Dave Insley

Dave Insley arrived in Arizona straight off a Kansas wheat farm, initially playing guitar in honky-tonks around Wickenburg, Yarnell and Payson before settling in Tempe in 1979 -- where he suddenly found himself playing traditional country for punks more accustomed to Jodie Foster's Army and the Meat Puppets. To fit in, Insley's band adopted the name Chaingang and played in gimmicky prison stripes. Later, Insley played in the Trophy Husbands, a roots-conscious quartet that specialized in saga songs steeped in Western folklore. For Insley's solo outing, the 44-year-old abandons all signs of detached irony or Americana concept-album pretense and simply lets his country heart beat, turning in a solid 10-song set that alternately swings (the clarinet-buoyed "Gilded Cage"), serenades (the lovely "Cowboy Lullaby") and rocks (the jocular kiss-off ditty "There's Gonna Be a Few Changes") beneath Insley's made-for-campfires baritone.

Dave Insley's Call Me Lonesome

Related Content

• Puppet Show
  December 29, 2011
• Zen's Cafe Opens Third Location In Tempe
  January 30, 2012
• ASU Basketball In Telltale Series of Games Vs. Oregon Schools
  January 12, 2012
• Want to Write a Song for Bears of Manitou?
  January 4, 2012
• Ring in the New Year With These Five Local Shows
  December 14, 2011

More About

• Dave Insley
• Meat Puppets
• Wickenburg
• Tempe
• Jodie Foster

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

At times, the humor seems too cornball and the ballads a bit too earnest to be coming from the same guy who once lampooned C&W anachronisms with such parched wit. But there's enough authenticity in Insley's hangdog voice to prove this is where he's belonged all along.