| THE CULTIVATORS...MAMA�S KITCHEN HAYDEN�S FERRY RECORDS...*** DAN ISRAEL...DAN WHO? HAYDEN�S FERRY RECORDS...***1/2 Dan Israel, , writes great songs whether as frontman for The Cultivators, or solo with just an acoustic guitar. His music is what I�d call Americana in the best sense of the term. Most of his songs have a folksy, rock and roll feel to them with tones of country and blues sprinkled through-out. Think Bob Dylan or the early Jayhawks. Dan grew up hearing his parent�s music around the house which consisted mainly of folk type music like Peter, Paul And Mary. At 13 he started playing guitar and while in highschool he listened to the proverbial inspiration bands: The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. He also liked some of the more punkier bands like The Ramones and The Replacements. It was while he was attending college that he began to concentrate more on his song writing, thus he tuned into Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Dan got the Cultivators together in early 1996, and over the course of two albums, the band went through several personnel changes. They now play mainly live as a trio in the Minneapolis area. Their first album, Before We Met garnered good reviews and the latest Cultivators album, Mama�s Kitchen has received even more. Now, After Mama�s Kitchen, Dan has recorded a stripped down solo album, Dan Who? He says that he did the acoustic thing because it cost a lot less to put together than a full-blown band recording, especially after going into debt putting out the previous effort. It was also an opportunity for him to release some of his more personal songs which worked better with the intimate setting of just him and his guitar. The songs on Mama�s Kitchen have a theme of loneliness that reside within them all. Tales of struggling to understand an often unfair and troubling world where friends and lovers come and go at the drop of a hat, more often going than coming. Certain songs even contain references to death and dying. Titles like: �Wrong Side�, � Shadows�, and �All Alone� give a hint as to what lies beneath the sometimes upbeat musicianship. Even the song title �Happy Again� hides the fact that it�s really about a happiness that is just too far out of reach and perhaps unattainable. In the song �All Alone�, you hear about someone who goes it alone, seemingly untrusting of any help from others: All by myself, don�t like to sound alarms or call out for help But on a clear cold night, you can get star-crossed Map in hand, you can still get lost This somewhat melancholy songwriting belies the music though, which is guitar driven, and riff-happy. You may find yourself tapping a foot or singing along to a song about ending up on the �wrong side�. All of the songs are good in their own way, but the title song Mama�s Kitchen is the anthem of the album. With it�s slow build and rocking center piece it carries the listener along on a fresh Americana song-ride, and contains such captivating lyrics as: Standing in your mama�s kitchen Reading refrigerator notes too much like magnets not enough like post-it notes Hope that I don�t slip up or get my signals crossed But, standing in your mama�s kitchen I get a little lost Dan�s new solo effort, Dan Who? is a stripped down acoustic album of even more introspective songwriting and fresh self-analytical lyrics. A lot of it is about the struggles of attaining one�s artistic dream. It questions the outcome of all the years of hard work, the years of writing and making music, the years of going through conflicts and changes and sometimes getting the shaft from friends and aqaintences alike. Some of the song titles are self-descriptive in their own right: �Worn Down From The Chase�, �Lingering Questions�, �I Can�t�, and �Overloaded�. While shooting the shit with Dan on the phone, he told me about a visit he�d paid to a fortune teller back in �96. He said that he�d asked her how long it would be before he would find fame or fortune. He said that the fortune teller had given him a withering look, and had replied �six years of hard work�. Well, it�s now been six years, and let�s hope that sometime in the near future, we won�t be asking �Dan Who� any longer. THE BASTARD SONS OF JOHNNY CASH...WALK ALONE ULTIMATUM MUSIC...***1/2 The San Diego based Bastard Sons Of Johnny Cash are keeping the traditions of real country music alive and well. They play a shit-kicking blend of outlaw country and Bakersfeild that�s peppered with influences that range from Merle Haggerd to Waylon Jennings and on to their namesake Mr. Johnny Cash- who by the way, gave the okay to use his name. These guys manage to keep from sounding like the recycled country mish-mash that many bands of the �new country� genre exemplify - they have their own thing going on that�ll make you wish country music radio didn�t suck. The band includes main-man Mark Stuart on vocals and guitar, Dean Cote on lead guitar, Johnny G. D�Artnay on bass, and Joey Galvan on drums. The band also features Chris Lawrance, who�s played with Mike Ness of Social Distortion, on pedal steel and guitar. In the past, these guys have won the San Diego Reader�s Choice Award for �Best Country Band� and were chosen as one of the �Top 100 Unsigned Bands� in �99 by Music Connection magazine. Merle Haggerd went after them to be his warm-up act, and they were also given the invite by Willie Nelson to perform at his annual �4th of July Picnic�. A nice collection of kudos to have on your side, even before the release of a debut album. Walk Alone is a great beginning to what I hope will be a long career for The Bastard Sons Of Johnny Cash. The album contains rockin� honky-tonk numbers like �Texas Sun� with it�s call and response vocals and lines such as: �I�m just the kind of man who never knew when a good time is done/ Lay me down in my big black Cadillac underneath the Texas sun�. You also get several ballads like the south of the border influenced �Lonesome Sky�, and the heart ripping �Blade�. There�s three truckin� songs including a cover of Dale Watson�s �Truck-stop In La Grange�, and a great cover of Merle Haggerd�s �Silver Wings�. With cuts like these, what more could a �real country� fan want? Not a bad song in the bunch. This is a wonderful first album from a bunch of bastards who�s time has come, so let�s dress up all in black, open a Lonestar and kick out some foot-lights. ROD PRICE...OPEN BURNSIDE RECORDS...**** Rod Price, killer slide guitarist of Foghat fame has finally released a new solo album of killer blues covers and one original tune. Not a dud in the bunch either. This album, if anything shows that Rod has only gotten better with age. On Open, he has hooked back up with extraordinary harp player Shakey Vick, whom he played with back before his Foghat days in Shakey Vick�s Big City Blues Band. Ray was born on November 22, 1947 in Chiswick, London on Saint Cecilia�s Day, (the patron saint of music). American Blues was his first passion, and Shakey Vick�s Big City Blues Band played a purist form of the blues that was not necessarily in vogue at the time. A lot of the bands like Cream and Ten Years After were taking a more experimental approach to the blues. Rod�s interests were based on his blues heroes at the time, and he took a lot of his material directly from artists such as Muddy Waters, Jr. Wells, Shakey Horton and Elmore James, etc. Later he joined Foghat, the great boogie-blues band that earned three platinum and eight gold albums during their time at the top of the charts. Who didn�t own at least one Foghat 8-trak tape at one time? Well, now Rod�s back and boy, what a welcome return to form this new album is! Rod�s slide guitar work is as searing as ever and he really burns with a kick-ass bluesy ferocity on these tracks. Shakey Vick�s vocals remind me of a more gruff sounding Eric Clapton and his harp playing is out of this world. He�s probably one of the best harmonica players I�ve ever heard. The combination of these two guys just bowled me over and their takes on the song selections made me want to jump up out of my chair and pump my fist in the air like I was at one of their live shows. The album contains many covers by some of the best. Sonny Boy Williamson�s �Blue Bird Blues� and �Elevator Woman� get a jaw-dropping work-out. Robert Johnson�s �Walking Blues� is a wonder to behold, updated yet still true to the original with-out being a copy-cat cut. A great instrumental rendition of �Sittin� On Top Of The World� will have you hitting the replay button over and over, and a version of �The Stumble� will knock yer socks off. The final song (and only original) on the album �Dynaflite�, is one ear-shattering, driving blues jam that is almost unbelievable to behold. If you like well-crafted slow blues that will make you ache with joy and if you enjoy killer boogie, then this album definitely needs to be in your collection, I give it my highest rating. KEVIN DEAL...KISS ON THE BREEZE SELF RELEASED...***1/2 Kevin Deal is the real deal. He�s put out three country music albums in as many years, and though he may not be on the radio or in the charts, his music is very enjoyable. He writes all of his own songs and the tales he tells through his music and lyrics have a brand of authenticity stamped upon them that is hard found in this day and age of cookie-cutter songwriting done by a lot of the big names in Nashville. Kevin is a Texan by way of Council Bluffs, Iowa and you can hear it in his voice as he sings about true stories of the life he�s lived and the folks he�s encountered along the way. These songs are written from the heart and are filled with real experience. Kevin Deal�s known hard work first hand and never took anything or anyone for granted. He put his music on hold for over a decade while working a stone contractor 24/7 and raised a family that included five kids. The song �My Father�s Redneck� contains the lyrics: �I was raised on Merle Haggerd and Johnny Cash and/ I watched my father kick more than one hippie�s ass� and later in the songs he says: �Now I see these kids dressed in their baggy clothes/ they got that screwed up hair; and attitude; and all them rings in their nose� and then during the chorus he claims: �They say the apple don�t fall far from the tree/ Now I find my father�s red neck belongs to me�. Insight indeed. All of Kevin Deal�s songs contain reference to the heart, the head, and the highway in one form or another and I found myself recognizing a lot of what he was saying, reflected in my own life growing up. Yeah, the songs are about guns, horses, women and beer halls. Sure, there are plenty of dusty, blue-collar workers hauling shit around in pick-ups and drinking heavily, but there are also touching thoughts, rough-hewn charm and long shadows at sunset amidst the smells of the Texas plains. Kevin told me that he was a big Joe Ely fan, and you can hear Ely�s influences here and there, but I also could detect other great Texas singer-songwriters in his sound: Guy Clark, Butch Hancock, Billy Joe Shaver, Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Jerry Jeff Walker. Well, if Kevin Deal continues to chase his heart around out there in the lonestar musical community, I feel pretty sure that he�ll be recognized for the great songwriter that he is, and will soon join the ranks of those Texas songsmiths that he so much admires. |