Americana Music Reviews

 

Cris Talley
Palace Cafe
Hokeyspoke ­ HSR-001

by Al Kunz

Lawd (with apologies to Doug Sahm) it's hard to be a Utah boy in this great big freaky business. Making a go of the music business is tough for even the most talented. Imagine making music that belongs in a honky-tonk where the predominant culture forbids drinking. I know they have people like that everywhere and, yes, I have tried to get a drink on the wrong block in Dallas. You'll have to take my word for it. It's not the same thing at all. Add to that a music scene that, at least when I lived there, doesn't appreciate original music nearly as much as note for note covers of radio hits past and present. And don't forget that it's more than 400 miles to the next "big town" in any direction. Unlike Texas, not every little town has multiple bars with live music. Makes it tough to play too many gigs in a short time without wearing out your welcome. About fifteen years ago one of the TV stations did a story on local musicians. At the time they claimed there was only one local artist making enough to survive without holding down a day job. The equivalent would be three musicians in Dallas County without a day job.

But like the struggling musicians we all know, no matter where they live it doesn't stop them from trying. After all, they didn't choose the music, the music chose them. Sometimes an artist from Utah does make an impact on the national scene. Most do this by moving to California. (Yes, even the Osmonds did that first. And this is the last you'll hear about them from me.) But not all leave. Jazz composer Sam Cardon had a #1 jazz album while a Utah resident. Several members of country star Chris LeDoux's band played in Salt Lake's top country band before being recruited by LeDoux. It can happen for a Utah musician, just as it can for musicians elsewhere. The already long odds are just longer.

I contacted Doug "Iceman" Young, the program director at community radio station KRCL in Salt Lake, to find out who the "cream" of the current Utah Americana artists were. (To beat a dead horse, bluegrass mandolinist Matt Flinner was a volunteer DJ for this station before he too left for greener pastures and greater success). This is the first of a handful of artists Young suggested. The deserving local acts that receive play on his radio show alongside better known artists.

Cris Talley obviously wanted to do this right. After writing a disc full of songs he felt ready to be let out into the big, bad world, he booked a studio in Franklin, TN and gathered a cadre of some of the best players from Nashville and beyond. Working the board and playing bass, upright and not, was Ron de la Vega, Nanci Griffith's bassist of choice. Chas Williams (Blue Moon Orchestra) played dobro. Pounding the skins was Pat McInerny, who's worked with everyone from Dolly Parton to Hootie and the Blowfish. Tom Wild plucks and strums with Vickie Carrico singing harmony in the background. Tim Lorsch lends occasional fiddle and Andrew Larsen provided production assistance plus additional guitar and vocals when needed. Last, playing mandolin, is the man whose radio show had shown me years ago that there's more to bluegrass than the theme to The Beverly Hillbillies, Matt Flinner.

Hopefully with the multiple mentions of bluegrass music, musicians, and bands you haven't gotten the impression that this is a bluegrass album. It's not. So stop thinking about bluegrass right now. Start thinking in terms of the Townes Van Zandt school of contemplative, Americana lyrical craftsmanship. Of a Utahn with the soul of a Texan. Then consider these lyrics from "Salvation in a Texas Town" as Talley sings to a girl driving back to Paris (you know Paris, just down the road from Detroit and Reno -- okay then, it's north of Dallas).

Armadillos in the headlights
Contented ghosts in the rear view
Flesh and bones on the highway
Funerals were always hard on you

Sun comes up like a warning
On the outskirts of the past
Do you think they won't remember
Salvation in a Texas town

Or picture this vignette about being broke down outside "Vienna." (Does Texas have a town named Vienna too?) "They're playing the King on the jukebox / A prostitute asks me to dance / She'd love me for seventy dollars / Hell she'd even iron my pants / I've got nowhere to go / I've got nothing to chance."

Although the direction of migration has reversed in recent years, historically not just musicians fled Utah for the warmer meteorological and economic climes of the Golden State (no, I won't mention them again). Talley sticks closer to home in "Road to California," the story of a farmer's daughter who joined this migration. She makes it out of Utah but is continually stymied on her journey, never quite making it to her destination. Dominated by Lorsch's energetic fiddlin' mixing it up with Flinner's uptempo mandolin, this is a pleasant detour to the fringes of bluegrass.

The ride she caught in Utah was only taking her so far
He dropped her out of Elko in an empty highway bar
The man inside had offered to put her up for the night
How was she to know his intentions wasn't right

And there's gold dust on the mountain and there's silver in them hills
But the road to California's running through Nevada still

Now she's working as a waitress which she says she doesn't mind
But she thinks of San Francisco when she's got a little time
To some her story ended there but to her it never did
Because she lives in Sparks, Nevada with her seven bastard kids

And there's gold dust on the mountain and there's silver in them hills
But the road to California's running through Nevada still

For a relative unknown Talley is an amazingly talented lyricist. He has the ability to distill the essence of a character into four lines ("A country picker past his prime / To the honkytonks he gave his life / But his first love was the bottle / His second was his wife"). His hooks pull you in ("And the devil cries tonight / Over red beans, beer, and rice / His only daughter walking / Hand in hand with Jesus Christ"). Or he can take traditional subject matter, something that's been "done to death," and make that work for him to go somewhere new, as in "One Less Husband."

The barroom was empty except for the two of us
Me in the shirt tails and her in the black dress
Outside the rain reminded me of a blue eyed Gypsy curse
As she pulled the lipstick from out of her purse

It's a jilted and a jaded country song
If it was right then the whole world was wrong
The silence that screams the rest of your life
One less husband for one more wife

The only reason you probably haven't heard about Cris Talley before now is he lives in a musical backwater. If he was based in Houston, Dallas, or East Nashville he'd have all the gigs he could handle and more buzz than a beekeeper convention.

*Visit www.cristalley.com and listen to some song samples. After that you'll want your very own copy. To get one, send $15.00 to Cris at 529 N. 900 E, American Fork, UT 84003 and he'll send it right out. No additional shipping charges to US addresses. Non-US orders should email Cris at hokeyspoke-at-yahoo.com and inquire about additional shipping costs in advance.




Contact Al Kunz at kunz-at-rockzilla.net

 
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