
nickname for the bastard spawn of Hank Williams and Marilyn
Manson.
-- "If you think country music is all big hair and trailer
parks..."
-- "This is country music for people who hate country music."
-- "Warble" to describe female vocals.
-- "Keening" to describe female vocals.
-- "Angelic" to describe female vocals.
-- "Songbird" to describe female vocals.
-- "Whining" to describe female or high tenor male vocals.
-- Millenium, apocalypse, fin-de-siecle. Millenium fever is
already tiresome. Why so glum, chum? It's not the end of the
world. I admit I haven't given this a whole lot of thought
myself, but according to those in the know, millenium-wise, the
kind of country music most suitable for CD players in these End
Times is Appalachian Goth: or, the trailer-trash bastard spawn of
Jimmie Rodgers and Patti Smith channeling Patsy cline warbling
bluegrass ditties of Appalachian despair.
For Best Worst Use of 'Millenium' in a Sentence About country
Music, see the "Say What?" quote following this article.
Special Note on "Appalachia:"
Too often, the word "Appalachia" is used as atmospheric coloring
to suggest dark, doomed, depraved, despairing, disturbing, hard,
violent, submerged, mad, perverse, subversive, strange, warped,
weird, otherworldly, edgy, gritty, haunting, raw, gothic,
brooding -- and "authentic." Reading reviews of alt-country
bands, you'd think Spring never comes to Appalachia, that people
don't fall in love there without one of them murdering the other,
and that no one there ever sang a song so funny that they
couldn't finish it from laughing so hard.
Sometimes I wish my keyboard had a trap-door key. What's that?
"Bill Monroe meets the Ramones on speed?" *CLICK!* "AAAAhhhhhhh!"
Oh, sorry, watch out for the crocodiles. Hmmm, what have we here?
Ghost of whom? Ha! He's not even dead! *CLICK!* *Splat* Guess I
should have filled the pit first, huh? Oh well! Oh, dear -- "Edgy
tales of submerged violence for the century's end, accompanied by
haunting banjo and whining... " *CLICK* *CLICK!* *CLICK!* --CIC
[Send your fave found cliches and overwrought prose to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Be sure to include attributions so we can
make fun of the writers by name.]
----------Say What?----------
"Country gals are as plagued with pre-millennium tension as
German-Jamaicans with twisted faces, Trio II says."
--Kevin John, review of Trio II (Harris/Parton/Ronstadt) in
Addicted to Noise (http://www.addict.com)
----------Interview of Sorts----------
Eight Questions For James Richard Oliver
Put to Him by Gary "Pig" Gold
The Georgian rockabilly rascal-deluxe answers:
1. "Munsters" Or "Addams Family": Which's One's 'For You, and
Why?
"Addams Family" hands down! Morticia has more sex appeal than
Lily. Gomez is way cooler than Herman. Uncle Fester's
torture/relaxation chamber is much more stimulating than Grampa's
basement lab and Wednesday's deeper than JoJo the Dogface Boy
will ever be! It's no contest. But I will admit the Munsters'
theme song is much cooler, I'll give 'em that.
2. Who in the world, living or dead, would you most like to play
a game of "Twister" with?
Betty Page.
3. How many Sid King & the Five Strings records to you own?
He was okay with the Pistols, but I didn't much care for the solo
stuff. What? Wrong Sid?
4. If you had been working the front gate at Graceland that night
back in '76 when a drunken Jerry Lee Lewisn showed up, shotgun in
hand, to "Put that damn Elvis outta his misr'y," what would you
have done?
Bugged out! I might have buzzed "E" and told him to eighty-six
the Hong Kong Phooey shit 'cause the Killer was packin'! Then
I'd been at the nearest waffle house.
5. "Ginger" or "Mary-Ann": Which one's for you, and for how long?
Ginger, for as long as we are in syndication.
6. What single song, living or dead, do you most wish you'd
written...and why didn't you?
"Don't Let Another Penis Come Between Us" by Redneck Greece. I
didn't write it because I don't drink as much as he does.
7. Whose guitar would you most like to be reincarnated as?
Leo Fender's first Tele, the coolest slab of wood to come down
the pike.
8. In 2,000 words or less, your hopes, aspirations and goals,
musical and otherwise, for your life and your country?
"Hope I get old before I die": I am the Anti-Who.
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James Richard Oliver has several tapes of low-fi country music
available on Illbilly Records. Send letters, postcards, tapes,
CDs, zines, 1972 Plymouth Valiant parts and recording contracts
to: James Richard Oliver, P.O. Box 924, Blue Ridge, GA 30513.
----------Reviews----------
Recommendations & Reviews by Ted Samsel:
Boone, a guitar-picker-turned-academic from the band we were in
back in the early '70's sent me e-mail the other day from New
Mexico asking if I had any recordings of Bobby Charles' tune
"Tennessee Blues."
He couldn't recall which version and in what style we used to do
it in back in Texas. I answered back after finding a couple of
killer web sites on Mr. Charles (actually Robert Charles Guidry,
Jr.) from Japan. Which is so often the case. Seems that
furriners, especially Brits and Japanese, know more about real
American music than our own people often do. Hell, one of the
best collections of honky tonk country western I know of is in
Sheffield, Yorkshire at my pal Iain's. He's got some stuff there
that'll knock yer hat in the creek. But not to worry, I've been
noticing that some labels have the sense and good taste to
re-release recordings and Sugar Hill is one of 'em. Gatemouth
Brown's Texas/Louisiana music from 1977 BLACKJACK (SHCD-3891) is
out on CD and the under-exposed Jimmy Murphy, a dynamically
tasteful flatpicker, who brought gospel and the beer joint
together in the '70s has also been released on the CD ELECTRICITY
(SHCD-3890).
But here's something new just out of the chute that more
cognoscent readers should be plumb tickled with, Terry Allen's
newest recording on Sugar Hill, SALIVATION (SHCD-1061). Combining
the profane and the sanctified from a High Plains perspective, as
is his wont, Allen (art professor, monumental bronze sculptor and
Godfather of the Lubbock Musical Mafia) picks apart the carcass
of 'Merkin Culture and leaves the bones for the adepts to gnaw
on. And these bones are plumb tasty with a master of the mixing
board, Lloyd Maines, in full control of an entourage of
world-class musicians and family members on a jacked-up
hemispheric toot.
Picture this, if you will, Jesus Christ getting duded up for his
Second Coming where He's setting out to kick some righteous ass
in style for such transgressions as love of things and of filthy
lucre:
With the beat of his heart
And the radio on
Got the fire in his blood
Snake on his tongue
Knows the BIG BOY's a commin
Better bust em up and run.
Spaceships and Monkeys
Evolution and Booze
Bar Maids and Pistols
Salivation and Fools
Highways and Tent Shows
Cities and Towns
Love's Just a Crapshoot
Lay Your Money Down
Yeah Everything's Over
Like It All Just Begun
That BIG BOY'S a commin
Better Bust em Up and Run
Or this little tropical ditty which may be a Christmas carol for
Parrotheads on a CIA expense account:
It's X-mas on the Isthmus
Of Panama
We're shiftless, we're giftless
No Santa Claus
No wise men, no angels
No mistletoe trucks
No reindeer, no shepherds
We're shit out of luck
Bethlehem.. Bethle her.. Bethle you
Bethle me... Mucho....
Y'all get the picture, I reckon.
Allen also wrote a cajun styled song ("Redleg Boy") about his
dad, Sled Allen, a pro beisbol player in an earlier career.
Sled's grandson, Bukka, provides button accordion for this fine
two-step that literally reeking of swampish ways and the
fais-do-do. On another song called "Ain't No Top 40 Song," a pair
of tales about murderously fated love that would broadcast well
on "Court TV", Marcia Ball adds her exquisite voice to this
side-of-the-head-with-a-wrench modern Gothic parable. And "The
Show" provides a paint-blistering sermonette by Terry's wife
(performance artist Jo Harvey) that will scare the peewaddley out
of any New Ager within a half-mile radius in this retelling of
millennial treachery. Now that's real family in my book. --Tejas
ANCIENT TONES
Ricky Skaggs
Skaggs Family Records SKFR-1001
As a former bluegrass prodigy, Ricky Skaggs takes a lot of flack
at times for making outlandishly broad pronouncements about the
music and its future. This may rile folks at times, but so what?
His recent self-produced CD has a depth and presence that many
contemporary string bands might well sell their souls for in the
proverbial New York minute. Skaggs and his band, Kentucky
Thunder, more than do justice to bluegrass standards such as Bill
Monroe's "Walls of Time" and "Mighty Dark to Travel and the
Stanley's "How Mountain Girls Can Love," Lonesome Night," and
"Pig in a Pen." This CD is right on the money in my book and
raises the sorts of spirits that dwell within those lonesome
harmonies and shape-shifting instrumental breaks. --Tejas
The Mountain
Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
E-Squared
Ruminated upon by Cheryl Cline
People keep exclaiming over the very idea that Steve Earle has
made a bluegrass record, as if taking up BLUEGRASS music, OF ALL
THINGS is an outlandish and inexplicable thing to do. To those of
us who listen to both bluegrass and Steve Earle, it comes as no
surprise. You can hear the music's influence all the way back to
GUITAR TOWN. He's made no secret of the fact that he loves the
stuff, and furthermore believes it to be a valid contemporary
musical genre.
Bluegrass is good. Write that down.
The same people wonder how a rowdy and rebellious guy like Steve
Earle could possibly get down with such a "conservative,"
traditional music as bluegrass. Cheez loueez, can we get beyond
this idea that any music demanding more than three chords out of
a musician is buttoned-down and sterile -- or as Robert Christgau
writes of the Del McCoury Band, "just as clean and tight and anal
as every other spoor of Bill Monroe I've ever swept out the
door?" (Eejit.)
Rock critics don't know sheets about bluegrass music. Write that
down too.
Many of the reviews I've read praise Earle for loosening up Mr.
McCoury's tight collar, a deeply ignorant insult to McCoury's
music and to his band. The Eejit Christgau says Earle "rowdies up
McCoury's sharpsters till they turn all hairy and bounce off
walls. Yeah, uh-huh. The influence obviously flows in the other
direction. In every interview Earle does, he admits how hard he's
had to work to learn bluegrass "done right;" under the influence
of McCoury, he's tightened up his chops, focused his songwriting
in a bluegrass direction, and put on a suit. Meanwhile, McCoury's
"sharpsters" stand back, smile, and play like they always do.
The charge from the bluegrass camp, on the other hand, is that
this CD isn't bluegrass, despite the stellar credentials of the
McCoury Band, not (just) because Earle is an outsider and
sometime rocker, but because, by bluegrass standards, the man is
an indifferent picker and an execrable singer. To tell you the
truth, I lean towards that view. I think Earle is a great,
emotive singer, but not necessarily a *bluegrass* singer.
But that's okay. As a "Steve Earle album with the Del McCoury
Band" or "Steve Earle playing with some really, really good
musicians" it's excellent. Musically, Earle likes to run back and
forth between acoustic country and electric country rock, but his
lyrical concerns don't change, and everything he does can be
stripped down or souped up depending on his mood (as anyone who's
heard him do his acoustic version of "Copperhead Road" can
attest). There's a thread running from "Down the Road" to "The
Mountain," by way of "The Rain Came Down" and "Copperhead Road."
Earle says he wants to write bluegrass songs for the ages, but
it's hardly a stretch from what he's been doing all along. Like a
poet switching from blank verse to sonnets, it's a matter of
form; the gift is what's important, and the gift is there. [Next
time: the Del McCoury Band's THE FAMILY] --CIC
----------Web site of the Week----------
Western Swing
(http://www.geocities.com/~jimlowe/western/westdex.html).
A very nice introduction to western swing, with side articles on
Adolph Hofner and Bob Skyles and His Skyrockets. It's laid out as
a review essay, with handy links to buy the CDs under discussion
(and not just to Amazon.com but to places like the Roots & Rhythm
catalog).
Follow the Western Swing link at the bottom of the page to
Western.swing.com (http://www.westernswing.com/) for information
about the Western Swing Newsletter edited by Stompin' Steve
Hathaway, and a great discography of western swing on CD.
Western Swing is part of a larger site called "Vot Der
Dumboozle?" (http://www.geocities.com/~jimlowe/index.html) which
calls itself "A Popular Culture Excavation Site." Here you can
find similar introductions to the works of Carl Barks and Sally
Rand, WLAC Radio's golden years, Rhythm and Blues Reviews, and
European jazz and close harmony singers.
----------Newletters Other Than This One----------
NYC Bluegrass Newsletter
Regional, obviously, with the usual calendar of shows, jams and
other bluegrass happenings, plus a nice bit of editorializing by
the, er, editors.
Subscribe by sending a blank email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or go to http://www.eGroups.com/list/nycbluegrass
and sign up there.
----------NEW RELEASES---------
(All effusions are by the label publicists)
Spade Cooley, SHAME ON YOU. Featuring vocals by Tex Williams.
Bloodshot.
Our second release from the Bloodshot Revival/Soundies Series:
previously unreleased transcription recordings from the 40's. OUT
TUESDAY APRIL 20th.
Alejandro Escovedo, BOURBONITIS BLUES. Bloodshoot.
Brand-new songs and favorite covers including the Gun Club's "Sex
Beat"
VU's "Pale Blue Eyes," and Jimmie Rodgers' "California Blues."
OUT TUESDAY APRIL 20th
Andre Williams & The Sadies, RED DIRT. Bloodshot. R&B dirtybird
gets back to his country roots with SOUL, baby! My favorite
record in a coon's age! OUT TUESDAY MAY 18th
Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys, FOREVER ALWAYS ENDS. Bloodshot.
Produced by Lou Whitney. Debut CD from KCMO's wiseacre
tearjerking troubadours. OUT TUESDAY JUNE 22nd
Longview, HIGH LONESOME
Featuring Dudley Connell, Glen Duncan, James King, Joe Mullins,
Don Rigsby, Marshall Wilborn
Rounder 11661-0434-2, Rounder 11661-0434-4
Street Date: June 8, 1999
High Lonesome, the long-awaited sophomore album by bluegrass
"super-group" Longview, brings to light some undeservedly obscure
songs from the genre's adolescence. With an abundance of musical
riches at its command, from the forceful lead vocals of Dudley
Connell, James King and Don Rigsby to the right-hand punch of Joe
Mullins' banjo, Glen Duncan's masterful twin fiddling and
Marshall Wilborn's supportive bass, the band's homage to the
sounds and spirits of 1950s and 1960s bluegrass captures the
exhilaration and emotion of the originals, telling us through its
power why so many people speak of their "conversion" to
bluegrass. Available on CD and Cassette.
----------ANNOUNCEMENTS----------
SPBGMA SHOWCASE OF BANDS
The Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America
(SPBGMA) sponsors two annual showcases. These events offer bands
the opportunity to perform before an audience that will include
promoters looking to book bands for their upcoming concerts &
festivals. The SPBGMA Showcase Of Bands are as follows:
26TH ANNUAL BLUEGRASS AMERICA SHOWCASE OF BANDS
October 7-8-9-10, 1999
NORTHEAST MISSOURI FAIRGROUNDS
HWY 11 EAST
KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI
NATIONAL PROMOTERS 7TH ANNUAL SHOWCASE OF BANDS
October 15-16-17. 1999
WAYNE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS
RICHMOND, INDIANA
Bands interested in showcasing should contact: Chuck Stearman, P.
O. Box 271, Kirksville, MO 63501 Telephone: (660) 664-7172, Fax:
(660) 665-7450. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
All shows are indoors. Nationally known bluegrass acts will also
be on hand for the festivities. Come join in the fun. More
complete information will be provided when the line-up of bands
is completed.
----------DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL! -- Radio Shows ----------
Alternative country:
Swingin' Doors
Thursdays from 6-9pm
KCMU 90.3FM, Seattle.
"Don Slack" (a pseudonym if ever I saw one) host.
Hour-long archived shows are up on the KCMU web page at
http://www.kcmu.org/listen.htm
KCMU Public Radio
University of Washington
Box 353755 Seattle, WA 98195-3755
Telephone: 206-543-KCMU
email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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The Bob Paterson Show
Thursday nights 10-12
Country Music Radio for Europe
http://www.ursasoft.com/bob
Country Music Radio
PO Box 42
Alton, Hampshire
GU34 4YU
England
Telephone: 44 (0)1252 724891
Fax: 44 (0)1252 724312
(Tune in to Country Music Radio for Europe via MNO on the Astra
Satellite 1D Transponder 58 (10.847V), Stereo Audio 7.38 and 7.56
Mhz. Plus Cable and Terristal stations throughout Europe.
Shortwave - Saturday & Sunday 14:00 - 17:00 - 9915Khz 14:00 -
18:00 - 21550Khz)
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Tennessee Saturday Night -- Saturdays, 6 to 9 PM
The Fringe -- Saturdays, 9 to Midnight
Shane Rhyne, host
WDVX-FM -- Clinton/Knoxville, TN
208 W. Glenwood Avenue, #2
Knoxville, TN 37917
http://www.wdvx.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----\\-----
Bluegrass:
KCLC Tuesday Evening Bluegrass
Tuesday Evenings 6-9 p.m.
Terry Moses Host
KCLC FM89.1 St. Charles/St. Louis, MO
Mailing address
Terry Moses, Naomi Soule
KCLC Tuesday Evening Bluegrass
1202 Mackay Place
St. Louis, MO 63104-2408
Home (314) 773-1461(If we are not home, leave a voice mail
message.)
KCLC on Tuesday Evenings 6-9 p.m. (314) 949-4891
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------- END of Twangin'! - The Newsletter, #2----------
