Flanfire

The Mother Truckers and the Texas Sapphires are two very good, very different "country" bands that are both destined for bigger and better things in the year 2006. For example, on April 21, the Texas Sapphires are opening for Dwight Yoakum at John T. Floore's Country Store in Helotes, and on July 4, the MT's are playing at Willie's Picnic.

Both bands have brand-new CD's available in stores and via the web universe, both bands feature male and female lead vocals, and both bands have had considerable support from the inimitable Kim Deschamps ... who plays on both CD's. The Mother Truckers recorded "Broke, Not Broken" at Bismeaux Studios using Chris Burns as the engineer and masterer; the Texas Sapphires worked with Lloyd Maines on "Valley So Steep" - Lloyd also plays on the CD, as does Warren Hood and Chris Bagby - and with Erik Wofford (Cacophony Studios) as enginee; but they also used Chris Burns for mastering work. Both bands also have played numerous gigs at Ego's and the Continental Club ... and there the similarities seem to end.

Billy Brent Malkus, founder of the Texas Sapphires (also chief songwriter and guitar and dobro player), hails originally from a hog farm outside Cambridge, Maryland (a town once known as a bastion of segregation and diplomatic mysteries), but has been in Austin for a decade - playing lead guitar with Nathan Hamilton and No Deal after starting off in the punk scene. It was there that he first met vocalist extraordinare Rebecca Lucille Cannon, former lead singer of Sincola (which in fact had a reunion concert earlier this year). Methinks Brent started the Sapphires (as they were once called) as a vehicle for getting Rebecca on stage singing old-time country songs, but I digress. The band is rounded out by Jeff Joiner on bass, Ram Zimmerman on drums, and Paul Schroeder on banjo and mandolin. They get Kim on stage when they can.

This band evokes memories of the halcyon days when Gram Parsons took Emmy Lou Harris on tour with him in 1973 ... and indeed, the last cut on the CD is Parsons' classic "Ooh Las Vegas," done in the pure Flying Burrito Brothers style (pure electric energy, not the quieter style espoused by the Cowboy Junkies). Schroeder's banjo drives this cut, along with Ram's crisp drumstrokes. But the extra added attraction is a dobro solo by Grandpa Lloyd and a second guitar solo by Brent, then tradeoff riffs by both and more banjo. It's nearly four minutes of pure unadulterated bliss.

The CD starts with "The Emerald Outlaw," one of ten Malkus-penned cuts (this one with Rebecca as coauthor) - with Paul on mando and Lloyd on pedal steel (always worth the price). Now, Margaret Moser says the duets remind her of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton - but I used to listen to those duets when I was a kid -- and I later on listened to my good personal friends Billy Danoff and Taffy Nivert - aka The Starland Vocal Band (previously known as Fat City) - and Brent and Rebecca remind me of that duo (Billy cowrote "Almost Heaven, West Virginia, with John Denver and the Emmy Lou Harris hit, Boulder to Birmingham).

On this CD, Rebecca sings lead on "Driftin' In," where every bar's a harbor. Now folks this is a slower dance tune (hold yer honey tight, now!) - this song (but not this cut) and a few others were featured on the band's demo CD that is fast becoming a collector's item. Brent plays a little honky tonk piano on this cut, and Kim chips in with some lap steel. "Ladyfest, TX" is Brent's story of putting on a red dress to make an all-girl band gig (or something like that) - and here we get our first taste of Warren Hood's fiddle. This cut has a reference to the late Jimmy Martin, the king of bluegrass music (for more, see the DVD "King of Bluegrass," which debuted in 2003).

Fourth up is "Bring out the Bible (We Ain't Got a Prayer)," a quasi-gospel song with Lloyd on dobro and Paul on mandolin, in which Brent laments, "There's peace in the valley - we never made it down there," and Rebecca sings that the angels are looking up and "cain't do a thing for the people down there." Yet there is hope enough to try again. "Break This Fool" features Rebecca on vocals and Kim on dobro and pedal steel, with Paul on banjo ... She sings about the guy with "a lot of fanciful words" ... who no longer impresses her; now she is "rising up like those biscuits you done sopped me up with, boy." The gal has grown up!

On the next cut, Brent is "disgusted with myself" - the song is "Dirty Me, Dirty Me" -- a fast-stepping ode which starts with the singer "drooling on his pillow." Rebecca takes a turn, and then all join in on the chorus ... and there's some good pickin' in between verses. Another source of disgust - missing grandma's birthday. [The CD is dedicated in part to Billie Joe Nutt, Rebecca's late grandma and inspiration.]

My favorite cut may just be "Dirty Tattered House Shoes," a ditty written especially for Rebecca's vocals -- and here, too, we get some Warren Hood fiddle. "Now that you're gone it's such a good thing," she sings, "as these dirty tattered house shoes keep walking back and forth." Plus a fine pedal steel solo from Lloyd and guitar from Brent. This is CLASSIC country stuff - not the plastic fantastic Faith Hill crossover muzak. Rebecca reminds me a lot here of Michelle Pittenger, the gal singer with the Dallas band the Lucky Pierres.

Does it, though, get any better than "Deep Gap Blue" - "I'm busted to where I can't make it on time..." which features soulful dobro by Brent himself - some of the best on the CD. Or, for that matter, better than "Cold Silver Ring"? Another song about breakup and blame as Dakota calls her -- "The roses on my trellis flow like you up through those plains. Not for too long will they hang on, so who's the one to blame? There was something on my mind that you can't realize what for as you just stand crying about leaving me with your head pressed on the door. Now I ain't back in line for the gossip still when words are bound to cling, when there's this talk in town that I'm burning you, but you left me cold like that silver ring." This song - with solos by Lloyd, Warren, and Brent - is just pure old-time century country music at a very high level.

Then there is "Down Hard," another ballad, and a waltz -- with Lloyd on pedal steel and Paul on banjo. This is a new song for the band - and one of the most haunting tunes on their playlist. Just listen - and weep. The last original tune is "Barstow Barstool," which you would think would have been written a decade or two ago by Dwight Yoakum or someone similar (huh?). "Hush up your new ways, life don't want to stay here no more, at least not on the floor out here." [I hope Dave Alvin hears this cut very soon and invites the band to open for him on the West Coast.] More Kim Deschamps on pedal steel means good stuff - and Brent again shows his own talents on the guitar.

Okay - I will finish up this dual CD review in my next post. People can only take so much.