Back in the day, when “alt country” was still an indefinable thing, something you couldn’t really nail down specifically but you always knew it when you heard it, before the corporate record music people got together and dubbed it and anything remotely like it “Americana,” The Old 97s were in the vanguard of that insurgent sub-genre. Read the rest of this entry »
Slacker Country was deeply saddened to hear of Chris Gaffney’s passing on Thursday, April 17 . We didn’t even know he was undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer.
He fronted The Hacienda Brothers and was lately a regular member of Dave Alvin’s band The Guilty Men, as well as a truly great solo performer. He combined the best elements of country, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, zydeco and tejano music to create his own sound, East LA Soul.
Here’s a clip of him performing “In The Garden” with his old band, The Cold Hard Facts
So this is from Front Porch House Concerts. I went to this show last year and I’m still thinking about it. Especially this cover he did. Thought I’d share it with you.
Watermelon Slim and The Workers at Pearl, Dallas, Texas
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Watermelon Slim has got to be to be livin’ the life these days.
He’s got quite a bio, hard knocks, hard times, hard work and all the while “making sure the boss gets paid.” Now that his own dues are paid- in spades, he says he finally gets to practice his true vocation. Bluesman.
And if you go see him play, you get to hear all about it.
I got hipped to him by a friend who sent me his second CD, The Wheel Man, for Christmas. It had me with the first spin.
He played Pearl in Downtown Dallas Saturday night with his band, The Workers, to a pretty impressive crowd.
By now, you may have seen Billy Joel’s new song, Christmas In Fallujah, on the internets. There’s been a lot of commenting on blogs both pro and con. Much is being made of the fact that he enlisted a young singer, Cass Dillon, to do the song since Cass is the same age as a typical soldier serving in Iraq.
I only mention this because about a year and a half ago Naomi reviewed a uniquely poignant and sometimes bitterly ironic protest CD by Jefferson Pepper titled, coincidently or not, Christmas In Fallujah.
At the time, Slacker Country didn’t know that the song had been inspired by Jefferson Pepper’s neighbor, Army Medic David Maples.
After Billy Joel released his song/video, David’s mother Lisa put together a video of the original Christmas In Fallujah and posted it on YouTube.
I’m certainly not arguing that Billy Joel stole Jefferson Pepper’s idea here. I don’t know. Maybe he thought up the title and wrote a song about being stuck in Iraq for the holidays from a soldier’s perspective entirely on his own. I’m only posting this so the original song isn’t forgotten in all the fuss and furor…
I can’t let this go without at least noting it.
David Childers and the Modern Don Juans are hanging it up, at least in their current incarnation. In September, Childers sent out the following email to his followers: Read the rest of this entry »
My favorite track from Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” (and one that hasn’t found it’s way to a VW ad, yet)…
Well, sort of.
We’re still kind of working on making it look the way we want it to.
In the meantime, please use the links above to get to our recent reviews. Or send us a comment. Or something.
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