The Twangbangers - 26 Days On The Road (2002)

With three mighty fine pickers in the persons of Bill Kirchen, Dallas Wayne and Redd Volkaert, as well as steel player Joe Goldmark and Kirchen’s rhythm section of Johnny and Jack, the Twangbangers are the closest thing to a roots rock supergroup that you’re likely to find rolling down the road between the white lines. Kicking out the jams with a high-octane blend of rockabilly, kinetic blues and traditional country, 26 Days On The Road provides all the cheap thrills and reckless energy of an out-of-control roller-coaster ride. Recorded live at the Outland in Springfield, Missouri and provided sympathetic production by fellow traveler Lou Whitney, 26 Days On The Road showcases each of the Twangbangers’ personal strengths even while it reveals a remarkable musical chemistry between the individual artists.

Dallas Wayne’s deep baritone vocals, dripping with country soul on songs like his original “The Stuff Inside” or Johnny Paycheck’s somber “In Memory Of A Memory” makes one question why Nashville hasn’t come calling on this talented honky-tonk stylist. “Wacky Walk” spotlights Joe Goldmark’s steel-playing skills as well as the six-string prowess of Kirchen and Volkaert, which are also put to test on rollicking tunes like Redd’s “She Loves Anything That Swings” and the spirited instrumental “Telewacker.” Willie Nelson’s “I Gotta Get Drunk” is provided a proper reading by Kirchen while the Robbie Fulks/Dallas Wayne composition “Rock Bottom” is a wonderful slice of hillbilly blues, infused with twangy steel guitar and cry-in-your-beer lyrics.

The highpoint of 26 Days On The Road, though, is the show-stopping, album-closing rendition of “Hot Rod Lincoln,” made famous by Kirchen during his days as Commander Cody’s right-hand man and provided a hilarious footnote here. During a break in the song’s story where cars are pulling off the road to let the “Hot Rod Lincoln” pass, Kirchen and crew name check everybody from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters to Jimi Hendrix and the Sex Pistols. Each artist is identified through a brief musical signature, the homage carrying on for over nine minutes as the Twangbangers pay their respects to the country, rock, jazz and blues artists that have inspired and influenced each of them. It’s a pretty cool way to spend nine minutes and the perfect way to close 26 Days On The Road, an inspired collection of performances by a talented group of musicians who play not because they’re chasing fame and fortune, but rather because they love the music they’re playing. (Hightone Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy 26 Days On The Road from Amazon.com)

Steve Earle - Sidetracks (2002)

As explained by Steve Earle's excellent liner notes, the songs on Sidetracks aren't outtakes, but rather "stray tracks" that were previously unreleased or saw the light of day only on soundtrack or tribute albums. Much like Bill Lloyd's excellent All In One Place compilation album, Earle's Sidetracks confines these stray songs to a single package, providing extensive musician credits and song-by-song commentary. The resulting album is every bit as remarkable as any title in Earle's impressive catalog, a vital collection of original songs and inspired covers that illustrates Earle's talents as a songwriter, performer and bandleader.

Steve Earle's career has always been plagued by misconceptions, his early Nashville albums dismissed by ignorant Music Row hacks for being "too rock & roll," while mainstream rock audiences failed to embrace Earle as "too country." The truth lies somewhere in between, perhaps, but I believe that Earle is too enormous a talent to be confined by one style or genre, a fact illustrated by Sidetracks. A roots-music traditionalist who has had a tremendous influence on the alt-country scene, Earle has nonetheless flirted with hard rock, reggae and Celtic music as well as country, folk and bluegrass throughout the span of his nearly twenty-five year career.

Johnny Too Bad, recorded with Knoxville, Tennessee roots rockers the V-Roys, redefines the Jamaican classic with a harder edge while the Irish-flavored instrumental Dominick St, recorded with the Woodchoppers in Dublin, extends Earle's love affair with Celtic music. A powerful cover of Nirvana's Breed showcases Earle's rowdy rock side, tho' maybe not as well as Creepy Jackelope Eye, a lively collaboration with Eddie Spaghetti and the Supersuckers. An alternative version of Ellis Unit One performed with the Fairfield Four achieves an eerie spiritual edge lacking in the solo version used in the film Dead Man Walking. The folkish Me And The Eagle stands in stark contrast to much of the material on Sidetracks, while a twangy, bluegrass-tinged reading of Lowell George's Willin' captures the spirit of the oft-covered original.

Not everything on Sidetracks clicks, most notably a cover of the Chambers Brothers' classic Time Has Come Today. A technologically crafted duet with Sheryl Crow that was recorded in Nashville with Crow in LA, the performance may have seemed a good idea at its conception, but it suffers in execution. Crow's vocal contribution is lackluster and the band fails to achieve the manic (drug-fueled?) energy of the original, although the Abbie Hoffman vocal samples are pretty neat. This minor cavil aside, Sidetracks is an extremely worthwhile addition to your CD collection, a significant compilation and a revealing look "backstage" at the multi-faceted talents of Steve Earle. It's telling that by collecting his various cast-offs and rarities, Earle has cobbled together an album that still stands head and shoulders above most of the country and rock music that will be released this year. Though other artists should probably hang their heads in shame, Earle fans can rejoice in Sidetracks. (Artemis Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Sidetracks from Amazon.com)

Backyard Tire Fire - Bar Room Semantics (2006)

Chicago's Backyard Tire Fire pursues roots rock with a vengeance on Bar Room Semantics, the band's sophomore effort. The spunky trio throws together a mean musical porridge, slicing and dicing portions of Midwestern rock (think Head East, or maybe early REO Speedwagon), tossing it into the pot with a slab of Uncle Tupelo, a dash of Wilco and Springsteen-esque lyricisms, blending it all with a soupcon of psychedelia and a spoonful of authentic Southern twang. Frontman Ed Anderson sounds like R. Stevie Moore and writes like Joe Grushecky, penning down-and-out story-songs about hard times and harder people, the hopeful and the hopeless.

Much like the Boss and Joey G, however, Anderson provides his characters with a glimmer of hope, and the band choogles along behind his soulful vocals like a spare, leaner version of Levon Helm's former crew. Call it Americana, call it alt-country, call it country-rock -- it won't fit easily, no matter what convenient label you want to stick on Bar Room Semantics. This is music created with a purpose and delivered with a heart and fire far too often lost on young bands eying MTV, The OC and major label deals without a future. Backyard Tire Fire is the real deal, creating songs that are cerebral, with weeping pedal steel and plenty of atmosphere that, at times, also delivers bone-jarring rock & roll thrills. (O.I.E. Records)

(Click on CD cover to buy Bar Room Semantics from Amazon.com)

Stace England - Greetings From Cairo, Illinois (2005)

Every now and then a CD will find its way onto your stereo and proceed to stomp both your ass and ears into the ground. Stace England's Greetings From Cairo, Illinois is one of those discs, an ambitious work of staggering brilliance and stunning confidence. England's inspired mix of rock, folk, blues and country defies pigeonholing. This is simply American music, damn it, the end game of a century of stylistic cross-pollination that started with Delta field hollers and stopped in Cairo on its way to Chicago, Detroit and destinations both east and west. England's mastery of the style is impressive, forged by years of recording and live performances.

Sitting astride both the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in southern Illinois, Cairo is a mystery to most Americans. A busy shipping port on two great rivers and a jumping off point for a fair number of former slaves and sharecroppers headed north from Mississippi, Cairo has struggled with its identity for decades. Greetings From Cairo, Illinois is ostensibly a concept album, England recounting the history of his fair city from 1858 through the Civil War, the Delta migration of the 1940s and '50s, the struggle for civil rights and so on into the new millennium. At its heart, however, these songs about Cairo are also about America at large – the racial tensions, the poverty, the economic injustice and the religious oppression suffered by the average person as they search for dignity amidst the ever-changing currents of history.

Greetings From Cairo, Illinois is an engaging song cycle, kicking off with the traditional "Going Down To Cairo," a mid-1850s folksong song a cappella. A fine cover of Henry Spaulding's classic "Cairo Blues" opens the door for England's original observations on the city that follow. The county-rocker "Grant Slept Here" offers some solid snaking six-string work beneath its Civil War history lesson and "Equal Opportunity Lynch Mob" is a folk-styled accounting of Cairo's violent history that recalls Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" in its dark imagery. "The North Starts In Cairo" is a rollicking tale of segregation and freedom during the Delta migration.

Three powerful songs tackle the issue of race in Cairo. "Far From The Tree," with a slashing recurring riff and loping bassline, is a dark-hued tale of fear and paranoia in the city while "White Hats" remembers a violent 1967 incident that led to rioting in the city, the disturbing lyrics supported by red-hot slide guitar work. The funky, R&B flavored "Jesse's Comin' To Town" recounts Jesse Jackson's 1969 visit to the city in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, his appearance providing a beacon of hope for the beleaguered African-American residents of Cairo. The song's Stax styling and tasteful horn charts place the soul of the song right in the heart of the era.

Jason Ringenberg and guitarist George Bradfute pitch in on "Prosperity Train," sounding more like a Jason & the Scorchers rave-up than anything else on the album does. The tune simply rocks, England's lyrics mourning the loss of Cairo's Main Street while Jason hits the mouth harp like a frenzied dervish. "Buy My Votes" is a Sonny Landreth-styled swamp rocker, England's bluesy vocals matched by dirty, intense slidework. Greetings From Cairo, Illinois closes with "Can't We All Get Along," a countryish tune that concludes that the trials and tribulations for Cairo will never end as long as greed and corruption continue to grip the city's leaders. It's a strong political statement with engaging instrumentation and more than a little reckless spirit.

Stace England's warm vocals come across as a mix of John Hiatt's gravel-throated, blue-eyed soul and Dan Baird's rootsy southern twang and his songwriting skills show endless possibilities. After five years of research into the city that England calls home, he's accomplished what many artists have tried and failed to do – capture the essence of their hometown in song. After listening to Greetings From Cairo, Illinois you'll feel the heat of the city's streets and smell the rush of the rivers as they run past Cairo. (Gnashville Sounds)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Greetings From Cairo, Illinois from Amazon.com)

Pete Berwick - Only Bleeding (2002)

Like many a troubadour before him, Pete Berwick made his way to Nashville in search of fame and fortune. Also like many artists that walked that same road, he ended up returning home years later without much fame and even less fortune. Berwick did all the things expected of an artist in the Music City, playing his songs at "writer's nights" in local clubs at night and working a day job at the car wash while waiting for his big break. He signed a songwriting deal with a storefront publisher and hooked up with a fly-by-night indie label. What seemed like a sure thing, a track placed in the River Phoenix movie The Thing Called Love, came to naught when his manager lacked the juice to get the song included on the soundtrack album.

After his Nashville fiasco, Berwick moved back to Chicago, older, wiser and just a little worse for the wear. He gave up music for a while, playing sporadically and writing a few songs. Luckily, the story doesn't end with this tale of dashed hopes and broken dreams. The attraction of the muse is a strong one, and I've personally never met a serious artist who could be kept away from their creative outlet for long. Berwick gathered a group of grizzled Chicago rock-and-blues veterans to record one song in the studio; they ended up recording Only Bleeding, a ten-track reaffirmation of the power of rock & roll, and a fresh start for Pete Berwick. A fiercely independent songwriter and performer who has found that he doesn't need the corporate label system to make a musical statement, Berwick's fourth album is the accumulation of almost a decade of artistic trials and tribulations.

Only Bleeding showcases all of Berwick's various influences and incarnations, the songs mixing rock, country and blues in the creation of a heady musical elixir. "Must Think She Loves Me" and the hilarious "Nuclear Boy" are energetic, punk-tinged rockers while "Cold Steel Gun" is a barroom weeper complete with T.C. Furlong's delicious steel guitar and Berwick's appropriately morose vocals. With the biker anthem "Outsider" Berwick has created a new musical genre -- "metallic country" -- the song a defiant declaration of alienation that matches Nashville twang with tasty power chords. The title track is a Dylanesque country blues tune with wonderful vocals, Berwick's mournful mouth harp work and well-placed piano courtesy of Denny Daniels. The album-closing "Standing At The Gates Of Hell" is a lively rocker with brilliant imagery, the story of a poor working class loser who dies and shows up "at the gates of hell" only to find that they won't let him in. It sounds a lot like Jason & the Scorchers -- another obvious influence -- but with Berwick's Rodney Dangerfield-like lyrics and dynamic delivery it's a wonderful pairing of roots rock and honky-tonk soul.

It's with "Gotta Get Out Of Here," the centerpiece of Only Bleeding, that Berwick hits that once-in-a-lifetime adrenaline O.D. where decades of rage and frustration are expressed perfectly in a three-minute rock song. In the tradition of Eric Burdon's "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" or Bruce Springsteen's "Jackson Cage," the song is about hopelessness and dashed dreams and, in a more personal vein, the torment of being a talented musician in a land of mundane mediocrity. When Berwick sings "I got a daytime job, teevee at night, if the boredom don't kill me, then the cigarettes might," he's expressing the fears of every factory worker, slaughterhouse grunt and service industry wage slave who suspects that there must be something more to life. For Berwick, the song itself is an act of transcendence, its performance "getting" him out of here, his tortured vocals and screaming guitar allowing the artist a brief moment of escape. It's a powerful musical moment, a solid example of why most of us started listening to rock & roll in the first place.

Berwick sees the world of human relationships and frailties with a folkie's sensitivity and writes about them with the poetic blue-collar perspective of a Steve Earle or Bruce Springsteen. A gifted songwriter and charismatic performer, Berwick is a true rock & roll survivor, an artist of integrity and vision who never even stood a chance in the industry babylon that is Nashville. Only Bleeding offers an eclectic mix of styles that defies industry homogenization to deliver a strong and thoroughly enjoyable musical experience for the listener. Pete Berwick has been singing his songs for a small, if faithful audience for far too long; with Only Bleeding, people will be forced to listen. (Shotgun Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy a copy of Only Bleeding from Amazon.com)

Tommy Womack - Stubborn (2000)

After listening steadily to Tommy Womack's debut album, Positively Ya-Ya, constantly for a couple of years, I've finally figured it out, put my finger on Womack's place in this great rock & roll whatsis. The recent arrival of Stubborn, Womack's brilliant sophomore effort, reinforces my conclusion: Tommy Womack is the new Harry Nielsen! Now, now, stay with me here. Much like that maligned and often-overlooked pop genius, Womack is capable of performing in a number of musical genres, from rock and blues to country and everywhere in between. Both artists write great songs with slightly skewed lyrical perspectives, and both have a keen eye for skilled sidemen. Whereas Nielsen would enter the studio with various Beatles in tow, Womack records with the cream of Nashville's underrated rock music scene, talents like Will Kimbrough, George Bradfute, Mike Grimes, Ross Rice and Brad Jones. Womack may have a more southern-fried perspective than Nielsen, but the parallels are obvious.

Womack's Stubborn opens with the chaotic "Rubbermaid," a short stream-of-consciousness rant similar to Captain Beefheart or John Trubee, backed by syncopated drums and flailing harmonica. It jumps from there right into "Up Memphis Blues," an energetic rocker with a blues edge that includes some tasty slide guitar courtesy of Al Perkins. "Christian Rocker" is a hilarious interlude with fantastic imagery dropped in between songs while "I Don't Have A Gun" is an angry blues tune featuring appropriately tortured vocals from Womack and some southern rock styled six-string work from Womack and George Bradfute.

"For The Battered," a song from Womack's old band and Southeast legends Govt. Cheese, is recycled here as an electric blues with some wicked, dark-hued slide guitar from Will Kimbrough supporting the story. It's the most powerful musical statement that I've heard on domestic violence and I still get chills every time the asshole girlfriend beater's karma catches up with him. Stubborn's single cover is of the Kink's "Berkeley Mews," a somewhat obscure Ray Davies gem offered here in a fairly straight-forward rendition that says as much about Womack's sophisticated musical tastes as it does about his ability to pull the song off on record.

Most critics, when writing of Womack, praise his songwriting abilities, pointing out the numerous characters that live in his songs. They're really missing Womack's strongest skill, however -- any hack can people their songs with junkies, whores and ne'er-do-wells of various stripes (listen to any heavy metal lately?). Womack's strength is in his composition of memorable lines, clever and intelligent lyrical bombs often thrown into the middle of songs to infect the listener's consciousness days after hearing a song. Witness some of the poetic explosives hidden in the songs on Stubborn: "I'd crawl back in the womb right now if Jesus would show up and point the way." "Gonna find me a woman who won't fall apart on the witness stand." "I want to be a Christian rocker but the devil's got all the good drummers." "She was a Presbyterian in a porno picture, tossing her values aside." "You can all go straight to hell, you'd better cut and run, get on your knees and thank the lord that I don't have a gun."

It's a skill that separates Womack from the mundane "Music Row" factory writers in Nashville even as it marginalizes him from the whitebread world of radio and mainstream music. It also shows his Southern heritage as religious tradition and rock & roll yearnings clash for the soul of the songwriter with the resulting imagery creating some of rock's best rhymes. Among southern rockers, only Jason & the Scorchers' Jason Ringenburg and, perhaps, Alex Chilton can match Womack word for word.

The material and performances on Stubborn sound more confident, Womack's talents sharply honed by a couple of years of live shows and collaborations with other artists. A gifted storyteller, an amazing songwriter and an energetic performer, Womack is one of Nashville's best and brightest. Although an indie rocker in style and attitude, Womack's work deserves the widest audience possible, distribution and promotion that only a major label could provide -- if any of the corporate A&R geeks could get their collective heads out of their respective boss' rear ends long enough to listen. Personally, as long as Womack gets to keep making records like Stubborn I'll be happy enough. (Sideburn Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy a copy of Stubborn from Amazon.com)

Tommy Womack - Positively Na Na (1998)

A long-time fixture of the Nashville area music scene – first as a member of the legendary Bowling Green, Kentucky band Govt. Cheese and later as a part of Will Kimbrough's vastly underrated band Bis-quits – Tommy Womack finally gets to flex his muscle and show off his stuff with a solo album. With Positively Na Na Womack scores an artistic bull's-eye.

Positively Na Na is a solid collection of country-flavored pop tunes that evince the same sort of quick wit and black humor that Womack showed in The Cheese Chronicles, his memoirs of life on the road with Govt. Cheese and possibly the best book ever written about rock & roll. Womack works with one foot firmly in the sort of roots rock practiced by Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and the other foot in the same honky-tonk country that influenced folks like Jason & The Scorchers. Possessing a knack for story-telling, Womack pens intelligent, self-referential lyrics, the songs often dangling more than a few pop hooks from their infectious choruses.

Stand-out tracks on Positively Na Na include "Skinny & Small," the rightful revenge of every junior high non-jock; and Womack's ode to lost rockers, "Whatever Happened To Cheetah Chrome?" With a band that includes Nashville pop maestro Brad Jones (who also co-produced the disc), guitar wizard George Bradfute and the multi-talented Ross Rice, Womack pulls off with Positively Na Na that most difficult of tricks: a debut album that is as smart, likeable and entertaining as its creator. Far too talented for major label suits to recognize, Womack remains one of Nashville and the indie world's greatest secrets. (Checkered Past Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Positively Na Na from Amazon.com)