This page is part of an opinionated overview of "alt.country" music, with record reviews by me, Joe Sixpack... Naturally, it's a work in progress, and quite incomplete, so your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys "Forever Always Ends" (Bloodshot, 1999)
This guy so totally, completely rocks! Two things drew me to Midwesterner Rex Hobart's debut album, Forever Always Ends... His wry, tounge-in-cheek overstatements of traditional country "hard luck" themes -- going to your ex-lover's wedding, etc. -- were handled as skillfully as on Dwight Yoakam's A Long Way Home album, and with nearly as much musical panache. Also, Hobart's genre satire is helped tremendously by the fact that his band kicks ass, playing hard country music at a level far above your average rockers-gone-hick twangcore crew. The simple, bright production and Hobart's adenoidal voice bring to mind numerous freewheeling, laissez faire hippie-billy bands from the '70s, particularly folks who were well off the radar, such as Greezy Wheels, Robb Strandlund, or Deadly Earnest. However, Hobart's output is way more consistent than any of those no-hit wonders -- if the truth be told, there isn't a bad song on this album. Thematically, it's a little repetitive (one big, "I can't win, and boy do I know it..." country self-parody...), but the music is super-solid, and so are his normal-guy, nebbish vocals, and his lyrics are uniformly hilarious and witty. If you're among the ranks of those disappointed by Robbie Fulks' last few albums, give this guy a try -- he's not as bluesy, but he's just as brash.
Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys "The Spectacular Sadness Of..." (Bloodshot, 2000)
Hobart doesn't disappoint on this follow-up, although he does come a bit closer to overplaying his hand lyrically; the balancing act is made more precarious by his embrace of Glen Campbell-derived folk-countrypolitan stylings, as opposed to the bottle-busting, galloping honkytonk of his last album. By slowing the music down, he gives the listener more time to weigh the relative merits of sincerity vs. wit in lyrics like "I'm Not Drunk Enough To Say I Love You" and "The One And Lonely You"... Still, these Misery Boys take their picking and plunking very seriously, and just the sound of that pedal steel alone is worth the price of admission. This is one of the best country bands in America today! Check 'em out.
Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys "Your Favorite Fool" (Bloodshot, 2002)
Rex Hobart is one of the most seriously underrated country artists around today, and this may be his single best album to date. This is solid, well-crafted honkytonk music like they used to make in the late 1950s, with instrumental and vocal performances that are all simply top-rate. Hobart is too indie for the Nashville studions, and probably too serious and too straightforward a musician to be embraced by the irony-addicted alt-country hipster crowd... which is a real shame, 'cause he is really, really talented. (I played a bunch of these songs on the Spinner.com Americana channel and they got terrible ratings from the listeners, so there's some sort of disconnect between what people read about in No Depression and what they like to hear on the radio... Of course, I left all the songs on there anyway, 'cause I was right and they were wrong...) Kudos to Bloodshot Records for giving this guy a chance to grow... all of his albums are good, this one is the best.
Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys "Empty House" (Bloodshot, 2005)
Man, the Misery Boys have sure been working overtime to live up to their name... It's been a few years since their last record came out, and I guess Rex Hobart has spent the time plumbing the depths of bitterness and abject desolation. This disc opens with four songs that document with painful clarity the death of a romance, each tune ratcheting upwards from bickering and recrimination to outright hatred and hostility. (Hobart's cover of Johnny Paycheck's "It Won't Be Long (And I'll Be Hating You)" is an album highlight...) It's a pretty gruelling progression, and if you're like me, by the time you get through that introduction, you'll want to call Hobart and ask if you can buy him a beer. From there, the lovers go splitsville and our hero -- still addressing all the lyrics to his ex -- bottoms out, singing of barside binges and late-night self-loathing -- Lefty Frizzell's "I Never Go Around Mirrors," writ large. The album's real payoff comes on "The Tear I Left Behind," where he suggests they try maybe just a little bit of fooling around, just for old time's sake. Ouch. Some people never learn. Musically, this album isn't as catchy or melodic as his past two, but the picking is pretty solid, even if the lyrics hijack the show. If you enjoy those old, exaggerated, gloom'n'doom tunes by Johnny Paycheck sang in the 1960s, you might find a kindred spirit here with Hobart & Co... But seriously, Rex... You okay, dude? Can I buy a beer or something?
Louise Hoffsten "Knackebrod Blues" (Memphis International, 2002)
For decades, the blues have become so tame and tradition-bound that hearing a new artist come along and make the style sound rough and dirty again is almost like a divine revelation: Oh, so you mean modern blues don't have to be so goddamn boring?? Wow!! So let's welcome Louise Hoffsten, a slight, plain-featured blonde whose tiny voice expands to fill in the spaces left by her a remarkably muscular electric combo. Knackebrod Blues may be the most dynamic, energizing blues album of the last ten years. More remarkable still is that Hoffsten is actually from Sweden, and that her previous albums were more in a quiet, offkilter indierock-ish mode... Here she brings a sexy, slightly trashy, jagged-edged Joan Jett-like feel to these songs that is at once electrifying and alluring. Recommended!
Kelly Hogan "The Whistle Only Dogs Can Hear" (Long Play, 1996)
Kelly Hogan & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts "Beneath The Country Underdog" (Bloodshot, 2000)
Kelly Hogan "Because It Feels Good" (Bloodshot, 2001)
This didn't blow me away... Hogan mellows down into a crooning mode. I think she's aiming for an alt-y Patsy Cline vibe, but winds up being a bit more Vonda Shepard. I suppose if I had a more intense interest in irony and postmodern, satirical blah-blah-blah, this would have more appeal, but I'm still just looking for a strong melody to sing along to...
Hog Mawl "Hank Williams Jr. High" (Broken White, 2001)
I was pretty surprised by this album... I had low expectations, based mostly on the band name and album title, but figured, what the heck... I'll check it out... Instead of the twangcore slopfest I'd anticipated, this is actually a pretty sincere effort to write and play real hard country honkytonk. Songwriter Cliff Murphy has a good ear for his material -- several songs are close to top-notch, held back mainly by the amatuer musicianship, and the occassional loosely-strung lyric. But where most of today's raised-on-rock twangcore bands simply play louder and sloppier to compensate for their lack of country chops, Hog Mawl -- much to their credit -- stick it out and try to play the stuff they way it really should be played. The album's opener, "If You Don't Love Me (I'm Leavin')" could have been a '40s classic, and other tracks, such as "Who Do You Dream Of?" are similarly well-written. "Jasper," an updated version of a Porter Wagoner-style small-town-tale, is also pretty good, and could be better with a few little tweaks. Mostly, this band just needs to stick with it, and get much tighter musically than they are now -- if they can stick it out, they could become one of the best country bands of this decade.
Jolie Holland "Catalpa" (Self-Released, 2003)
This is one of the most distinctive, defiantly genre-bending albums to come down the pike in quite some time... Generally speaking, it's in the "Americana" realm, but with odd, insistent jags of torchy jazz, blues and indefinable world music influences. It's not surprising since Holland, who has become a fixture on the Northern California/SF Bay Area scene, was once a founding member of the equally eclectic Be Good Tanyas, and carries much of their searching moodiness with her. There's also an art-school diary aspect to this disc, with elusive impenetrable lyrics that are matched by the amorphousness of the music. This album certainly has a unique feel to it... whether she'll be able to sustain the mystique, or sharpen her focus, remains to be seen, but for now Holland has struck a remarkable balance between the pretentious and the sublime... If you're looking for something substantive and off the beaten track, this disc is certainly worth checking out.
Jolie Holland "Escondida" (Anti, 2004)
Less nebulous and more rooted in jazz and blues than her previous, self-released album... Holland seems to be staking out some turf in the same general neighborhood as Tom Waits and Norah Jones... Sounds pretty nice, with a few songs that sort of float about, and others that glisten like gems. It's pretentious, sure, alluring at times, irritating at others. On the whole, I'm sure folks will find her a refreshing new voice on the Americana/indie scene, although now I'm starting to feel more like I've got her number down -- seems like she could go either way, and push into more challenging terrain, or she could just keep wowing the rubes with odd, offbeat noodly ditties whose laid-back "weirdness" is their main selling point.
Patterson Hood "Killers And Stars" (New West, 2004)
A self-produced, lo-fi kitchen-recording solo album from one of the honchos in the Drive-By Truckers. Solo acoustic, he's every bit as boring and pretentious as when he's plugged in and grungy. He's just not a very interesting songwriter, and when he goes all navel-gazey, he loses what little novelty the Truckers garner when they go all Southern rock and wow the rubes. I'll pass on this one.
Hot Club Of Cowtown "Swingin' Stampede" (HighTone, 1998)
A sweet three-piece swing stringband which draws evenly on Tin Pan Alley and western swing standards (Gershwin, Bob Wills and the usual suspects). Their approach to the standards is brisk and bouncy, with nods towards Django Rinehardt, Chet Atkins and Wills himself, as well as Depression-era outfits like the Prairie Ramblers. The lead singers - guitarist Whit Smith and fiddle player Elana Fremerman - are limited as vocalists -- but they nonchalantly shrug it off, with the sort of just-plain-folks, come-and-hear-us-play-at-the-cafe attitude which reminds us that you don't have to be a rock god to make good music. For an extra dose of authenticity country/swing veteran Johnny Gimble pitches in on several tunes. Sweet, swinging, and fun to listen to. They're also pretty awesome live.
Hot Club Of Cowtown "Tall Tales" (Hightone, 1999)
Their debut was so sharp and so accomplished, it was hard to envision them topping themselves (and not mucking it up) but ... surprise! This album is a real stunner. One big, BIG reason is that this time the trio had Dave Stuckey of the Dave and Deke Combo in tow as the album's producer. Dave has perfect pitch when it comes to reclaiming old-time western swing and hillbilly material, and as a producer he is so faultlessly sympathetic to the goals and passions of the Hot Club, that this album is one of the best of it's kind you're likely to hear. He also adds a punchy, slightly manic energy that is a nice balance to the band's somewhat cool natural demeanor. HIGHLY recommended!
Hot Club Of Cowtown "Dev'lish Mary" (Hightone, 2000)
Once again, amazingly enough, they seem to just get better and better... In the final balance, I do prefer Dave Stuckey's sublimnal rowdiness as producer of the last album, but Texas fixture Lloyd Maines keeps things on a cool, even keel at the helm of this disc. More great old-time acoustic swing, with novelty songs and sweet licks galore. Need I say it? Recommended!
Hot Club Of Cowtown "Ghost Train" (Hightone, 2002)
Whether bold or foolhardy, these innovative Austinites have penned a slew of new acoustic swing tunes with a heavier-than-usual dose of Tin Pan Alley jazziness, much of it almost Brechtian in its thickness and lyrical density. I gotta say, even though it makes me feel smallminded to admit it, most of this doesn't really work for me -- it feels belaboured and the band sounds overly-conscious of its own efforts. Besides lacking the spontaneous-sounding bounce of earlier efforts, it also feels like each of the bandmembers are trying to prove themselves as individuals, with Elana Fremerman and Whit Smith competing to sound more "original" than each other, rather than working as an ensemble. Dave Stuckey (of Dave & Deke fame) cowrote a few tunes, although this time they asked Gurf Morlix to produce the album. Still, ya gotta give 'em credit for trying something new, and for pushing themselves as artists... I just wish they could sound a little more relaxed about it. Worth checking out, though!
Hot Club Of Cowtown "Continental Stomp" (HighTone, 2003)
A sweet live set, featuring this retrorific swing trio at a hometown venue, Austin's Continental Club, in May of 2003. They get a little risque with a version of the old Light Crust Doughboys ditty, "Here Pussy Pussy Pussy" (on a hidden bonus track), but otherwise this is pretty much par for the course for these folks -- old standards and western tunes from the 1930s and '40s, and plenty of bouncy fiddling and smooth geetar work. It's nice, classy stuff, and a nice chance to hear how they sound in front of a crowd.
Hot Club Of Cowtown/Whit Smith's Hot Jazz Caravan "Four Dead Batteries" (Soundtrack) (HighTone, 2005)
I don't know anything about the movie this soundtrack is from, but the music sure is sweet! An album full of music from one of the finest western swing/stringband revival bands, the now-defunct Hot Club Of Cowtown, with five new tracks from HCCT co-founder Whit Smith's new group. It's fine stuff from start to finish, a very listenable, very pleasant set, roaming through various acoustic jazz, blues and country styles, with a healthy dose of classic western swing tunes. This is a well-programmed album, and a fine testament to the Hot Club's freewheeling, joyful style. Recommended!
Alt.Country Albums - More Letter "H"
Hick Music Index
