Tag Archives: Honky Tonk

Manning-Dickson: Drive

Strong male duo sings honky-tonk, acoustic roots and 70s-styled harmonies

After listening to this Ft. Worth band’s debut, one might assume they’ve spent some time playing cover songs. That might be read as an insult, but it’s not; it’s an acknowledgment of the ease with which they cover a lot of country, country-rock and soft-rock sounds. The album opens with the foot-stomping “Cold as Her Heart,” effortlessly throwing out the lyrical hook, “if I could only find a beer as cold as her heart.” But the song’s harder honky-tonk sound is a bit of head fake, as the duo moves on to smooth, Eagles-styled harmonies that bring to mind ‘70s acts like Gallery, Brewer & Shipley, Alabama and the Stampeders. A little research reveals that Jason Manning leads the Eagles tribute band, 7 Bridges, and brings his influences with him to this duet.

The album punches up the vocals into modern rock-based country on the title track, but it’s the softer songs that really hit home. The whispery harmonies of “No More California” and West Coast sunshine pop of “Backroads” are superb. After tracking through all ten originals, the leadoff turns out to be an anomaly, which isn’t really disappointing – since the rest of the album is so perfectly tuneful. Perhaps there’s more boot scootin’ in their live set, but their quieter songs – including an acoustic reprise of the title tune – show this band’s ace-in-the-hole is their vocal prowess. Now that Brooks & Dunn have finally retired, perhaps Manning-Dickson can break through as a duo! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Zane Williams: The Right Place

Excitingly unaffected Texas honky-tonk voice

There are voices that immediately announce themselves as something you’ve never heard before, there are voices that are so anonymous as to blend into the background, and there are voices like Zane Williams’ that lay in between. His singing is not immediately recognizable as a new tone or style, but there’s an excitement in his delivery that jumps off this latest record. What’s especially intriguing is how he combines the humble and direct style of someone like Bruce Robison with the honky-tonk extroversion of Robison’s brother Charlie. The Abilene-born Williams relocated to Nashville for nine years and released a string of indie albums that started to find a bit of twang with 2000’s Fast Licks and Toothpicks.

A couple of years after releasing 2006’s acoustic country Hurry Home, Williams returned to Texas and discovered his roots still intact. Together with producer Radney Foster he’s retooled himself as an electric honky-tonker, freeing himself to indulge his native twang on the roadhouse circuit through which Jack Ingram and Pat Green each found huge regional followings. Though recorded in Nashville, Foster and Williams conjure the wooden floors and neon beer signs of Texas dance halls, not least of which through Williams’ songs. The opener, “The Right Place,” offers a warm welcome from the regulars at the bar, and his incredibly clever “99 Bottles” turns the round into a tongue-twisting, thirst-quenching recitation of beer brands.

Williams’ ten originals tread tried-and-true subjects, but even there he finds some original and clever twists. The kiss-off “Tired of Being Perfect” isn’t due to cheating but the result of an overly-demanding mate, the bluesy “I Am What I Am” allows Williams to imagine other occupations as he stands firm in his commitment as a musician, and “The Cowboy and the Clown” peels away self-prescribed illusions of diminished expectations. The album closes with an original Christmas song that wipes away years of bad times with the miracle of a new baby. It’s a heartfelt (if perhaps a tad treacly) ending to a fine album that otherwise avoids the softer style Williams had developed in Nashville. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | 99 Bottles
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David Serby: Honkytonk and Vine

davidserby_honkytonkandvineTerrific throwback to mid-80s West Coast country

Though he grew up in Illinois with adoptive parents, Serby’s a bona fide throwback to the throwback sounds of mid-80s Los Angeles. Ironically, he was born in Los Angeles to a biological father, only recently discovered, who was also a country musician. Serby’s honky-tonk swells from the same roots as the Blasters, but with a deeper helping of the country twang and two-step rhythms Dwight Yoakam brought to the scene. Serby’s vocals favor a gentler version of the Blasters’ Phil Alvin, but he also dips into a croon, such as with the Tex-Mex “For Cryin’ Out Loud,” splitting the difference between Yoakam and Ricky Nelson. The influential echoes are a bit eerie, but the swinging and songwriting are the real deal.

The album opens with twangy electric guitar and hot fiddle licks on the car themed “Get it in Gear.” Serby chases the object of his affection with enough hot rod allusions to make Brian Wilson and Roger Christian smile. He rains tears into his beer, despairs of cheating, and chases the tail-ends of revolving relationships to emerge with a sense of redemption when the dumper finds herself the dumpee. He writes sad songs, but doesn’t sing them sad as the band mostly sticks to jaunty mid-tempos. The down-tempo numbers, including the empathic ballad “Tumble Down,” and country soul “Honky Tonk Affair” are terrific, making you wish Serby would slow down a bit more often.

Serby’s a superb craftsman, expanding clever song titles into lyrics whose rhymes flow as smoothly as conversation. He’s just as clever with his music, mixing up straight two-steps, accordion lined Tex-Mex, Bakersfield sting, and Blasters-styled blue roots-rock. His band is terrific (the rhythm section of bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Gary Ferguson is truly propulsive), as is guest steel from Rick Shea and the legendary Jay Dee Maness and fiddle from Gabe Witcher. Adding to the historic coincidence, Maness played with Serby’s birth father in decade’s past. Shaking off a career in insurance, Serby indulged unknown musical genes and crafted a career filled with the joy of making music. That joy is in every country root he intertwines here. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | I Only Smoke When I’m Drinkin’
David Serby’s Home Page
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