When they made their first concert appearance in the Valley last November, the Pirates of the Mississippi had barely set sail. But thanks to a rollicking cover of Luke the Drifter’s jumpin’ “Honky Tonk Blues,” the quintet managed to catch country radio’s half-deaf ear. Hopes were high for a cool…
Until recently, Wild Bill Baldwin could be found in the cramped, countrified confines of downtown Scottsdale’s Rusty Spur Saloon, doing his one-man-band thing. Baldwin was a fearsome vision, what with his dark, woolly beard and long hair, both flecked with gray; his menacing shades and extra-wide-brimmed hat speared with a…
Could it be that Ray Benson has been at the Wheel long enough? It’s hard to believe that this legendary road warrior would ever actually choo-choo ch-boogie into the sunset, but a major reduction in tour time is a lock, and other changes might be on the horizon as well…
Even before his early-Seventies exile to Austin, Texas, Willie Hugh Nelson was an outlaw. As a member of Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboys, Nelson tried to toe Nashville’s staid and stuffy lines. But although his red hair was neatly shorn and he wore the de rigueur gaudy rhinestone suits, the power…
The night before our Saturday-afternoon talk with the Kentucky HeadHunters, the boys played a gig in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the kind of show their growing cadre of fans has come to expect: energy to rival or best any hormone-driven thrash punktet; massive doses of homemade, hot-from-the-barbecue Southern rock; plus…
Nestled deep in the Mercedes jungle of north Scottsdale sits a little-bitty ol’ piss-ant country place that has not only survived the region’s creeping hoity-toityism, but has thrived. And so has one of its favorite sons. The Handlebar-J and its previous incarnations have held country court at the same location…
Marty Stuart has a lot of names–big names–to drop, and he does. But after all, he’s been picking guitars and mandolins alongside C&W luminaries since he was thirteen. He’s earned his bragging rights. “When I first heard Flatt and Scruggs, it blew my mind,” Stuart drawled during a recent telephone…
Don’t blame Johnny Cash for his unusual silence in the Eighties. For ten years, the outspoken Cash searched for a place between the growing neo-country Nashville and the wholesale, creased-denim twang crowd of Music Row. His attempts at balance were met with lukewarm reviews. Finally, in 1988, heart surgery looked…
To say that 1969 and 1970 were big years for Dan Seals is to say that Texas has a lot of cows. At the time, Seals was a 21-year-old veteran of the Lone Star State skating-rink-frat-house circuit, playing bass and the occasional saxophone in a band called Southwest Freight on…
Although the fame and riches usually associated with legends have thus far escaped Texas-blues Queen of the Keyboards Marcia Ball, there’s no detectable complaint in her lovely, lazy drawl. A pinch of bemused irritation, maybe, but no chip on the shoulder for this Vinton, Louisiana, native. Given her accomplishments–which include…
Prowl through our hit list of 1990’s killer tunes, lyrics and riffs 1. FASTER PUSSYCAT Rubaiyat “You’re So Vain” (Elektra). For anyone who’s ever secretly desired to headbang to Carly Simon, here’s a chance to get off royally. 2. JANET JACKSON Rhythm Nation: 1814 “Black Cat” (A&M). Doing her best…
Just a few years ago, Mary-Chapin Carpenter was a staple on the respected Washington, D.C., folk scene, the launching pad for Emmylou Harris, among others. Freshly graduated from Brown University with a degree in American civilization, she found herself in the early Eighties rattling around the capital mope scene, strumming…
Bands just don’t get much less glamorous than the Pirates of the Mississippi. Sure, they’re sitting pretty now with a chart-happy debut album, fueled by a driving cover of Hank Sr.’s “Honky Tonk Blues,” but Nashville’s grimiest-sounding country band spent a good part of the late Eighties, literally, in the…
Each spring for the past half-dozen years, Tex-Mex surf-rockers Joe “King” Carrasco and the Crowns have spent a week on Texas’ South Padre Island. Located a hurled jalapeno from Matamoros, Mexico, this Gulf Coast isle is Texas’ answer to Fort Lauderdale during spring break: Yearly, more than 60,000 cerveza-soaked collegians…
Before you meet Cowboy Junkies singer Margo Timmons, it’s easy to picture her as one of the more glamorous Canadians on the planet. Her intense, whispery voice has led the Junkies to a continuing series of roaring successes. All over the world, Timmons and her group have startled critics and…
In the mid-Sixties, a country newcomer named Doug Stone warmed up for Loretta Lynn. But instead of immediately reaping the success surely coming to an unknown who’d opened for a legend, Stone quickly dropped out of sight. The fledgling singer vowed never to give up on his career, though, and…
Where the Heck Is Mr. Fun? (Or Up and Down the Donut With Frank) (Local tape) Galen Herod has always come off like a lovable spaz on stage, regaling audiences with herky-jerky post-new-wave songs and bad jokes. Where the Heck Is Mr. Fun? is a take-home version of Herod, packing…
