Some guy on my freshman dorm hall once mentioned the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies to me. I don’t know if I ever thanked him for that, but I should have.
Take two really great guitar players (Bob Watkins and Rick White). Add a stellar vocalist/songwriter (Mike Farris). Layer that on top of a solid rhythm section (Steve Burgess and Terry Thomas) and mix into a Southern funk/rock/boogie/jam band.
“One Big Drop Of Water”
Their name comes from a Far Side cartoon and, like Slobberbone, probably hindered them a little. But it shouldn’t have.
“25 Miles”
They have that Southern rock sound that’s rooted in blues, somewhat similar to the Black Crowes. Very energetic, yet laid back. A feat few manage to accomplish.
“Shakin’ The Blues”
The band parted ways in the early 2000’s, and Mike Farris has given up his rock star ways to do gospel now. I managed to catch a little of his set at last year’s ACL and it was good… but no Wheelies. The other band members are now with the band Stack.
If you haven’t given these guys a listen, I can’t recommend them highly enough. Especially the “Live Vol. 1 & 2″ and “Lamanamanumi” live albums. And I’ll close this with one of my favorite Wheelies song, “Hello From Venus”:
A friend and I were talking about music and Kenny Wayne Shepherd came up. Some background: in high school, when KWS first came out, I bought his first two albums as quickly as they could be found. They were in heavy rotation as I entered my college days and I was excited when I heard that “Live On” was coming out soon. If memory serves I bought it on release day (but my memory rarely serves, it usually line faults) and enjoyed it. Not as much as his other albums, but still listened to it heavily.
A decade later and I have to be honest – it’s been years since I made an effort to listen to him. Around the time of “Live On” I started researching more about the music I was hearing and so many reviews panned him as a completely unoriginal SRV clone who wears his influences on his sleeve. This made me listen with a more critical ear and as soon as I heard what they were saying, I was turned off to his music.
As I explained this to my friend, he just kind of shrugged and said, “I dunno man, I can’t get enough Stevie Ray. So anything that sounds close to that is alright by me.”
Which made me realize that it’s ridiculous to let the originality (or lack of it) sway my opinion of music. After all, when you get right down to it Stevie Ray didn’t write most of his famous songs, borrowed heavily from Albert King and Lonnie Mack, and still managed (and still manages) to consistently be referred to as a benchmark for guitarists.
I’ve also been re-reading some books while I’m waiting on my new ones to arrive from Amazon. One of those is Chuck Klosterman’s IV, and Klosterman is obsessed with dissecting how artists are perceived. He talks about relevance quite a bit. This, coupled with my Kenny Wayne conversation, made me wonder the question that started all this: Does originality equal relevance?
I’ve already said that Stevie Ray Vaughan wasn’t exactly original, but I would argue that he is certainly relevant. Whereas Kenny Wayne Shepherd not only isn’t original, but also isn’t relevant. He’s good – an amazing guitar player, and there’s been some great lyrics on his albums. I just don’t think anyone will stand up and say that he’s relevant.
But now I’m not going to let that stop me from listening.
Alright, alright, maybe it’s also because I’m out sick today and had time to sift through some videos for Bob Schneider’s new songs.
At (where else?) the Saxon, here’s “Bicycle Vs. Car”:
And “The Bringdown”:
And finally, one that’s adapted from back in his days with The Scabs, “Get It On”:
It’s from a recent show at the Cactus Cafe, which is an intimate little room on the UT campus that has showcased some amazing musicians. Gotta love the fan interaction.
Oh, and if you’re at ACL this year – The Scabs will be as well. Just sayin’.
Bob Schneider released his new album September 29th. Lovely Creatures pretty much sounds like a relaxed show at the Saxon – but toned down. For those who missed the feature a week or so ago in the Statesman, this record comes after some major life changes for Bob. He got married, got sober, became a father, and got divorced. You can hear how hard it was on him throughout the album. At the same time there’s the sound of hope (probably the fatherhood thing). It’s a good mix.
Something that threw me was the absence of… well, full frontal Bobness, for lack of a better word. Lyrically he’s solid, but safer than he’s been in the past. No more lines like “I was broke down in Mozambique with a Puerto Rican speed freak”. No more songs discussing the size of god’s genitalia. None of the hip-hop style that would show up in his other recordings. And really surprisingly – no f-bombs. Bob’s not known to shy away from dropping fucks whenever he feels like it. Some people would say that this is his way of trying to become more radio friendly, but I’m not that cynical.
None of the above was meant as a criticism. It’s just an observation. My opinion: it’s a great album. That’s probably a little biased, since I’m such a fan, but I have some reasoning to back it up. Let’s say I had never heard of Bob Schneider and someone gave me this album. I would immediately be able to get into it – the cliched term “accessible” applies. It is a really listenable album with confessional songwriting.
He also digs through some of his own past for a few songs. This album features the first studio recordings of “Tarantula” and “Bombananza”, both staples of his live shows. “Change Your Mind” is taken from his album of demos When The Sun Breaks Down On The Moon. “The Bringdown” has been played at his live shows for a few years as “Bring The Rain Down”. “Bicycle Vs. Car” has been available as a demo track on his website for a while now.
If you’re new to Bob, this isn’t a bad album to start with (I would also grab I’m Good Now). So far my favorite tracks are “40 Dogs (Like Romeo And Juliet)”, “Bicycle Vs. Car”, and “The Bringdown” – but there are no throwaway tracks. It’s filler-free.
* And in a complete coincidence, I just turned on my morning radio to hear Dudley and Bob (KLBJ FM’s morning DJs) discussing the album. Apparently they think it’s his best work since his first solo release, Lonelyland. I won’t go that far, but I will say it’s his most consistently solid album since then.
This absolutely stunned me when I first watched it. And in truth, I’m still a little in awe after repeated viewings:
I’m not a big U2 fan. Nothing really against them, and I will always listen to “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” whenever it comes on, but don’t own any of their albums. I could listen to this all day though.
A man, a dobro, a Boss GT-10 multi-effects/loop station, and an E-bow (for those violin style swells). With it he layers loops (small recorded phrases) and plays the melody with that beautiful dobro tone. I’m probably a little biased since I love the sound of a slide so much, but c’mon – tell me you didn’t find it amazing.
Apparently “Eastfoldpicker” is some guy from Norway who plays one hell of a dobro. I checked out some of his other videos and really liked this original tune, “Sailing The Fjords”:
Some background: I’ve been playing guitar for almost ten years. A couple of years ago I joined a band (which was really just a group of teachers who got together to murder classic rock songs). That band spawned an acoustic trio composed of myself, another guitarist, and a singer. We wrote a few songs together and would play them mixed with covers at some local open mics. Alls I ever had to do was stand in the back and remember how the chord progressions went – the other guitar player was more gifted but couldn’t always remember how the songs went. So I kept time and kept the songs on track while he would feed off of me. It was fun while it lasted but it’s been a long time since we’ve played together.
The point is that whenever I’ve been involved in performance it’s been as part of a group. No spotlights for me – which I was happy with. Lately though, I’ve wanted to do something more than play to my living room walls.
Friday night I decided to go check out an open mic with the possibility of signing up. Now I think I’ve made it clear that I’m not much of a singer. Seriously. That made this a huge personal step for me – I don’t think I’ve EVER sang in public. I showed up at Hot Boiled Pho And Crawfish at the intersection of Parmer/Mopac with a friend. They had sent out an advertisement to my school mail box which said “Open Mic Friday”. I was expecting a small crowd, something perfect for a beginner… but aside from the waiter/owner, we were the only two people there. Turns out that nobody had signed up for the open mic. Two more friends came (the now married Bachelor from my Vegas trip and his wife), so we ate and I played a handful of songs for them as a test run.
As far as first times go it could have been worse. I didn’t have to face a room full of strangers, but I did have to face my friends. That can be harder. Especially when your friends have no problem calling you “Mumbles” and “Jizzly Adams” (thanks to my general lack of articulation and spectacular two-week beard). I will say that the good-natured heckling helped me learn how to focus through distractions when I decide to perform at another one. And the laughs helped me loosen up quite a bit.
All in all it was a really good experience.
So my advice to you, if you’re considering taking the same step I finally did – do it. Yes, it’s a little nerve wracking, and yes, the only guarantee is that it won’t be what you expect. But when you step back from the microphone and see a few smiles it is completely worth it.
And on a culinary note: if you live in the Austin area you owe it to yourself to check out Hot Boiled Pho and Crawfish. It’s authentic on both ends (the owners are native Vietnamese but grew up in Louisiana) and the tastiest pho I have ever had.
I remember cruising around to the Fun Lovin’ Criminals back in high school. What I seemed to have forgotten was how bad ass Huey Morgan is on guitar. “Smoke ‘Em” is just a laid back hip hop tune with a jazzy tone… until 3:30 into the song.
Suddenly you are hearing this incredible solo. It reminds me of a time when I was watching some music awards show and Prince (or whatever he was calling himself) came onstage. And of course we all started cracking jokes – until he laid into his solo. It’s hard to make fun of a guy that can throw down like that. Even if he is wearing a frilly shirt.
Now, if you’re a guitarist, you know the answer to my question – as many as you can get. I never looked at it the way he did though. You start off with a guitar, then buy another for a different sound, and pretty soon you can’t walk through your living room without tripping on one.
So far my guitars are pretty widely varied. A solid body w/ single coils, a hollow body w/ humbuckers, a resonator, a slope shouldered satin finish dreadnought w/ spruce, a gloss top dread w/ ash, and a cheap classical.
That will probably change as time goes on. A few girlfriends ago one told me that before buying a new guitar I would have to get rid of one I had. That’s a tough order, because the one I was looking at wouldn’t replace any of the ones I would have to give up. (Fortunately she was gone before one of them had to leave.)
Is it the same with all guitarists? Or can some people actually pare down their collection to just one electric and one acoustic? Mr. Sans Direction, thanks for helping me realize that I’m not alone.
I’ll never forget my first introduction to the Mississippi Hill Country style. It was in the Audiogalaxy days when I had an on-campus job. The job site was a small building right across the street from the University, so we were seperate from the other IT departments. Most of our work orders required us to head across the street to check out whatever computer problem there was, so we would usually wait until there were a few work orders backed up before trekking. During our (plentiful) downtime we would download and listen to music.
One day a band was featured on the Audiogalaxy page – the North Mississippi Allstars. I generally liked blues music at the time so I decided to check it out. The first song I downloaded was “Shake ‘Em On Down”.
It was like being hit with a hammer.
So I listened to more. I bought their album, “Shake Hands With Shorty”. I listened to it constantly. Then I started to do some reading – turns out this stuff wasn’t new.
See, “Shake Hands With Shorty” is actually a cover album. The Allstars took these old Mississippi Hill Country songs they had learned first hand from people like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside and interpreted them in their own style. I did what I usually do when learning about new music. I went for the source material.
I figured I would hear toned down versions of the Allstars’ songs, which is what usually happens when you listen to the originals. What I got instead was something even more powerful. What I got was R.L. Burnside:
It took some time for R.L. to get recognized… and by that I mean it took forty years. He picked up the guitar after hearing John Lee Hooker in the late 40’s/early 50’s and had released a couple of albums when he signed to Fat Possum records in the 90’s.
Fat Possum has one of the best artist rosters of any label. If it’s raw and rough, Fat Possum has it. T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour, Bob Log III, Junior Kimbrough… seriously. Check them out.
It was through his new recordings that Jon Spencer found R.L. and took him on tour. They also recorded an album together, “Ass Pocket Of Whiskey”. The Blues Explosion’s indie/punk aesthetic meshed well with Burnside’s style.
The power in his music didn’t come from the drone of an electric guitar either. Burnside could chill you with just an acoustic guitar:
A lot of it had to do with the hypnotic style that the North Mississippi Hill Country artists use. It’s not about chord changes and melody, it’s about rhythm. This was the music of the juke joint and fish fries, not the concert hall.
Sadly, R.L. is another great who is no longer with us. He died in 2005 at the age of 78. But you can believe his music lives on – his son Dwayne was a member of the North Mississippi Allstars for a time, and his grandson Cedric continues to pound the skins for local Mississippi groups. His influence can be heard on bands like the Allstars, the Black Keys, the Blues Explosion, and countless others.
Thanks for the boogie R.L.. It’ll be a long time before it’s forgotten.
