Dustbowl "Goin' Down" 2009***

I thought I'd continue with country-oriented bands from unlikely places, so after Germany and The Bosshoss I'll present a band from my hometown, Athens. I believe I first saw them live some time in 2008 at my favorite neighborhood bar, Closer. Unlike Bosshoss whose approach to country music borders on parody, Dustbowl are seriously immersed in the mythology of the West, without trying to emulate it faithfully. You won't find any fake Texas accents or "yee-haw" yelps here. Instead there's a combination of tasty pedal steel and twangy surf guitars, swampy desert blues and upbeat garage/rockabilly, with lyrics inspired by Southern Gothic literature. When I saw them live, their set was mostly an upbeat mix of rockabilly and Johnny Cash covers, but about half of the tracks here are dark Gothic Americana. Many of these tracks wouldn't sound out of place on True Detective - I'm mentioning this because I just (belatedly) finished watching this series, and absolutely loved the producers' choice of music. Dustbowl often remind me of Mark Lanegan, The Walkabouts, Beasts of Bourbon and -above all- of Jeffrey Lee Pierce (Gun Club). Some of the more garage/rockabilly style numbers include "Lil' Mefisto", "Junkyard Blues", "Lean On Me", and "Marigold Walls". For more traditional country try "Just A Love Song" and "Goin' Down (In A Whiskey Haze)" with its impressive (at least for Greek standards) pedal steel guitar. "Cherry Wine (Lullaby For The Wicked)" is a classic country duet between DD and Lydia, and "Voodoo (That Burns)" a swampy blues tune. The music is really a mix of different elements; in their own words, it's "...mother earth rock. You will find some Americana, alt. country and psychedelic rock influences there". For this particular album, the core band (Nik Fysakis guitar, Dimitris "DD Dynamite" Douranos vocals, Giotis “The Shoeshine Boy” Petrelis Drums, Lydia Grammatikou bass & vocals, and John "Hardy" Houstoulakis pedal steel guitar) are augmented by Phil Shoenfelt on atmospheric ballad "Morning Blue" and by former Barraccuda Jeremy Gluck on garage folk "Mourner". A closer collaborator, Alex K. from Greek garage legends Last Drive, adds vocals and harp on the gospel "Chain Gang Partners", melodic garage "Junkyard Blues", surf/spaghetti western instrumental "Land's End", and the album's sole cover "Death Don’t Have No Mercy" by bluesman Reverend Gary Davis. At the time, Alex K. led a similar desert rock band called Earthbound, and would later join -among others- Dustbowl's Nikos Fysakis and John Hardy in an Athenian supergroup called Thee Holy Strangers. Both of these bands will be presented in this blog on another occasion. To sum up, this album is a great mix of Americana, garage rock, and Gothic country. If that sounds right up your alley, you should definitely check this band out! 

**** for Goin' Down (In A Whiskey Haze), Lean On Me, Mourner, Cherry Wine (Lullaby For The Wicked)

*** for Burden (A-You Can't Bear), Chain Gang Partners, Lil' Mefisto, Morning Blue, Junkyard Blues, Voodoo (That Burns), Marigold Walls, Just A Love Song, Land Ends, Death Don't Have No Mercy (In This Land)

The Bosshoss "Rodeo Radio" 2006***

After last week's post on Bob Wayne's cover album Hits The Hits, I thought I'd present a similar CD by a bunch of German "cowboys" from "Berlin, Mississippi" called Bosshoss. Unlike Wayne who's a genuine red blooded redneck, these guys seem to come from a punk/rockabilly background and take a half-jocular approach towards country. The end result is less Johnny Cash and more Leningrad Cowboys, even though Bosshoss never break character, employing their best twanging guitars and fake South U.S. accents with a straight face. Their punk roots nevertheless do come out, more noticeably on covers like Plastic Bertrand's "Ca plane pour moi" and Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hotrod". They both remind me of Jello Biafra's one-off cowpunk classic Prairie Home Invasion, while the frantic pace of Cardigan's cover "My Favourite Game" is also punky. Own compositions "I'm on a High" and "Hell Yeah" have pop-punk hooks, while opener "Radio Rodeo" is a speedy hoedown with an ultra-catchy chorus which in some places reminded me of RUN DMC's "Walk This Way". Good fun as their originals are, though, it's the unlikely countrified covers that steal the show - especially De La Soul's "Ring Ring Ring", Diana Ross' "Upside Down", and Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff". Less satisfactory are the way-too-camp covers of "I Say a Little Prayer" (Dionne Warwick), "It's Not Unusual" (Tom Jones) and faux-Elvis ballad "You'll never Walk Alone". In any case, the band sound like they're having fun, and that feeling is infectious, which accounts for their lasting success in Germany and Austria. I'm not crazy about them myself, but when I'm in the mood for something slightly silly but entertaining, this CD usually hits the spot. 

**** for Rodeo Radio, Ring Ring Ring, My Favourite Game, Hot Stuff

*** for I'm on a High, Hell Yeah, Rodeo Queen, Shake a Leg, Mary Marry Me, Upside Down, Ca plane pour moi

** for I Say a Little Prayer, It's Not Unusual, Jesus Built My Hotrod, You'll Never Walk Alone

Bob Wayne "Hits The Hits" 2015****

I remember seeing Bob Wayne play the Paard at The Hague and thinking he had a real rock and roll attitude - as if Wayne had to be emulating any rocker, when country music has its own share of bad boys. Johnny Cash certainly had a hell of a lot more rock and roll attitude than most rockers. Even so, I always considered Wayne as somehow bridging alt.rock and country, so I wasn't too surprised when I saw he had recorded a whole album of rock and pop hits. That might have counted as a novelty, if Hayseed Dixie hadn't already been doing it for 15 years. But, good as they are in what they do, Hayseed Dixie have never been able to shake the label of the "novelty act" whereas Bob Wayne is considered a bona fide Outlaw Country artist, also known for his collaboration with Hank Williams III - and Hank's name sure carries some weight in country circles. Bob doesn't usually sing covers, not even live, but in this case he lost a bet and, as a result, he had to record a version of Meghan Trainor's pop hit "All About That Bass". What started as a joke soon became his next project. He thought that, if Johnny Cash can cover Nine Inch Nails and U2 and make them his own, then nothing's off limits. So Bob tried his own spin on a bunch of songs. Some of them were stone cold rock classics, others were really random choices. The common thread was that, while Cash's cover albums were acoustic and had a sober quality, Wayne chose to record with a full band and to present upbeat versions with banjos and fiddles replacing electric guitars. Which results in, if nothing else, an album that is fun to listen to from beginning to end. It doesn't take much to transform rockabilly to hillbilly, so opener "Rock And Roll" sounds great, an upbeat country number with nice harmonica and lots of hoots by Bob. "Sympathy For The Devil" is a hoedown with supersonic fiddle and banjo, Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright" sounds great (once again the fiddle steals the show), but on "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "I Shot The Sheriff" he goes for a talking blues vocal style that doesn't suit the former song. "Come Together" is one of the songs that don't need too much changing to fit to his style, while the album closes with Ozzy's "Crazy Train", a relaxed version that reminded me of Pat Boone's. Which brings us to the -more unexpected- pop covers: "All About The Bass" is re-imagined with mariachi horns and female backing vocalists. It's a joke, and it sounds like it, but at least it's a funny one! Adele's James Bond anthem "Skyfall" on the other hand sounds fantastic, you'd think it was originally written this way i.e. as a George Jones/Tammy Wynette-style country duet. Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" are almost unrecognizable, but work surprisingly well as as honky tonk country, as does the Red Hot Chilli Peppers ballad "Under The Bridge". "Disturbia" (originally by Rihanna) is the only song here I wasn't already familiar with - again an upbeat country number with nice fiddle and a slightly menacing vocal. Bob Wayne's choice to mostly try his hand on transforming overly familiar songs had me prepared for a sort of Weird Al Yankovic-meets-Hayseed Dixie parody. It sometimes does work like that, but at the same time it's a highly enjoyable country and western CD featuring Bob's trademark country drawl, imaginative arrangements and virtuoso playing (have I mentioned the fiddle already?) Like Johnny Cash's American Recordings, it demands a sequel!

**** for Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin), Skyfall (Adele), Sympathy For The Devil (The Rolling Stones), Crazy (Gnarls Barkley), Under The Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers), The Kids Aren't Alright (The Offspring)

*** for I Shot The Sheriff (Bob Marley), Radioactive (Imagine Dragons), Come Together (The Beatles), Disturbia (Rihanna), All About That Bass (Meghan Trainor), Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)

** for Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns N' Roses)

Orquestra Plateria "Orquestra Plateria" 1979***

Quiz: How many Catalan flags can you see on the album's front cover? 

Third visit to Barcelona, another Catalan record in my collection: The first time I got a prog CD by a band called Música Dispersa, second one it was a folk rock album by Sisa, and last time a Latin dance LP by a band called Orquestra Plateria. How is it that three so diverse records may feature the same guy, Jaume Sisa? In any case, I'm not sure he plays here, as many of the band members used pseudonyms; this was supposed to be a break from their dayjobs. It was initially conceived as a one-time thing, a bunch of guys getting together to play retro music they liked, just for the fun of it. Instead it went on for 40 years, although singer Manel Joseph was the sole permanent member. This was their 2nd eponymous LP, and the one that turned them into a national success. Indeed one gets the impression that the musicians are having fun and that feeling of enjoyment is infectious. I must say that opener "Amparito Roca" (a brass-heavy pasodoble) was a bit too old fashioned for my taste, but I personally greatly enjoyed the slightly latinized Catalan-language rock covers (Elvis' "All Shook Up" as "Estic Xocat", The Rolling Stones' "19th Nervous Breakdown" as "Neuratènia"). That said, Orquestra Plateria's true specialty is salsa: "Pedro Navaja" (A Rubén Blades cover) is a highlight of the album, followed by other dance numbers with a strong Cuban influence: "Te casas o no te casas", "El sabio", Perez Prado's "Mambo núm.8". "Roda maxixe chiriquitu" is a folkier piece with a carnival vibe, while the album closes with an unexpected choice: an instrumental from Nino Rota's music for Fellini's 8½. One of the soundtrack's most upbeat pieces, it conjures images of clowns parading in a circus stage, and it's my least favorite track here. I suppose the band must have had fun playing it live, so they included it in their record. On the whole, this is an above-average, slightly old-fashioned, Latin dance LP; it may not rock your world but you won't be able to resist moving to its infectious salsa beat.

**** for Estic xocat

*** for Amparito Roca, Te casas o no te casas, El sabio, Roda maxixe chiriquitu, Neuratènia, Pedro Navaja, Mambo núm. 8

** for Fellini 8 y medio