Flanfire

Josh Zee and Teal Collins formed the Mother Truckers a few years back while in their native California (or is it Cal-forlornia? where you cannot escape the hotel?). A decade ago, Josh was the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group Protein traveling around the country with the Warped Tour with bands like Limp Bizkit, Blink 182, and Social Distortion (one of my favorites). Teal grew up listening to the jazz her disc jockey dad Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins played on the radio and going to concerts and hanging out backstage with the likes of Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. At the tender age of 17 she was singing professionally, and it was not long before she became a top backup singer for R&B and rock and roll alike (from Motown to Third Eye Blind).

The pair hooked up in the late Nineties and eventually formed The Mother Truckers as a San Francisco country band featuring covers of rock anthems (such as TNT from AC/DC) and their own quirky originals - with themes of Jesus, suicide, alcohol, and methamphetamine and a whole lot more. Metro Santa Cruz, back in 2003, asked how "this bunch of ex-rockers figure(d) out how to write great country songs? Plenty of booze, plenty of drugs and plenty of disappointment. "I think maybe at this point," (said) Collins, "Josh and I have been doing the music thing for so long, suffering through band after band, that you're familiar with disappointment. When you're 17, you're like, 'This band I'm in now is gonna be it, I'm gonna be a rock star!' Now we're familiar with the devastations year in and year out--and I think that's why Josh and I can hopefully write a good country song."

And so, San Fran not being the veritable home of pure country, the pair packed up their belongings (after five years and a couple of records) and headed to paradise (er, Austin). It was not long before they hooked up with the venerable Kim Deschamps and began their search for a drummer and bassist (as they had left their old ones behind in Callie). They ended up with fellow (but Southern) Californian Pete "the Beat" Langhans (whom I first met at Jovita's as he was playing a gig with Aaron Hamre) and Leslie McCurdy (recently of the Downliners), and soon after began plotting their first PURE AUSTIN CD - and folks just gotta be glad they did!

Right off the bat, the band gets it going with a tune they recently debuted on KGSR - "No Mercy" begs, "Lord, please take me home, my load's too much to bear, lie me down in green pastures, till I have not a care." Yes, this song says life is just too hard, and the singer wants to "Walk out of the darkness, walk out of the light, walk out of those mortal coils that have been wound too tight."

"Nothing There" also has biblical references. "When Moses parted the Red Sea that was nothing, [but] when I believed the lie that you fed me, that was something.... What did you say? Lord, I got myself knocked out today.... Why did you tell me you loved me ... when you knew there was nothing there?" Not even Eve taking a bite of the apple compares with his (her?) belief (now dashed) that they were going to the chapel (haha - fooled him - or her!). It does not take long for the uninitiated to realize that Josh Zee is a "mother trucker" of a guitar player who ranks up there with Eddie Van Halen in California lore. Not even David's slaying of Goliath compares with the discovery of unfaithfulness by our protagonist.

The title cut should be a familiar theme with all too many musicians -- "Landlord's been by, I'm tellin' him lies ... he don't want to let us be." We have "nothing to show for a life so back breaking," but even with all the struggles, we're "broke, not broken." This song ought to be a hit -- because so many of us relate to it -- even though most of us would not "join a cult just to save up some money" [what cult do we know that does not TAKE everything you earn?]. Here you get some salty dobro from Kim Deschamps .. "that's what I'm talking about," says Josh in the deep background.

Next up is "Passing By Again," which speaks of the human condition ... which no one escapes. This is Josh tearing it up on vocals ... "all my life passing by" is more like Gram Parsons than just about any other song on this CD, and yes it has Kim on pedal steel. The break here is pure boogie -- serious honky tonk guitar. But it is on "Slipping Away" that we really get the picture of just how good a singer Teal is -- This is the only cut with an extra player, and it would of course be the legendary Earl Poole Ball. "Wonder why the dream seems so far away... nothing's different today ... If there's a right place and a right time ... Something I could never find ... I feel it slipping away ... I feel it slipping away .... What would it be like, just to live from day to day? I feel it slipping away." Do we not all feel this loss of control? That is when we just have to keep our eyes on the sparrows -- and listen to Mister Ball's piano.

Okay, it's time to brag on the rhythm section -- which in this band is very very solid. Great choices by our immigrant couple. No wonder they live in "God's Good Sunshine," "I don't need a thing ... Just God's good sunshine and guitar strings ... Dont' need no fast lane .. Don't need no cocaine... Once I needed you, but we're through .. and there's not a thing I can do." This is a self-encouragement song -- no Hollywood, no limousines ... just back to the basics. And another shot at a fine Josh Zee guitar solo ... on this lazy rhythm song that gives me the feeling of being on a big rubber tire swing out and back over the river.

"Northbound Trail" is Teal again ... "I'm leaving here on the northbound trail... kiss me once for luck. And I'll see you, dear, in the afterlife ... It's a long way home." Not exactly Sylvia Fricker, but this song does sound Canadian (that is, you feel the broad expanses of empty country). "Stronger" is what we all gotta get, sings Josh, "You say you can it can always be worse, but that ain't always true, because someone somewhere's life is the absolute worst - and that's not you." Good advice for all of us -- "Quit thinking about yourself so much ... pull your head out of your ass." Don't be so self-involved, says Josh, and get over yourself, because "it ain't good for your health ... Being strong ain't about lifting weights, it's about how to put them down." Profound!

Teal then sings about the not so accurate "Magic 8 Ball," "Seems the older and uglier we get, the more beautiful life becomes (though Teal ain't that ugly!). "Magic 8 Ball, you were wrong, I never married Elvis or any country singing star... I found me someone to call my own." This is a great song to dance to - and it features one of Josh's patented guitar solos, followed by one of Kim's pedal riffs that add cream to your coffee. Angelic ending, too!


"Different Eyes" states that, "You'll always be you .. and you'll never see life through different eyes..." Here we get the ukulele (Teal) ... some pedal steel.. "The sound of salvation is something to hear, wish you could listen with different ears... Now you ain't even close, you're chasing a ghost ... " And folks, if I mentioned guitar solos before, well just you wait! But you really have to see the MT's live and catch Josh's work on the Hank Senior classic, "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," to get the FULL effect! [Or you can listen to the song below.]

I will somewhat skip over Teal's rendition of the Chris Smither tune, "Love Me Like a Man," in which our gal reprises the Bonnie Raitt adaptation (after all, Chris IS a man!). This is the song Teal sang at Maria's Taco X-Press the first time she appeared on stage with Leeann's gang. One day, she will likely sing this song WITH Bonnie Raitt!

"Shadow" is a real duet -- "We cast a shadow in the sun, for a moment and then it's done ... we all know that the night will fall ... well we go in without a thing, and we'll leave with just the same, nothing's ever really ours at all." Folks this is pure truth. "Come and gather round me, the sun is going down, you see, where I'm going now I just don't know ... We work hard to get by, dreams fall by the wayside .. but I am not afraid to let them go." Words to live by. Thanks, Kim, for the dobro here - it gives us time to let these words sink deep inside. "Truth is all that we possess at the end of the day. The tower built in Babel was soon reduced to gravel ... the mighty Golden Gate will one day wash away." And I LOVE the harmonies on this closing song (the band DOES reprise Broke, Not Broken as an outro .. but this really is the band's final statement of their beliefs ... and what more is there to know?

The Truckers in the past have recorded songs about alcohol ("My Only Friend) and suicide ("If I Died"). These are tough subjects - Bay Area journalist Mike Connor interviewed the MT's and Teal told him, "It's funny. To us, they're serious lyrics. People say they're really bizarre, but stuff like "If I Died"--I was actually thinking that death, in a way, is comforting. When you're done and get to the end of it all, all the stuff you're worrying about is really not gonna matter. So that's kind of my morbid fascination with death coming through." Writer Leigh Ann Lewis said of the MT's, "The anti-heroes of their songs seek sweet relief, sustenance and absolution from a range of low-brow vices."

If you can find one (doubtful until they print more, we suspect, since they were not been selling them at their shows last year), pick up a copy of the Bay Area - produced CD, "Something Worth Dying For," which includes the afore-mentioned songs plus "Save My Soul," "Get Reborn" and the confessional "We Were Getting High" plus "Daiquiris and Dice" and my personal favorite, "Behind the Bleachers."

The Mother Truckers are currently doing the THURSDAY happy hour at the Continental Club and then packing up and rolling north on South Congress for an 11:00 pm (or earlier) set at Ego's ... but they head back to California sometime in May to debut the new CD in their ancestral homeland .. and of course, there is Willie's Fourth of July picnic ... and, we surely anticipate, bigger and better gigs down the road. Teal is better lookin' than ANY member of the Weary Boys ... and the band surely brings you back to those wonderful sunny summer days of big festivals and endless time to meditate on the good things this life brings.