Texas Music News
Jordan Mackay contributed to this regular Ranch feature from October, 1997 to August, 1998.
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In related news, the Butthole Surfers are going label shopping as it seems their relationship with Capitol has run its course. Rumors have been flying about the Butthole’s latest album, still unreleased, which was finished and then pulled by Capitol. One rumor claims the record is being held simply because it was really bad; a second reports that Capitol was concerned that it didn’t seem to have a radio-quality single on it. Craig Stewart, however said that it’s not really either of those things, but still wouldn’t give a concrete reason. Whatever the cause, it’s going to be a while before anyone gets to hear the album.
—Jordan Mackay (7/1/98)
Pushmonkey finishes recording their major-label debut; Indefatigable Pervis plays on; Scandinavian cowboy Eric Moll charms with his plaintive strains; and Austin roots king Don Leady debuts Alamo Suite.
All Pushed Out: Popular Austin band and interminable Texas tour-mongers, Pushmonkey, have finally finished recording their major-label debut for Arista. They’ve been recording in L.A. with esteemed rock producer Mike Clink of Guns În’ Roses and Aerosmith fame. Pushmonkey, consummate professionals that they are, will no doubt offer a redoubtable record of first-rate production values and professional gloss. Will it move us? We shall find out.
Pervis just goes on and on and on: Formed in the early nineties, the Fort Worth band Pervis has been grinding and screeching in Dallas-area clubs ever since. In 1993, MCA funded a demo record for the band, but it didn’t materialize into anything. Last year, the group’s second lead singer left the band and it was widely assumed that the end of the raucous group was nigh. But singer Rachael Strauss sings on, and the band which had always been overshadowed by the two frontwomen shines on Pervis’ second release for Idol Records, Cleansed by Fire. The album rips and tears through several songs that will be familiar to many who have followed Pervis live, but the band’s energy is abundant in the digital vistas of the CD as well. Songs like “Mannequin,” “AWOL,” and “Kites Cost Money” display the tight playing and twisting hooks of the musicians, and Strauss’ lyrics are appropriately postured. The only problem is that there’s not much originality or innovation in the music: they’re doing well what people did well years ago. It would be nice to hear them plumb some new depths.
Thanks to Joe Nick Patoski for the following reviews:
Most of Moll: If singing cowboys ever become the national craze in Norway, I’ve no doubt it will all be because of Erik Moll, a Wimberley resident and songster in the Texas troubadour tradition with deep Scandinavian roots. His plaintive voice hits all the right high lonesome notes on his third solo album, Most of All (Fire Ant), a kicked-back self-produced gem of thirteen ballads that straddle the divisions between country and folk, all underlaid with an understated intelligence not common to either genre. Picks to click: the ethereal, quasi Tex-Mex “Can You Handle It?”, “She Thinks Different Now” (check out his yodels), and the bluesy, straight-to-the-point “I Love Your Cookin”.
Sweet Alamo Suite: From his role as a charter member of Austin roots kings, the Leroi Brothers, to front man for swamp rockers the Tailgators, the conjunto trio Los Cadillos, and his latest creation, Alamo Suite, a three-piece jazz outfit (all of which have the same personnel), Don Leady has proven himself to be such an expert stylistic interpreter, he passes for an original. Alamo Suite, the self-titled album by Leady as jazzbo, works the same turf as Texas guitar great Herb Ellis, messing around with bluesy, jazz-inflected instrumentals. Listening to it is like having a lounge in your own home, without the bothersome barroom smoke or loud talkers at the next table.
—Jordan Mackay (7/15/98)
Dwight Yoakam in transition but with a new record; Willie at the Led Zep reunion; Spoon gets good press; and a CD Review of Houston’s Blue Wing.
Austin Inspiration: In an interview with Dwight Yoakam, CNN’s Showbiz Today revealed that the actor/singer’s new album was written while he was in Austin shooting Rick Linklater’s historical western The Newton Boys. This is Yoakam’s first album in three years; he’d been spending his time writing a screenplay and acting in several films. Yoakam told CNN, “I did feel like I was in a transitional point in my life when I began writing this album. I’ve been inspired to do other things too because of that musical exploration.” I was a part-time waiter while the movie was shooting in Austin and happened to have Yoakam as a customer. The admission that he was in a transitional period at the time came as no surprise to me. The night I waited on him he ate modestly, mostly just picking at his vegetables. He gave no real sign that his writing might be going well other than the tip: he left ten dollars on a $25 check. His generosity was appreciated at the time, and I hope his record does better than the movie he made while writing it.
What’d Willie Think? The New York Post reports that Willie Nelson was among the throng of Led Zeppelin fans who caught the recent Jimmy Page/Robert Plant concert at Madison Square Garden. According to eyewitnesses, cheers erupted from the crowd when the aging duo launched into “Stairway to Heaven.” Nelson’s reaction to the playing of the classic song is unknown.
Propelled by the Press: A Series of Sneaks, the Elektra debut of Austin’s Spoon, was recently reviewed in the Washington Post. A good clip for the noisy trio, the reviewer says that the album’s first single, “Car Radio”—which has caused problems for the record company because at 90 seconds it’s too short for radio play—is “probably also too jumpy, too oblique and just too catchy [for airplay].” He goes on to praise the album’s distinctive and varied sound, writing that the “union of artiness and earthiness makes the album both distinctive and propulsive.”
On the record:Blue Wing (Moonlight Gold) This Houston Bluegrass quartet is composed of highly accomplished musicians who know how to make a song sizzle and tell a story along the way. Dan Crook’s acoustic and steel guitar playing truly stand out and Jeff Trathen’s electric guitar and harmonica keep it going. Kelly Lancaster’s swift mandolin paces the rhythm, and the whole thing is anchored by Sandy Buller’s acoustic bass. Many of the songs are memorable, especially the first one, “Couldn’t Stop the Wheels,” and others like “In Art” and “Black Diamond.” The tightness and command in the playing makes for a vibrant album.
—Jordan Mackay (8/1/98)
Gospel according to Jaci: Houston’s Contemporary Christian star Jaci Velasquez has signed a five-album, Spanish-language deal with Sony Discos. The major label debut of the 18-year-old singer, whose current disc on Myrrh topped Billboard’s Top Contemporary Christian chart, will be a secular record.Velasquez may be young, but her career began eight years ago when she started traveling around the U.S. and Latin America with her family’s music ministry. When Jaci was fourteen, the manager of another gospel group saw her sing in the small town of Columbus, Texas and sent word of the prodigy to Nashville, and soon after she was signed to Myrrh. Looks now like her star will continue to rise ÷up toward the heavens.
Strait Talk: The Country Music Association (CMA) raised an enthusiastic thumb’s up for tradition with this year’s award nominations. Texan George Strait became the most nominated performer in CMA history by snagging five nods, including one for entertainer of the year. Strait has now racked up 47 CMA award nominations over his 17-year career, finally surpassing Merle Haggard’s record of 43. Strait, 46, is a former rancher from Pearsall, Texas and is known for his simple, bare-bones approach, in the face of the gaudy, spectacle-sown styles of other country performers. In concert, Strait and his Ace in the Hole Band acknowledge his country music influences with covers and tributes to such forefathers as Haggard and Bob Wills. The CMA, composed of 6,100 industry members who vote on the nominations, ignored younger but popular artists like LeAnn Rimes and Alan Jackson this year. Does this indicate the beginnings of a movement to quell the tide of “new country?”
Tejano Turmoil: Rudy Trevino, the executive director of the Texas Talent Musicians Association, which organizes the Tejano music awards and serves as main organ for the tejano industry, has resigned without warning or explanation. This leaves lots of speculation as to the reasons and the import of his departure. Board president Robert Arellano explains Trevino’s leaving in this way: “We’re heading in a certain direction and we want to take tejano music to new levels. Tejano has gotten a little stale in the last year or so and we feel that the TTMA can take it to new markets and new states in the Midwest, Southwest, west coast and to Monterey, Mexico. Rudy had been here for 18 years and he wanted to do his own thing.” Arellano did confirm that Trevino is starting his own Tejano music organization, a move that prompts the suspicion of bad blood between the association and its former director. Arellano would only offer the very politic response to questioning that Trevino had been interested in branching into norteño music, while the rest of the TTMA board wanted to stay strictly tejano. “We’re the tejano music industry,” says Arellano. “Our mission statement is to promote tejano music, the bands and the industry. Rudy wants to go norteño. That’s fine.”
Ice, Ice, Maybe: The August 12 New York Times features an article on the return of Dallasite Rob Van Winkle to the recording industry. Van Winkle, better known to most of us as Vanilla Ice, is the guy who made it cool to be white. After plummeting from the king of the charts to the land of miserable has-beens, Ice has turned it around, forsaking rap for the punk/hard rock style on his forthcoming album, Hard to Swallow. Just who is this genre-jumping enigma? NYT columnist Neil Strauss writes: “The real Vanilla Ice is probably somewhere between the boastful faux rapper of To the Extreme and the troubled faux punk of Hard to Swallow. On the outside, he seems like a fraternity jock; on the inside, he is a self-described hypochondriac with attention-deficit disorder, anxiety and intimacy problems.” So does this puzzle wrapped inside an enigma wrapped inside a riddle sound more like: a) a hard-core street rapper; b) a hard-core punk singer; or c) a hard-core character from Woody Allen’s last film? And will his new album be a success? I, personally, can’t wait to find out.
—Jordan Mackay (8/15/98)
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