YOU OUGHT TO JUST BUY A GOOD GUITAR” or

Two important albums of alternative country
will be reissued on Nov 19 by Bloodshot Records

The Bottle Rockets’ debut from 1993,
and their next album, The Brooklyn Side from 1994.

The Bottle Rockets are pioneers of alt-country. The roots of this subgenre go back to the 80s. There were two bands in the Midwest, The Primitives played rockabilly, then punk, finally blues oriented fast garage rock; the Chicken Truck played outlaw country music. The two bands occasionally played together. The first band changed his name into Uncle Tupelo, and released his debut album in 1990. The ’No Depression’ would be the first „alternative country” labelled record. In same year the Chicken Truck split up, and the singer and guitarist, Brian Henneman became a roadie and guitar technician of Uncle Tupelo, but he also played on shows and records as a permanent guest. Furthermore a country cover band, the Coffee Creek was founded by U.T. and Brian, who after a successful solo single (backed by U.T. men and ex-Chicken Truck drummer) founded his own band with ex-C. T. members in 1992. The Bottle Rockets’ first album was released in the following year. And the end of beginning of alt-country in 1994 the Uncle Tupelo split into two part: Wilco and Son Volt.

But the pioneers of alt-country dispute that they discovered any singular thing: „we were just picking up the ball, starting with Woody Guthrie and on to the early ’60s and the Flying Burrito Brothers that we were influenced by. We didn’t start a genre. We contributed to a long line of fairly good music.” – said Mike Heidorn, the ex-drummer of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. Never mind, the alt-country is flourishing.

In one hand, the phrase shows the opposition to the Nashville dominated corporate country, in other hand marks the difference from traditional country style. There are various elements of rock and roll, rockabilly, punk, rock and blues mixing with country, like in the music of Bottle Rockets:

Stories about the blue-collar side of America on remastered two-CD reissue set with 19 previously unreleased tracks: Chicken Truck and acoustic demo versions, songs with Uncle Tupelo members from the pre-Bottle Rockets era, live and radio performances. The package consists of an 40-page booklet.

RATHER „THAN ANY OLD 1000 DOLLARS CAR”

Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago. They’ve „always been drawn to the good stuff nestled in the dark, nebulous cracks where punk, country, soul, pop, bluegrass, blues and rock mix and mingle and mutate.”  You can find a bunch of free tracks from various Bloodshot artists – Moonshine Willy, Waco Brothers, Lonesome Bob, Scroat Belly, The Handsome Family, Riptones,  The Meat Purveyors, Alejandro Escovedo, etc – here. The styles are mainly alternative country and country rock. A song from the frees: Robbie Fulks – Cigarette State

„Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.” – Horace Greeley, second half of the XIXth c.

Some thoughts with reference to new album of Robbie Fulks. The Gone Away Backward released by Bloodshot Records.

Robbie Fulks is a country music “outsider”. He has his own views about the country industry. It’s brief and to the point: Fuck this town. The sentence refers to the capital of country, Nashville, where several branch of industry have been built on the genre. There is the system of institute of country music. The marketing machinery lets lot of country-called terrible products loose on the unsuspecting world from this town. Then there is the Grand Ole Opry. It has started as a radio show in 1925, during the years has become the congregation of country elite. And finally there is the necropolis, the Country Music Hall of Fame. (You can read the Sex Pistols’ opinion about a similar institute, the Rock and Roll H.O.F. here.)

The country lives outside of every institution in the rural areas. Fulks takes a sightseeing tour in the countryside, and sings about the end of his beloved small town America from Chicago. But the “now” has come somewhere, and the “end” was there yesterday too.
The American people are restless and very mobile. 1927: The 67% of families have car. 1956: The average American family changes residence every 4 years. While broadcast desires rules over the average heads. C’est la américain vie. It’s gone, but not with the wind.

Robbie Fulks’ new album, the Gone Away Backward is an excellent „back to the roots” country album. Not sad, rather melancholic. Rather Bob Dylan, than Merle Haggard.
The violinist is Jenny Scheinmann. (She formed the Giant Trio in the 90s. It was a five pieces band, he-he.) Beside her solo recordings she worked together for example Carla Bozulich, Ani Difranco, Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Mark Ribot, John Zorn. She made the string arrangements on Lou Reed and Metallica’s common album.

The recordings made by analog devices. Producer: Steve Albini (of Big Black and Shellac. He was producer of: Gore, Pixies, Pussy Galore, Breeders, Jesus Lizard, Pigface, Zeni Geva, Silverfish, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Red Krayola, Melt-Banana, Cheap Trick, Killdozer, Fleshtones, The Ex, Neurosis, Zu and many more albums.).

And one more note: his hometown, York, is a little city in Pennsylvania. The population has increased in the last decade for the fist time since 1950.

Recommended reading:
John Lukacs – A New Republic: A History Of The United States In The Twentieth Century
Magyarul: Az Egyesült Államok XX. századi története

I have found only one archive video from 1985. Look!

The singer is Barry White. It’s not a joke. It’s his real name. He has changed it to Barrence Whitfield because of a famous singer has changed his name to Barry White ten years before. He was 11 in 1966 when „My uncle took us to see the James Brown Revue and that was my first witness of a fantastic show. (…) all the girls were screaming and the guys were going AAAHHH!!! It was wild. It was probably the biggest moment of my life.” Smaller, but important moments: after the gospel choir he became a drummer, and played funk, soul and prog rock music.

1983 Boston: after his punk (DMZ) and garage rock (Lyres) band the guitarist Peter Greenberg has decided to form an instrumental rock and roll band, but Barry White upset his plans when he began unexpectedly singing at the record store where they worked. Moreover it came to light that both men very like the old rock and roll records. Naturally they recorded some old hits to their albums. And those shows! „The people ripping the seats from the floor and people were diving into the audiences.”

After two albums the original line-up disbanded in 1986 because of Greenberg and the bassist moved on, but Barrence rebuilt and kept alive the band until 1994. The three core member reunited in 2010 and now

HERE IS THE NEW BARRENCE WITHFIELD AND THE SAVAGES ALBUM:
DIG THY SAVAGE SOUL!

Rock and roll on the same, the hard way:

Euro Tour (Sept-Oct)

„Come on baby let’s rock!
Well, OW! Woo! Ah! Ah!
Aaaah-ooo!”

„Eddie Spaghetti grew up in Tucson, Arizona trying desperately to ignore the country music that floated all around him.” He turned on the way of heavy metal and punk, has became the bassist and vocalist of the Supersuckers. On his second solo album you can find country rock and roll with a little punk feeling.

from The Value Of Nothing LP by Bloodshot

His name come to my mind this fantastic song

ZIG ZAGS play psych hard rock’n’roll, yeah

7″ by Who Can You Trust? yeah

The guitarist Luke Winslow King‘s adopted home is New Orleans. (In deep of my soul it’s mine too.) There I-you-he can find delta blues ragtime jazz cajun gospel country rock and roll on the streets and bars. The mix of these traditional American musical styles called Americana:

 Coming Tide LP by Bloodshot Records

Notorious dirty rockers from Detroit. Human Eye:

Gettin’ Mean from Human Eye 4: Into Unknown LP by Goner Records

3 free songs + Interview