Antsy McClain "Time-Sweetened Lies" (DPR, 2005)

Antsy McClain & The Trailer Park Troubadours "Trailercana" (DPR, 2007)
Twang-ish novelty songs that purport to pander to white trash stereotypes (take the band name, for example...) but actually harken back to the goofball pop culture glibness of early Warren Zevon and old Jimmy Buffett. The prominence of a tootling horn section recalls the early 1970s when R&B-based boogie rock flirted with hippie twang, a style that was hard to get into back then and is still a tough sell today. A lot of folks seem to be diggin' Antsy's schtick, but I'm not totally feeling the love over here in Sixpackville. Some songs are just way too obvious and seem to have been done before, for example the panderdelic "I Was Just Flipped Off By A Silver Haired Old Lady With A 'Honk If You Love Jesus' Bumpersticker" certainly brings to mind Buffett's "God Don't Own A Car" and the Gold Coast Singers' "Plastic Jesus"; Cheech'n'Chong-ish stoner humor is reprised on "Prozac Made Me Stay," and "Joan Of Arkansas" is one in a long line of faux-heroic burn-the-trailer-down ballads. That being said, there are some standout tracks: "Dysfunktional," with the singer taking advantage of a mentally ill party girl,will raise a rueful smile; "I Wanna Live In A Billboard" is a perky send-up of consumer culture, and other songs have some zippy lines here and there, and "I Married Up" is almost tight enough to be a rednecky hit for Travis Tritt or someone like that. Without doubt there are legions of people who will love this album and no short supply of freeform radio DJs who will play it to death, although I find it way too on-the-nose and overly obvious for it to have a long shelf life... Folks who really dig Red Meat, Jimmy Buffett or the Austin Lounge Lizards will want to check this out.

The McGillicuddy Sisters "Hillbilly Hi-Jinx" (Lucky Ron, 2006)
Scrappy, old-school hillbilly music of the late-1940s variety, hearkening back to the glory days of folks like Webb Pierce, Kenny Roberts and -- more than anything else, the great Rose Maddox. The gals in this band (and not all the "sisters" are gals) clearly have a major Rose Maddox fixation, which is understandable since Maddox was one of the greatest hillbilly stars of the 20th Century, as well as one of the strongest female voices in country music history... Now, I gotta say upfront that this clattersome Ottawa-based ensemble are hardly top-flight talent, but they certainly have good taste in country music and their hearts are in the right place... If you like listening to way-off-the-radar recordings by bands with a super-indie , jes-plain-folks orientation, this might be a disc you'd like to check out. (For more information, check out the band's website at www.mcgillicuddysisters.com )

Meat Purveyors "Sweet In The Pants" (Bloodshot, 1997)
Of all the would-be indiebillies who professed to take the punk rock DIY ethos into the alt-country realm, these scraggly Austinites are some of the best to deliver on the premise... The music is far from technically perfect, the sound mix is iffy at best, but there's plenty of pizzazz in the performances, and a nice song selection, with the band clearly opting to play music they like, rather than stuff they think sounds funny, or stereotypically "hick." This isn't the kind of album I would put on just to listen to at home, but I certainly appreciate it as a document of a lively, engaging, energetic band. Good stuff.

Meat Purveyors "More Songs About Buildings And Cows" (Bloodshot, 1999)
A nice set of scrappy acoustic urban indiebilly, with fast-paced, 'grassish breakdowns and, um, somewhat unconventional vocals. (Oh, alright -- she really can't sing that well... There, I've said it!! Are you happy now??) All in all, it's very coffeehouse-ish and open mic night-y, but in a very good, down-to-earth DIY way -- sort of like Freakwater, but with less of a "difficult listening" edge. Nice mix of original material and well chosen cover tunes... This is perhaps their strongest album... Definitely worth checking out.

The Meat Purveyors "All Relationships Are Doomed To Fail" (Bloodshot, 2002)
Hmmm, I dunno... I mean, yeah, with concerted effort I can tell that these folks have some good songwriting chops... a little too WTS-y for me, but often some clever turns of phrase. Yet the music is so clattersome and hurried, and their vocals so raggedy and uneven, that my predominant experience as a listener is one of irritation. As I've said elsewhere, the "I'm not singing in tune on purpose, because I'm so punk!" ethos doesn't translate well between the worlds of electric rock and acoustic country. I guess the raspy charm of their earlier albums didn't hold up for me through oh, so many albums.

The Meat Purveyors "Pain By Numbers" (Bloodshot, 2004)
These scrappy Austin alties are back, with another loose, lively and comparatively clunky set of original tunes and well-chosen covers. You really have to be on this band's wavelength to get into their albums; folks who want country musicians who "sound right" (ie. in tune and able to keep the beat) are probably better off avoiding this disc, while fans who like bands who are all plucky and punky and DIY and all that jazz will be heartened to hear that the Purvs have not "sold out" or anything... They're still as clattersome and shrill and full of piss'n'vinegar as ever, and they still sound like a slightly kinder, gentler Freakwater. They cover Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Paycheck with equal aplomb, and bend country conventions to their own devices; their winsome cover of the old Ronnie Milsap hit, "Daydreams About Night Things," is an album highlight. Personally, I can't imagine myself listening to this album more than once, although there are several songs on here that have involving, interesting lyrics. It's just the musical end of things that leave me a little underwhelmed; I like records that are pleasant to listen to, and pure 'tude doesn't do as much for me as it used to.

Audrey Auld Mezera "Lost Men And Angry Girls" (Restless Records, 2006)
Top-flight contemporary folk from this Australian-born singer-songwriter. Mezera, who's settled in Northern California, is a protege of guitarist Nina Gerber, although this diverse album finds her pleasantly free of the coffeehouse limitations of the earnest-folkie/open mic night crowd. She dips into topically oriented material (the antiwar "We Cry"), but she isn't bound to it, and wends her way through smoky blues (on Bonnie Parker's "Morphine"), soft-shuffle honkytonk country and even a nod towards the Irish pubs. Mezera's humorous side gives us two standout tracks, the alt-country homage, "Looking For Luckenbach" -- which name-drops Jerry Jeff and his outlaw compatriots -- and "Self-Help Helped Me," an affectionate, insiderish skewering of the self-help/New Age scene with lyrics worth of Todd Snider of John Prine. The labor songs about coal miners ring a little less true, but throughout the album, Mezera's fluid, girlish voice is consistently compelling, and the musical backing is a delight. Fans of Be Good Tanyas, Jolie Holland or early Dar Williams will probably really dig this, too. Recommended!

Tift Merritt "Bramble Rose" (Lost Highway, 2002)
(See also: Two Dollar Pistols)

Tift Merritt "Tambourine" (Lost Highway, 2004)
Following the lead of Whiskeytown's Caitlin Cary, Tift Merritt, the twangy, steel-tipped shell casing fired out of the Two Dollar Pistols, has set her country roots aside and gone for a new soul diva sound. She's much better off sticking to the hillbilly stuff. Really, you gotta have great vocal chops to really sing R&B, and while her voice works okay in an alt-country context, it was slightly torturous here. Bigwig producer dude George Drakoulias (known for his work with the Jayhawks and Black Crowes) builds a sound that's simply too big for Merritt's voice, and the gap is too painfully apparent. But, judging from what I've read elsewhere, mine may be the minority opinion, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Still... I dunno...

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Hick Music Index

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