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A Scot's search for swing: Duncan McLean is this Scottish guy who happens upon a Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys record in an Edinburgh record store a few years ago, and buys it because of the amusing picture of Wills on the cover and the silly-sounding (to a Scot) name of the group. But after a listen, he falls in love with the music, so much so that he is compelled to come to Texas, log over 10,000 miles of highway, and write a book about the experience. Lone Star Swing (W.W. Norton, $14) is the result of McLean's pilgrimage to find the spirit and remnants of western swing, the music of which Wills is considered the patron saint. McLean describes his mission the best:
I am not from these parts. I've come a long way in search of real live western swing. I won't find real live Bob Wills, that's for sure: he's been dead 25 years. But his spirit lives on; I know it, I feel it...And now I am after something. I don't know exactly what it is, and I don't know exactly where I'm going to find it. But somewhere out there, further south and further west -- out amongst the country dancehalls, the ranch to market roads, the old musicians hunched over tin-tack pianos and tenor banjos -- somewhere in the wide, sun-struck wilds of Texas, that's where I'm going to track down the spirit of Bob Wills. McLean won the Somerset Maugham writing award a couple years ago for his short story collection, Bucket of Tongues, and financed his Texas trip with the prize money. Now that the book is out, McLean and some of the surviving members of the Texas Playboys -- Herb Remington, 72, John "Dusty" Carrol, 64, and Jim "Way Out West" Gough, 66 -- met at Houston's Brazos Bookstore for a reading and a short concert. On a similar note, the rumors that Texas writer and musician Kinky Friedman is going to Scotland to pursue the roots of Scottish bagpipe music are false....  Fast climb: The Austin band Fastball continues its improbable rise to world domination. Their single "The Way" is the number one song on Billboard's Modern Rock charts and the number 58 album in the country on the top 200. That's only one spot behind Hanson and thirteen spots ahead of Radiohead. Not bad for a group whose first album, 1996's Make Your Mama Proud sold fewer than 3000 copies.
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On the record: George Strait, One Step at a Time (MCA Nashville). This is perhaps the most perfect album of all time. But perfection can be so boring, and that's a perfect lesson to be reminded of. The album prances like a proud palomino through all of country music's over-traveled territories and comes away without the slightest wear on its saddle. There's the cry-in-your-drink title cut, the mellifluous and classic-sounding "I just want to dance with you," and the Spanish guitar-inflected "Maria," all rendered with brilliant banality and perfect pallor.
The Gourds, Stadium Blitzer (Watermelon). This much awaited album begins with the chirp of crickets, a familiar sound laden with character that inspires many an association. In contrast to George Strait, the Gourds, a bluegrass-folksy-pop outfit, have plenty of idiosyncratic charm to go around. A harmonica jump-starts and powers the upbeat "Magnolia," and the banjo and accordion decorate "Boil My Strings." At their best, The Gourds are reminiscent of The Band, in leaving the mark of their acoustic souls all over this new album. It's also refreshing that the Gourds -- who frequently cover Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Gin and Juice" at their live performances -- don't take their music too seriously either. The lyrics of another new song called "I Ate the Haggis," invoke Scotland and whiskey to a Tex-Mex beat. Welcome to Texas, Duncan McLean?
