He may not write the finest songs, have the best looks, or even have the richest voice, but no one gets Texas honky-tonk like ED BURLESON. More than just another revivalist, his deep Texas roots (a relative of Burleson's was a Battle of San Jacinto war hero) bring an unmistakable bar-brawling and tear-jerking authenticity to his work. The Denison-born singer was managed and signed by legend Doug Sahm; when Sahm died unexpectedly, in 1999, Burleson was left without a mentor or a label. Yet armed with at least one new self-penned classic ("If You Wanna Go") and several well-chosen covers (including Loudon Wainwright III's "Dead Skunk"),THE COLD HARD TRUTH (Palo Duro) doesn't skip a beat.
LI'L CAP'N TRAVIS began like so many Austin bands, playing sloppy but earnest alt-country with semi-sober apathy, and their first two albums betrayed a band that had a lot more going for it. Their third,. . . IN ALL THEIR SPLENDOR (Glurp), might let a lot more people in on the secret. Gone is the low-fi production; instead, keyboards and steel guitars swirl. Some songs twang; others find a nostalgic psychedelic pop sound; a few even ring with Crazy Horse thunder. LCT boasts four members who both write and sing, which keeps things sounding fresh, but it's the wistful work of guitarist Christian Braafladt that anchors its sound. Here's a born storyteller; when he starts a song, you stick around to see where it's going.
Don't pity the one-hit wonders—so they get wildly rich and famous only once. If they're smart, they've still got a career, even if it's one that ends in a Fargo dinner theater. Maybe Austin rockers FASTBALL understand this. After topping Billboard's modern-rock chart with "The Way" in 1998, they released their third album in 2000—to little fanfare—and drifted apart. Now reunited, they've begun their second act. KEEP YOUR WIG ON (Ryko) is effortlessly tuneful, but it's unlikely to land them an Elvis-like comeback. No one's ever accused singer-songwriters Miles Zuniga and Tony Scalzo of going too deep, and there's a lot of moon-June material here. Still, their voices sound great together and, with the band newly freed from major-label pressure, positively liberated.
My Library
