The Greatest Knoxville Records of All Time
Metro PulseWhat makes for great Knoxville music?
That's what we've been asking ourselves for the past several weeks in
our quest to honor the best records made by Knoxvillians past and
present; unfortunately, there's no single deciding factor, no
"Knoxville sound" that can serve as a litmus test. In fact, most of
these records couldn't be more different: The genres listed here
range from barrelhouse blues to laundromat punk. Some of these
records were made for major labels and won the artists lasting fame;
others were recorded in Fort Sanders basements and stacked on the
shelves of a few local stores. Many of the musicians were born and
raised here; others came and went.So what's "Knoxvillian" about this music? Well, if you listen closely
to any of these albums, you might detect a common sensibility being
shared among these musicians who performed in our dusty streets,
dingy bars, and concert halls in the past 100 years: an honesty to
their music. The songs may be ironic or straightforward, silly or
sober, vicious or forgiving-but none of them sound fake. They were
all recorded by people actively pursuing their dreams here-whether
this was the place to do it or not-and they didn't stoop to following
trends or pandering to imagined tastes. They recorded this music
because this is what they had in them.To figure out which records to put on our list, we assembled a blue
ribbon panel of local music experts: writers, musicians, historians,
scene-watchers. In making the final selections, we did establish some
criteria: The records had to have been recorded by true Knoxvillians,
if not by birth then at heart (even if they later left); the records
must have been released in a commercial form that could be purchased
at local stores (not just demo tapes or something circulated among
friends); the records should still conceivably be available, even if
you have to look hard (archival and long-lost recordings didn't
count).This selection probably isn't complete, and it's highly likely that
we didn't list one of your personal favorites. Just keep in mind that
music appreciation is subjective, then plunge in.1940s & '50s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s - 1990s
Our Blue Ribbon Panel:
Mike Dotson, Lee Gardner, Lisa Morrow, Jack Neely, Shelly Ridenour,
Seva, John Sewell, Benny Smith, Todd Steed, Coury Turczyn
Roy Acuff
The Essential Roy Acuff
(CBS)
Roy Acuff moved to Knoxville from Maynardville when he was a boy, and
as a young man worked for the L&N and tried to break into pro
baseball. He allegedly learned the fiddle from a Fountain City
mechanic around 1929. About a decade later, Acuff startled a nation
hypnotized by elegant and sentimental big-band stylings with rousing
barnburners like "Wabash Cannonball" and "Fireball Mail." Playing
songs he'd been playing here for years (his first record, "Great
Speckled Bird," he learned from a now-anonymous Knoxville street
band), Acuff's distinctive vocals inspired the young Hank Williams
and, later, George Jones. He became country music's first big
national star-and, along the way, also made the small string combo a
permanent force in popular music, earning him a mention in all
histories of rock 'n' roll. Nashville brought him almost immediate
success on the Opry, where they called him the King of Country Music;
musically, though, he hardly budged. He lived to the age of 85, he
became a recording-industry big shot and even a Republican
politician-but he had already recorded his best work within a couple
of years of when he got off the train from Knoxville. Acuff did his
best work before the album era; this 1992 CD compilation of his early
singles shows Roy at his best. (J.N.)Brownie McGhee
The Folkways Years, 1945-59
(Smithsonian/Rounder)
A Knoxville native who spent the '30s playing streetcorners and juke
joints around the area, guitarist and singer Walter "Brownie" McGhee,
with and without his most famous harmonica-playing partner, Sonny
Terry, may have been the finest practitioner of the "Piedmont"
country/blues style of his day. This 1991 album offers the best proof
of McGhee's surprising breadth, with a few collaborations with his
equally Knoxvillian little brother Stick ("Drinkin' Wine,
Spo-de-oh-dee") McGhee, who's credited by some historians as one of
the co-founders of rock 'n' roll. They say it was a description of a
Brownie McGhee song in 1947 that spawned the term rock 'n' roll. "It
rocks, it rolls," they said. Half a century later, it still does.
(J.N.)Swan Silvertones
Love Lifted Me/My Rock (Specialty)
Claude Jeter brought his a cappella quartet, Four Harmony Kings, from
Coalwood, W. Va., to Knoxville in 1942, when they began a 15-minute
radio show sponsored by the Swan Bakery Company on the Knoxville
station WBIR. They changed the group's name to the Swan Silvertones.
Soon afterward, recording for King Records, they began to develop a
national reputation. From 1951 to 1953 they recorded some hard
rockin' gospel with electric guitar and energetic piano accompaniment
for Specialty Records, where the producer exhorted them to tear down
the house-but issued only four singles before they were dropped by
that label. Eventually, Specialty issued more of the material on LPs
including Love Lifted Me and My Rock. Those two LPs on one CD make
exciting listening that you know would have been a real kick for a
young James Brown, Janis Joplin or Sly Stone. They enjoyed greater
success in the ensuing years at Vee-Jay Records. Jeter's smoother
tenor and falsetto on the Vee-Jay platters is credited with formative
influence on Sam Cooke. (M.D.)Homer & Jethro
The Worst of Homer & Jethro
(RCA)
The title of this 1957 compilation says it all. This is the classic
collection by country music's answer to Spike Jones (with whom they
sometimes collaborated); billed as "the thinking man's hillbillies,"
Homer and Jethro were the missing link between vaudeville and Weird
Al Yankovic. Both Knoxville natives were talented musicians-Kenneth
"Jethro" Burns, in particular, has a reputation as a swing-style
mandolinist. But they had a wacky, sometimes wicked streak that
wrought irreverent parodies of the hit songs of the day. "How Much Is
That Hound Dog In the Winder" is on this collection, as is their
all-time classic, "Jam Bowl Liar," a riff on Hank Williams'
"Jambalaya." (J.N.)The Everly Brothers
Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits
(Rhino)
Starting their duo career in Knoxville, newly out from under the
wings of the family's act, the Everly Brothers broadcast live
performances from the WROL studios in the old Mechanics Bank building
on Gay Street. After refining their approach in collaboration with
the not-too-country Chet Atkins, the brothers anticipated (or
invented) many nuances that were to make the Beatles the pop
phenomenon they soon became.
That the Everlys belong in this list is undebatable; picking one
collection is problematic. The Cadence collection has almost all of
their hits: "Wake Up, Little Suzie," "Bye Bye, Love," "Bird
Dog"-their finest, best-known work, in fact, with one big exception.
That's "Cathy's Clown," which happens to be the Everlys' biggest hit
of all time, and the one most clearly associated with Knoxville. This
lament from a broken-hearted teen at West High School is one of the
few songs the brothers wrote themselves. Unfortunately for
archivists, the Everlys recorded it after they moved to Warner
Brothers, which has been jealous about loaning it out for
compilations. "Cathy's Clown" opens Walk Right Back (Warner
Brothers), an often surprising collection of their work in the 1960s,
when they were more popular in Great Britain than at home. It's a
real pleasure from start to finish. (M.D. & J.N.)Chet Atkins
The Essential Chet Atkins
(RCA)
Before the Beatles, there were singles. Singles were collected with a
bunch of tracks that could never be singles into albums. If you were
a Chet Atkins scholar, you'd study his early albums, because the
sessions that yielded the recordings would have a fairly consistent
set of session musicians, and maybe the state of Chet's relationship
with a writer or the vision of an early record producer added
something to Chet's art of the moment. But for us, who just dig a
fine lick and relish one of the defining pop stylists of the 60s, a
hits compilation is the ticket & this is the one for me. The
Essential Chet Atkins concentrates on his instrumental tracks.
"Yesterday" is a bit maudlin, the reverb-y guitar failing to engage a
'90s listener as the Beatles' vocal still does. But most of these
tunes remain the lite delight today that they were when first pressed
into those 7" vinyl discs with the donut hole. Even Chet's careful
take on "Zorba the Greek" is bittersweet, reflective, and a
respectable reflection of the iconic movie theme. "Alley Cat,"
ubiquitous with the '60s, is one of the best naïve musical portraits
of strutting kitties, that was followed by the Stray Cats' "Stray Cat
Strut" and ultimately, Cats on Broadway. Two Jerry Reed tunes are
clustered in the middle with "Black Mountain Rag" and " Fiddlin'
Around" to remind us where Chet came from. Doc Watson duets on the
beautiful "Tennessee Rag/ Beaumont Rag" from 1979 before the producer
shows you where Nashville went country club in the closing medley
which none of us will ever sit through. But the rest is a pleasure as
well as an education. (M.D.)Clifford Curry
"She Shot a Hole In My Soul" (single)
(Elf)
Clifford Curry, a.k.a. "Sweet Clifford," was Knoxville's greatest
proponent of East Coast beach soul. He released this boardwalk
classic in 1967, when, as best as we can recall, the verb "to shag"
meant something a little broader from the stricter definition
promoted by Austin Powers. This song, an R&B hit (it also reached #95
on the pop charts) appears on a few compilations, including the
fabulous Rhino collection Beg, Scream & Shout! The Big Ol' Box of
'60s Soul. (J.N.)Ida Cox & Coleman Hawkins Quintet
Blues for Rampart Street
(Original Jazz Classics)
One of the most prominent blues singers in the country back before
electric guitars, Ida Cox performed in Knoxville at least once, with
one of her vaudeville reviews, a memorable show at the legendary Gem
Theater on Vine in 1931. In a day when few vocalists wrote their own
lyrics, Ida Cox did. Hers were darker, eerier, often more
sophisticated than most. One of her best-known, "Wild Women Don't
Have the Blues," first recorded in 1924, warns women never to treat
men "on the square":
I've got a disposition and a way of my own
When my man starts kicking, I let him find another home
I get full of good liquor, walk the streets all night
Go home and put my man out, if he don't act right
'Cause wild women don't worry, wild women don't have no blues"
In contrast to her persona, Ida "never led the wild life the rest of
us did," according to her friend Lovie Austin. Still, the hard life
of a traveling entertainer dragged her down. In April 1945, Ida
suffered a stroke while singing at a club in Buffalo. She finally
retired to Knoxville to live with her daughter and invested much of
her energy into singing in a church choir. She would live in
Knoxville longer than she had ever lived anywhere in her life.
In April, 1961 Riverside Records persuaded the reluctant Ida to
travel to NYC and record what was to be her final record (and perhaps
in her mind, her first album) with the stellar jazz saxophonist
Coleman Hawkins, and his frequent partner, trumpeter Roy Eldridge.
Blues from Rampart Street remains a joy today. Ida sounds like a
grandmother, but a grandmother you'd love to take out for some beers
to a place where the music is loud and the girls dress to dazzle. The
standout song, of course, is "Wild Women." Six years later after a
battle with cancer, her family buried her here in Knoxville, at New
Gray Cemetery off Western. Her tombstone reads "Mother." Her home on
Louise Avenue in East Knoxville still stands. (M.D.)Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Howard Armstrong
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong
(Flying Fish)
I didn't know Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Howard Armstrong had
Tennessee roots when I took a critic's advice and picked up this
sumptuous stew of party-caliber string band entertainment several
years ago. It is such a pleasantly rowdy and imaginative New
Orleans-like blend of diverse Americana that it could easily remain
my favorite string-band record forever. Bit by bit I learned that
Carl Martin moved to Knoxville early in the century when Carl was
about 14 and already playing around with a guitar. The Martin
brothers met a remarkable young fiddler from LaFollette named Howard
Armstrong. They called themselves the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and
sometimes played on Knoxville radio station WROL, well before its
reputation as a country-music broadcaster. Their instrumental "Vine
Street Drag" immortalizes our downtown Vine Street, only a scrap of
which remains today; their recording of it, made at the St. James
Hotel around 1930, is sought by collectors.In the 1930s, they moved to Chicago, where they trumped other
deep-South blues bands by the fact that they could sing in German and
Italian. As age and rock 'n' roll made it harder for them to reach an
audience, they drifted apart and disappeared from the public eye.
After somebody rounded them up in the '60s, they crafted this
brilliant album. The intelligence and stylistic span of the music is
comparable to the Holy Modal Rounders, Duck Baker, and John Hartford;
this album is a better party than anything those folks ever recorded.
(M.D.)
Amazing Rhythm Aces
Stacked Deck
(ABC)
I was in elementary school when this came out. We had this way cool,
quasi hippie student teacher that told me and one of my friends that
the song "Third Rate Romance" was about Knoxville and that it was
somehow risqué.Being sharp kids we immediately set about finding out the lyrics and
what they meant. We were on to the ways of the world, and we already
knew what people did at cheap motels. The funny thing is, we thought
the words were, "They went to the Quality Inn, she didn't even have
to pretend, she didn't know what part," as if the female in the song
didn't know the biological mechanics of what people do at cheap
motels. That made it even better for us. (J.S.)Sparky Rucker
Heroes and Hard Times
(Green Linnet Records)
Sparky Rucker is the quintessential roving troubadour. He's played
all over the world like a modern-day Woody Guthrie,
Knoxville-style-or Lonas Road style, if you will. (Sparky grew up on
Lonas Road.) He's a great storyteller and the stories are told both
in and between his songs. Not only a great writer, Rucker also does
valid reworkings of folk classics on his various recordings. This may
be his best one, though I also favor Cold and Lonesome on a Train,
which is one of the best blues-folk records of recent memory. His
Laurel Theater shows are always a much-anticipated treat as well.
(T.S.)Brother Oswald
Brother Oswald
(Rounder)
Beecher Ray Kirby, Pete Kirby, Os, Bashful Brother OswaldSHowever you
choose to say it, it means one thing: a legend. From his trademark
orange hat to his baggy overalls, there's only one Oswald. Getting
his start as a member of Roy Acuff's Crazy Tennesseans in 1939, Os
has been blazing a trail ever since. Acuff hadn't been a member of
the Grand Ole Opry for quite a year when most of his band quit and
headed back home to East Tennessee. Acuff then came back home as
well, and hired Os and two others to take back to Nashville and fill
out his band. The Sevier County native became the cornerstone of
Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys for over 50 years. This incredible solo
project is a prime example of why Os is and always will be remembered
as one of the legends of the resophonic guitar world. This record,
originally released in 1972 (and now on CD) is a textbook for dobro
players wanting to hear it all done the right way. From the Hawaiian
number "Island March" to the classic "Wabash Cannonball," Os, along
with Campbell County native and fellow Smoky Mountain Boy Charlie
Collins, Norman Blake, and Blount County resident Tut Taylor recorded
a classic dobro album that even Os declared as "my favorite solo
project." (B.S.)
Knoxville Grass
Painted Lady
(MN Records)
Another very influential record that has finally been released on CD
earlier this year is the 1980 Knoxville Grass album Painted Lady.
With the core of the 'Grass being Glenn Laney, Mark Newton, Gary
Baker, and Gary Ferguson, Painted Lady is a fantastic project that
reflected the style for which Knoxville Grass became famous for.
Mandolin player Newton called it "a conventional bluegrass sound
combined with a contemporary presentation." But Painted Lady took it
even further. The record combines traditional classics like
"Teardrops in My Eyes" and "Down in the Valley to Pray" with songs
written by John Fogerty ("Up Around the Bend") and Jerry Garcia
("Friend of the Devil"). And although drums in bluegrass is an
acquired taste, Doug Klein's playing complements the more
contemporary songs on the album nicely. (B.S.)Balboa
Live Like This
Whether or not many people remember it, this was the single most
influential recording of the early '80s underground scene. Balboa was
to Knoxville what The Velvet Underground or The Ramones were to the
rest of the world. They were the band that made everyone realize that
they, too, could do it themselves and rock harder than what was on
commercial radio.Balboa mixed good musicianship with art rock and a garage aesthetic
to make a record that sounded like a mix of King Crimson and The
Ramones. Live Like This sounds good to this day, though it pales in
comparison to the band's later, unreleased material. Balboa was the
prime motivator for the primordial punk/new wave scene in town. This
band was the first in what has become a tradition for Knoxville's
best bands: They were good enough to make it big, but never in the
right place at the right time.Terry Hill, the band's resident genius and guitar technician, went on
to key roles in several important Knoxville bands such as The
Semiconductors, PLYNTH and WH-WH. Hill is now a guitar instructor at
Rik's Music and a computer fiend. Another member, Doug Kline, now
composes background music on several HGTV programs. And we all know
what happened to Hector Quirko, Knoxville's reigning king of the
blues. (J.S.)Koro
Songs For A Grave Age
Almost all of the key players are gone, but Knoxville had a ferocious
hardcore punk scene back in the day when everybody looked like the
kid on the Circle Jerks' album covers and bald was beautiful, baby.
1982 was a banner year for the 'core, and Koro was the best band of a
loosely knit group of hometown bands known as "the hardcore four,"
which also included Turbine 44, STD and Angry Youth.Like their songs, Koro's time in the limelight was short, hard and
powerful. The band was as tight as Minor Threat, with a bit more
metal tendencies and testosterone to burn. The band's subject matter
was the usual sex, drugs, and blasphemy, but done with a bit of humor
and much more anger than the usual hardcore practitioners. Copies of
the original pressing of Songs For A Grave Age fetch upwards of $500
on the vinyl collectibles market these days, and the e.p. has been
bootlegged many times.The band only lasted for about six months, with band members going on
to other projects. Fabled enigma Carl Snow (guitar) went on to a
motley local career with Red and Whitey. Lead singer Scott Semple is
rumored to now be some kind of a cosmic, new age pottery guy out
west. Guitarist David Teague made a bigger mark, going on to a flash
in the pan with Muzza Chunka, and is now the lead guitarist for The
Dickies, an L.A. group that is probably the longest running punk band
in American history, chalking up 23 years at this point. (J.S.)Jesus Chrysler
This Year's Savior
(Toxic Shock Records)
People seem to have forgotten this period, but in the first era of
post hardcore, most American punks grew their hair out and took the
more profitable speed metal route. That's why Jesus Chrysler's retro
punk leanings were considered a bit strange in the late '80s. The
band predated Rancid and Green Day by making perfect replicas of The
Clash and The Buzzcocks long before the old punk sound got popular
again. And their lead singer was really from England, so the English
accent wasn't a pose.Jesus Chrysler had a self-released 7-inch and a full-length album on
the now defunct Toxic Shock Records. The band caused a stir in
Europe, and toured the U.S. a couple of times before disbanding.
Rumor has it that former members of Chrysler have gone on to teaching
careers and that one member is now an attorney. (J.S.)Beyond John
Beyond John
(Box Records)
Back in the mid-'80s, Knoxville had just gotten the hang of punk
rock, much less tried to move beyond it (except maybe to metal). But
then a bunch of quirky young guys from Lenoir City moved to town and
started a group called Beyond John. Postpunk had arrived.
Beyond John was dark and shouty and noisy. It was the first band in
town to display the influence of Joy Division and the Velvet
Underground more so than Black Flag, the first to embrace feedback as
an aesthetic. The band's self-titled 1985 debut was kind of a
mess-Jimmy Scarborough's guitar was out of tune almost as often as
bassist Paul Booker's vocals. But its sheets of shrill strum and hiss
carried a certain moody mystery; it was sort of hard to believe these
guys actually lived here, in the Home of the Vols. Listening to the
cascading "Kneel" or the epic "Ruffles and Lace" now, you can hear
the modest local roots of a powerful, raw, but melodic sound that
bands like Smashing Pumpkins would later peddle to masses
better-prepared to hear it.Beyond John certainly didn't stick around long enough to capitalize,
though drummer Roger Canada got a fan letter from Italy the day the
band broke up. Scarborough and Canada would go on to form the
ill-starred, many-monikered Ministry of Love. Booker moved on to
another town somewhere. Beyond John probably doesn't warrant a CD
reissue, but what it represents shouldn't be forgotten. (L.G.)Taoist Cowboys
Cholo
Born in Fort Sanders in the late '80s, the Taoist Cowboys were
destined to tear up the China King and house parties. They didn't
really sound much like anybody else-except themselves-due to the four
distinct personalities of the band. The secret here is incredibly
cool songs done with reckless abandon. The later Punt was probably a
better record, but you can't beat this one for fun and originality.
Bob McCluskey wrote some of the best songs ever to pass through the
air on Cumberland Avenue, and Scott Carpenter and Brad Deaton also
wrote very fine ditties of their own-and Brad's cover of "These Boots
Were Made for Walkin'" is the best since Nancy herself. Current V-roy
Jeff Bills on drums gave it glue and the extra dose of personality it
needed to be the almost perfect garage band/high top rock release.
(T.S.)Donald Brown
The Sweetest Sounds
(Evidence)
Donald Brown is a walkin' talkin' civic treasure, but Donald's
probably more respected in western Europe than in these parts-not
unusual for American jazz artists since the Beatles set the world's
music market on its ear in the '60s. The (I'd love to say "our")
pianist, composer, educator, band leader and recording artist has
been lowering the limbo beam to challenge UT students for many years
and taking summer semesters to record and pump up his rep in Europe
and Manhattan.Like so many players who started in the '50s or '60s, including, for
example, several members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Donald
started in R&B, often playing bass, with the likes of Al Green and
B.B. King. He first came to my attention at the keyboard with Art
Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Donald's composition "The Insane Asylum"
was used by Wynton Marsalis to put together his first really
distinctive album J Mood, still the one I return to. The tune was
nominated for a Grammy. Friends especially like the recent solo piano
disk Piano Short Stories (Space Time Records, from France). The fine
recent group effort, Enchante (also Space Time Records) stars billy
Higgins on drums and Steve Nelson, vibes, and includes Boling on
three tracks, one of which is the steel-band-like original "A Dance
for Marie-Do" that by quirky fate seems to be my entrance theme at
Lucille's on Saturdays.My favorite, though, is a 10-year-old session, recently reissued,
called The Sweetest Sounds (Evidence). Nelson is here, along with
Charnette Moffett, bass, and Alan Dawson, drums. In addition to three
originals, tunes range from the nearly-Dixieland Don Redman tune "Gee
Baby Ain't I Good to You" to a pop classic, "Killing Me Softly With
His Song." (M.D.)
Judybats
Down In The Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow
(Elektra)
Though for me personally, Jeff Heiskell's voice and vision are tiring
after more than a few songs and his stage presence lacked energy, few
could deny this was the 'Bats finest hour-and how important the band
was to the local scene. When they loosened up, they were one of
Knoxville's funnest bands, and always had the young girls dancing.
Beneath the bouncy surface of the music was a very, very dark world
the young dancing girls never could quite notice-which made Judybats
shows something of a cultural freak of nature. And even when Jeff was
moody, the rest of the band were bouncing all over, making another
funky paradox. This record captures the band at its best even though
it was to go on to bigger and better singles. Shacks is the most
entertaining 'bats record. (T.S.)Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes
HUH?
(Steguhrsorass)
It's telling that every record issued by Smokin' Dave and the Premo
Dopes-from the "Ethiopian Jokes" 45 to Live and Not Lern to Too Many
Years in the Circus, and HUH?-had its champion on our blue ribbon
panel. But in many ways, the group's final defiant HUH? crystallized
the career of this most Knoxvillian of Knoxville rock bands. In 20
epic tracks, HUH? captures the many moods of Smokin' Dave as the band
treads the fine line between goofing off and offering personal
revelations. Musically, guitarist Todd Steed, bassist Dave Nichols,
and drummer Dug Meech rocked, but in a way that owed nothing to the
prevailing alternative/grunge/metal styles of the day-amiable, jazzy,
and always tight-but-loose, they made up their own sound as they went
along. And eight years later, HUH? still sounds just as fun and
reflective as it originally did, still unbowing to the current rock
trends. Among all the keepers (the Nashville vs. Knoxville ode "You
Must Be From Nashville," the supremely honest love song "Right-Handed
Love," the still-true lament of Knoxville's "Apathy"), the track that
sums up the Smokin' Dave philosophy (courtesy of songwriter Steed) is
the choogling "i refuse to grow up," complete with tooting horns: "I
got what I asked for/ But I don't want it any more/Like Christmas
toys laying on the floor/ Sure looked better in the magazine/ The
dream was better when I left it a dream/I refuse to ever grow upSGod
save me from an unlived lifeS"While Smokin' Dave never made it "big" in the traditional rock 'n'
roll sense, the band was nevertheless integral in creating the
Knoxville music scene as we know it today. By staying true to itself
and to its hometown, the group inspired other bands (from the Taoist
Cowboys to the V-roys to Steed's own later Opposable Thumbs and Ape
Life) to do it their way. For that, and a lot of great tunes,
Knoxville owes Smokin' Dave a big thank you. (C.T.)Bob McCluskey
Emergency Lunchbox
Out of the ashes of the Taoist Cowboys and the Estradas came this
1994 solo project from their lead writer. Perhaps the most intimate
and honest release ever recorded in Knoxville, it was all recorded at
home on a four track and captures Bob at his best: relaxed, and his
mind drenched in self-examination and beer. It's songwriting minus
any bullshit or pretension whatsoever. Like Nick Drake if Nick had a
sense of humor and adventure, and could formulate his ideas clearly.
In other words, it ain't like Nick Drake at all except it forces you
into THAT mood. Almost flawless in its risk of exposing the writer's
flaws. Bob takes the everyday and makes it art and makes it
interesting. Best cuts: "It's A Nice Night to Do Laundry" and the
V-roys-covered "Nobody Cares About The Drunks In This Town." (T.S.)The Rude Street Peters
Don't Make Me Get Up
The Rude Street Peters (named for Rue St. Peter) keep popping up
around the area, but not so much since Gryphon's collapsed (that's
another story). The Peters make punk rock like it was invented right
here in Vestal. These self effacing East Tennesseans' Sex
Pistols-caliber anti-reverence is Kissed with a Rush of Zeppelin and
dresses out in Skynard strums that rarely sound dated or Hazzard-ish.
Their cassette Don't Make Me Get Up is a winner. It captures the
friendly mosh din of their live show. "Walkin the Dawg" is obviously
derived from Rufus Thomas' hit with some dirty guitar pickin' and
hiccupping yodel and finger in the cheek pops that move it
irretrievably from Memphis to the Appalachian slopes. The Peters are
the only Knoxville band I know of that birthed a dance/song (like
"The Mashed Potato"). Even though most of the songs reference a
drunk/stoned party atmosphere, the tempo often races along on
stimulants. "Lifesa" races like an early Buzzcocks single along a
course of self destruction (at least destruction of consciousness:
"When yer thinkin' don't stop drinkin'"). "The Butt Wallow" is a zany
romp that'll have you bumping moons with yer drinkin' buddies. The
tape ends with a really short gospel number, "Somebody Touched Me."
The Peters' "God Save the Queen" is "Rocky Top," ("Rappy Top" on the
cassette, "It Only Hurts When I Exist") and I've never relished being
swept up in a mob as much as joining these guys in kicking that song
while it's down. (M.D.)Superdrag
Regretfully Yours
(Elektra)
While "Beatles-esque" pop is, 35 years later, a throwaway tag (the
kind of answer you give to people who, even after middle school,
still ask what kind of music you like), Superdrag is the rare band
that understands the power of embracing that monster while infusing
its blood with their own drama and modern way of thinking.
Regretfully Yours found Superdrag at their charmingly innocent pop
best in 1996, not knowing any better than to put it all on the line.
When John Davis lets loose lines like "I'm tired of dying here alone,
but you can set me free," it doesn't matter that you've heard it all
before, that it is the cry of broken first loves everywhere. Davis'
wail is so dreamily, painfully sincere it cannot be denied; his ache
absorbed by thick layers of sound, ringing guitars atop a wash of
symphonic echo and hypnotic bass, drums that race and climb to a
grand finale. Fair or not, Davis is Superdrag. It might not have
worked without the other components, might not have sounded the same,
but without Davis' energy, songwriting, voice, it wouldn't have been.
While Head Trip In Every Key would, two years later, show a
remarkable maturity and understanding of studio manipulations, it is
Regretfully Yours that captures at once youthful abandon and sonic
boom, hopefulness and regret-for the band, and Knoxville. (S.R.)The V-Roys
Just Add Ice
(E-Squared)
The first E-Squared project for Knoxville's ever-popular V-Roys
proved that the band is both loaded with talent and wants to have a
good time. The album was released with a great amount of anticipation
by the band as well as by their many fans in Vol City. The record was
to be co-produced by the legendary Steve Earle, and this just added
to the excitement. And the boys hit the bullseye-great songs played
the right way brought across the "forget everything else and let's
have a party" attitude that the beloved V-Roys display every time
they hit the stage. Known as the best live band in Knoxville for
years, Just Add Ice proved that the band could be just as fun,
contagious, and balls-to-the-walls on CD as they could on stage.
(B.S.)Samarai Celestial
Cosmic Gold Millenium
(Carrottop Records)
Samarai Celestial was known to most as "that drummer" who was so
amazing, playing with Donald Brown, Relentless Blues and many others
in venues ranging from Planet Earth to Club LeConte, playing jazz
standards for people to drink. But his own music was drawn from Space
through the eyes of Sun Ra, his mentor who taught him a fresh
approach to the drum kit in the blistering-hot House of Ra in
Philadelphia. It wasn't until after Sun Ra passed away that Samarai
had a vision that he must record his own compositions. So, with drum
machines, keyboards, and MiniDisk recorders bargained from pawn
shops, Samarai immortalized the music in his head in near-endless
recording sessions on the road, in his house, his car, with friends.
His two CDs, Isis and Cosmic Gold Millenium, have some of the most
confounding complexities while being completely infused with huge
happiness and danceability. "Established musicians" criticized his
keyboard technique, the compound (and intentionally unsynchronized)
rhythms, but since when should an innovator bow to the critics?
Samarai never did. Cosmic Gold Millenium is a two-CD set that gets
two of the sides of Samarai: the acoustic drummer and group, and the
indescribable electronic broken-mold fusion. Two things are for sure:
there are no standards on these CDs, and his music will blow your
head off in a wonderful way. (Seva)R.B. Morris
Take That Ride
(Oh Boy! Records)
Earning spots on top-10-albums-of-the-year lists across the country
as well as extravagant plaudits from famously irascible critic Dave
Marsh, Take That Ride is probably the single most-praised recording
by a resident Knoxvillian in history. It deserves the attention.
Morris has a reputation as a folk-music poet, but when his
provocative lyrics call for it, they're electrified with multiple
guitars and percussion; we've never known whether to call him an
urban Woody Guthrie or a rural Tom Waits. He is, after all, R.B.
Morris, and embraces the urban/rural complexities of this weird city
better than any other single musician. After a quarter century of
playing Knoxville nightclubs, Morris put some of his best (and most
accessible) work on this one album, and got John Prine (his sponsor),
well-known guitarist Kenny Vaughan, and former Dylan organist Al
Kooper to help make an album of remarkable diversity, including a
rare (for Morris) cover, an ominous rendition of Robert Mitchum's
"Thunder Road"; "Roy," an interview with a wino who hangs out at a
North Knoxville railroad warehouse (Prine himself sings the part of
Roy); and the title track, ostensibly about the road from Knoxville
to Nashville, but maybe about something else, as well.
Since then he has released some earlier, more experimental work with
Hector Qirko (The Knoxville Sessions); his next national release,
Zeke and the Wheel, is due out in September. (J.N.)