Various
Texas Unplugged Vol.1
Palo Duro Records
By: Marianne Ebertowski
 The great late Dough
Sahm once said "You just can't live in Texas if you don't
got a lot of soul." Well, Texas may not have the best of
reputations in most respects in many parts of the world these
days, but that soul, passion, straightforwardness and honesty
that may have suffered defeats in other areas is still right
there in Texan music. Should you have any doubt about that, this
first part of a new acoustic series by Palo Duro Records, based
in Ooltewah, TN, will convince you effortlessly that the Lone
Star state's music is still in good shape.
The sadly underrated TC Taylor appears on the dance floor
first with the only cover on this album, Rusty Wier's "Don't
It Make You Wanna Dance?" Cindy Cashdollar on dobro and
Danny Levin on fiddle add the hard country ingredients to the
versatile voice of this young man, who should be a huge star
and fighting it out in the Nashville arena with the likes of
Alan Jackson and George Strait. Exhilarating and perfectly danceable,
even unplugged! And, by the way, his songs are very soulful too.
Mike McClure (formerly of The Great Divide) takes over with
"My Sweet Lily." He may be an Okie by origin, but his
music has become as Texan as it can get. Fiddler Jeremy Watkins
puts the ache and the melancholy into this folksy love-gone-wrong
track.
From Stephenville, Texas, also known as "The Cowboy Capital
of the World," comes the first of the four female vocalists
on this album, Becca Dalrymple. Her contribution "No Man's
Land" keeps the middle between blues and honky-tonk and
features yet another great dobro player, Milo Deering. Dalrymple's
voice easily spans the whole range of Texan music. Fierce!
The biggest name on this compilation is that of Ed Burleson.
This former rodeo man from Denison, TX who has made almost perfect
country albums like The Cold Hard Truth and My Perfect
World, delivers a riveting bluegrassy honky-tonk contribution
with "The Way You've Been Treating Me." There's some
very classy guitar picking by Mssrs Glen Fleming and Gerald Ray
on this track as well.
My personal favorite is Houston Marchman, a fine representative
of the Texan singer-songwriter breed. With his "Dark Black
Irish Eyes" featuring Jeff Plankenhorn on dobro and Heather
Woodruff, he is responsible for the highlight of the album. He
has the sort of voice you can warm your hands and heart to on
cold winter nights. Simply beautiful!
Nashville-veteran Deryl Dodd, who returned to Texas after
a life-threatening illness, does it all alone in "Old Time
Sake." It's a brave attempt for the former Martina Mc Bride
lead guitarist, but it sounds too Nashville mainstream to my
ears, even unplugged.
The Sisters Morales are Mexican import from Tucson, Arizona,
but have lived and played long enough in Texas to be considered
the real thing. Lisa and Roberta's vocal harmonies on "Even
the Rain" are as tasty as ever, and David Spencer excels
on guitars and dobro.
Of the female contributors, it's Terri Hendrix who steals
the show with "Clicker." "I've got a clicker in
my head. You can buy religion, you can by a life" she sings
and concludes, "what could be sicker than me and my clicker?
I need to get a life." The smashing punky banjo playing
by the indomitable Lloyd Maines rubs it in, so, if all that sounds
familiar to y'all down there in Texas and the rest of the world,
get a life in 2005!
There's more humor with the young Huns, Eleven Hundred Springs,
who give a masochistic touch to honky-tonk with their "Kick
Me When I'm Down." Ah, come on, who would do anything like
that to these fine gentlemen?
Larry Joe Taylor was once was a finalist in the Kerrville
New Folk competition. His witty "Welcome to Paradise"
(a reference to Key West, Florida?) is musically the most colorful
track on the album. He sounds like a mixture between Woody Guthrie
and Robert Earl Keen and John Inman's Spanish guitar and Sean
Richards' steel drums give the song a cheerful and sunny Latin
flavor.
Brian Burns' "Bicycling in a Border Town" continues
in the cheerful mood. On doctor's advice he rides the roads of
Texas on a two-wheeler and comes across a few obstacles he didn't
think of before, like you have to lockdown those damn things.
However, this is not merely a border town phenomenon and I know,
because I lived in Holland and had my (locked) bikes stolen all
the time! Burns plays almost everything on this song, including
borderline accordion and harmonica. Just the dobro is for T-Roy
Miller. Sounds like a tribute to the great Texan Lance Armstrong.
Finally there is Tommy Alverson, known as the "Godfather
of Metroplex Honky- Tonks," who turns out the lights with
"Texas Woman" Frankly, I could have done without, but
then again, I'm not a Texas Woman, so maybe it wouldn't be quite
fair of me to judge him.
Texas Unplugged has a lot of soul and as this is Volume
1, I figure there's more where this came from. I can't wait and
I only hope the second volume will be slightly more adventurous.
There's so much more to Texan music and, after all, no one can't
take the soul out of Texas, not even but, no, let's not
get political!
www.palodurorecords.com
Contact Marianne Ebertowski at ebertowski-at-rockzilla.net
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