Classic rock Being There Wilco Reprise Records The drum rumble that starts off this two-disc set and soon turns to feedback suggests Wilco certainly isn’t lagging in its quest to remove itself from Uncle Tupelo territory. Being There finds leader Jeff Tweedy combining his love of pop style–still a little…
Reel Life Trout Fishing in America Trout Records It’s to the credit of Ezra Idlet and Keith Grimwood that Trout Fishing in America doesn’t come off as cutesy shtick, but rather the most natural thing in the world; Reel Life does nothing to upset this. A mix of live and…
Paula Moore has long been a Deep Ellum fixture (dare we say “Ellument?”), with a history that dates back to the late Video Bar and the founding of Last Beat Records. Now a regional A&R person for MCA (she just made the jump from RCA), she may be best known…
Searching for a truer sound Like it or not (and from all accounts they don’t), the two artists who gave the late and much-lamented Uncle Tupelo its scope and direction–Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Son Volt’s Jay Farrar–are bound together in peoples’ minds, doomed to be forever compared much like another…
It was a little more than two years ago that Dawn Miller (formerly of Wayward Girl) was talking to pal Aden Holt, owner of local indie label One Ton Records, about an idea she’d had: a local band compilation that would rework the soundtrack to the mid-’70s hit Broadway musical…
Be here now Return of the Funky Worm Johnny Moeller and Paul Size Dallas Blues Society Records Walk in the Sun Sue Foley Discovery Records What is it about the blues, that each generation has to peer into them, squinting? Maybe it’s the same thing that unites all popular art…
i’dswingitintheevening ifihadahifi Meredith Louise Miller Steve Records A friend once interviewed Meredith Louise Miller for a local radio station. “What’s so great about you,” my pal enthused, “is that you say all the goofy things about love that the rest of us are afraid to say out loud.” “Um,” Miller…
It’s obvious that tonight–with Deep Ellum roiling in the aftermath of the Texas-OU game–was not the best night to schedule an interview at Sol’s Taco Lounge. An orange-and-white Winnebago at the curb is but a faint warning of the mayhem within: a crush of spilled beer, red faces, and bellowing…
Broken whiskey glass, parts one and two Gather ’round, oh ye insurgent honky-tonkers and new-country hellions, and pay fealty to some of the men who first chalked out the pattern for the clothes you now wear so stylishly: Jason Ringenberg and the Scorchers, a bunch of Nashville boys (transplanted and…
Moist and delicious Fashion Nugget Cake Capricorn Records First steps are inspiring, but more than one newborn band has learned that many things are possible with those steps, and that some of them–like smashing your forehead on the edge of a coffee table–are not very pleasant. It is with great…
Be here now Return of the Funky Worm Johnny Moeller and Paul Size Dallas Blue Society Records Walk in the Sun Sue Foley Discovery Records What is it about the blues that makes each generation have to peer into them, squinting? Maybe it’s the same thing that unites all popular…
Satellite of Love Although much has been made lately about Christian music and the mainstream success the genre has enjoyed, most of the songs found there still fit into two categories: “capitalization” numbers wherein you need a lyric sheet in order to tell “love” from “Love” or “him” from “Him”;…
The front room and the darkroom behind–on the street side of photographer James Bland’s house in the heart of Oak Cliff–are unusually neat for one of the archivists of a scene as random and disordered as the early days of Deep Ellum, back in the mid-’80s when the now neon-lit…
Mr. DJ, won’t you please play a real country song? Where’s your conscience? What’s the problem? Speak up and say what’s wrong –Dale Watson, “A Real Country Song” Blessed or Damned Dale Watson rules. In an age where more people at alleged “country” bars dance to AC/DC than Bob Wills,…
Casual Gods of the Tom-Tom Club Question of the week: What’s the difference between A) a band shamelessly exploiting its past; B) a band that keeps on keeping on like some old milk-cart horse that still must walk its route every morning even after retirement; and C) most of a…
New Country The Picketts Euphonium Rounder Records “Euphony” is a pleasant concordance of sound, but with this, their third album, the Picketts have done more than fall easy on the ears: They’ve made one of the most affecting arguments for country as white folks’ soul music to come down the…
Scrapple seems acutely aware of his environment, but he couldn’t be safer: He’s the four-legged pilot fish to New York City art shark Joe Christ, a transplanted filmmaker-musician-artist from Dallas whose confrontationally weird, painfully intense, and shocking films both document and run off the energy generated by the extremes to…
The life of Corn Mo–stage name of Jon Cunningham–may well have been saved by rock ‘n’ roll. He’s on stage now, his long blond hair a tangle obscuring his face as he pumps and dips his way through an accordion-driven version of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine”; his…
Pop goes the meaning Walking on Locusts John Cale Hannibal Records Be advised that you and John Cale might use certain words with entirely different things in mind: Because Walking on Locusts isn’t French film soundtrack, a live album, or a partially realized collaboration with singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth, you could…
Big Ronnie Dee Jamboree Rockin’ Bones: The Legendary Masters Ronnie Dawson Crystal Clear Sound With age comes self-consciousness, which is why rock ‘n’ roll has always been–on the creating end at least–the province of the young. A 15-year-old can go “huhhn!” or shout “aw, rock it now!” and pull it…
Those who frequent Local Band Hell are a capricious lot: They want tradition and continuity, yet if an act lingers locally–or, heaven forbid, makes a renewed bid for attention–they start to doubt the act: “Uh, if y’all were any good, woonchy’all be gone, like, by now?” Soul Food Cafe made…
Look out baby–it’s the kerosene man Although he came through here last year opening for Concrete Blonde’s farewell tour with just himself and an acoustic guitar, it’s been five years since former Dream Syndicate frontman Steve Wynn has mounted a major (read: with a band) American tour. His last gig…
