The Stone Coyotes ­ Born To Howl Red Cat Records 008

By William Michael Smith

	I was typing a review a few weeks back and had KPFT on softly in the background when the d.j. started a song that just locked my brain up. I turned up the volume and after one stanza, hollered for my wife. She walked in the room and said, "Who's that?" To make a long story short, it was The Stone Coyotes doing 'Shake.' And 'Shake,' a song about a homeless woman who is dancing on the sidewalk and telling passersby "I'm disconnected from the whole/Can't you hear?/The band is playing Shake, Rattle, and Roll," was really hitting the musical sweet spot. A week later "Born To Howl" was in the Living Room Monster, ready for a test drive at volume number 8. I was floored by what I heard: song after song of stripped down, delicious, aggressive rock music with plenty of swagger and loads of cool, great lyrics delivered by a fine voice, a guitarist who could play for The Stones, a drummer (whose no-bullshit kit consists of a bass drum, a snare, a high-hat, one cymbal and two sticks) who lays it in hard, fast clean and lean like Charlie Watts, and a bassist who can lead or support and who has mucho rhythm in his sound. I usually don't expect much from rock bands, more often than not finding them tedious and pretentious. But with "Born To Howl," I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. And not once did it appear that my wife might be thinking of uttering the fateful words, "Turn it down!" We've been listening to "Born To Howl" for a month now and are of the opinion that it is one of those records we'll probably be listening to from now on. The next day I took the CD to the office and was playing it when my 7-year-old nephew paid a visit. I asked him what he thought of the music (he has a drum set, so his opinion is valued) and about halfway through 'Shake' he simply said, "Uncle Mike, this rocks." I was having a discussion of lead guitarists recently with a real lead guitarist who's been doing it for over twenty years through 15+ albums, and he said that he personally preferred lead guitarists like Keith Richard, Johnny "Guitar" Watson and John Fogerty because they played with a lot of rhythm rather than just constantly noodling out thousands of hot licks notes per second (he called that the Al Dimeola style). Given the three-piece makeup of The Stone Coyotes, guitarist Barbara Keith has a lot of space to fill and she fills it in a sassy style with lots of rhythm and tastefully wicked rock lead licks. And luckily she is working with a bassist, stepson John Tibbles, who fills a lot of musical space himself. Together with drummer/husband Doug Tibbles (who in a previous incarnation was a TV screenwriter for such staples of Americana as "The Munsters", "Bewitched," "My Three Sons," "Family Affair," "Love American Style" and "The Andy Griffith Show"), they form a smooth, mean, rocking machine. They even recorded most of "Born To Howl" at their in-home studio in western Massachusetts. The family that plays together stays together. For The Stone Coyotes' philosophy and points of reference, we need look no further than Keith's autobiographical 'The First Lady of Rock.' Let me tell you the story of a girl All she ever wanted was to rock the world She asked for a guitar for birthday #9 They thought an acoustic would be just fine She said, "No, no, no, I want a B.C. Rich Maybe a Warlock, maybe a Bich" Mommy said to Daddy, "Did you hear what she said? She said 'I like Black Sabbath and Motorhead'" Keith is certainly staking her claim to the crown of First Lady of Rock. She is the grrl-rocker all the grrl-rockers want to grow up to be. She plays guitar like Keith Richards or Angus Young, she has an entirely unique voice that's rough, rebellious and saucy enough for rock but that never grates on the ear, and she writes rock songs that mean something without sounding contrived, pretentious or artsy. I tried to be so quiet, I really did, I studied hard, I was a good kid But there's something in my bones, something in my soul Makes me crank the distortion just as loud as it will go If Rockzillaworld weren't the high-class, high-brow publication that it is, we'd probably be prone to say Barbara Keith and The Stone Coyotes kick ass. Or "rule." If the Stone Coyotes were a football team, their offense would be described as "three chords and cloud of dust." What separates them from the average rock band is that while they keep it simple like good rock should be, the band has enough musicality that the songs don't all start to sound the same, don't tend to run together, and that is a tough hurdle for most three-piece bands to overcome. But it's no sweat for the Coyotes, whose music ranges from the boundaries of punk to roots to metal to the edges of country. While the Coyotes have elements of lots of rock styles in their playing, if I had to give a single description to someone who'd never heard them, I'd say most of the songs are just that "Exile on Main Street" kind of Stonesy rock with a lot of groove, a generous dosage of funk and an edge that a lady wrestler could shave her legs with. Certainly 'Four Times Gone,' and 'Torn Asunder,' with their dark and otherworldly Jaggeresque story lines dressed up with dramatic, ominous, echoing Stones-like licks reminiscent of the sounds on "Beggar's Banquet," "Gimme Shelter" or "Their Satanic Majesties Request" fit that description. And 'Rock It' is straight Keith Richards/Ronny Wood school riff rock, with some nasty 'Smoke On The Water' lead licks thrown into the mix on the guitar solo break. You must beware, you must be careful They teach you that from the very start I thought a lot about it, I got suspicions They said they had my best interests at heart Rock it, rock it, don't just roll over and die Rock it, rock it, shoot the moon right out of the sky Ms. Keith truly has the songwriting gift. The musical structures she works in may be primarily rock, but her lyrics are more akin to country or folk, and in fact she delivers a very tasteful cover of Dolly Parton's country classic, 'Jolene.' Formerly a songwriter/ recording artist for the MGM/Verve label, Keith has had songs recorded by Hank Snow, Tanya Tucker, Delaney & Bonny, The Dillards, Little Feat's Lowell George and even pop diva Barbra Streisand. For a "rock" singer, those are some heady and diverse credentials. So just because Keith is in a rock band, don't think she doesn't know her country music. In 'Death of the American Song,' Keith demonstrates the mental facility and capacity to masterfully intertwine recognizable tags or signature lines from other songs seamlessly into her own lyrics, which gives her work an added layer of intellectual depth that is extremely pleasing. She also is able to channel her passions into sensitive, sensible lyrics, and one of her passions is Americana music (there is a Norman Rockwell style drawing in the liner notes that depicts a mother and two children sitting around an old wooden-box radio listening intently). Keith ably works tags from classic Americana country songs ("down in the valley," "wildwood flower," "footprints in the snow," "Old 97," "rank strangers to me") into a story of a funeral ceremony for the great American songs. A gentle, lilting, folky song, it indicts current tastes, trends and listening habits and laments the passing of something good and wholesome and substantial. Back in the day, we would have called this "a very heavy song." The radio is playing, got the latest top ten on The kind you hear today that you know tomorrow will be gone I see those painted faces, they are smiling on TV And I find that they're all rank strangers to me So beat the drum slowly as they carry her away Wrapped in white linen as cold as the day I see Tammy and Patsy with their long black dresses on Mourning the death of the American song Keith has also chosen this album to record a song she wrote in 1973, 'Detroit or Buffalo,' and it too is a fine example of the country aesthetic in her lyric writing. With a sound reminiscent of the country side of bands like Lynrd Skynrd or Little Feat, this song is a real coming of age tear-jerker. Ms. Keith was very young when she wrote this song, and I suspect the feelings conveyed in the lyric are as real as emotions reduced to mere words can get. People expect you to fall, hit the same old wall Really they don't want to help at all They talk behind your back today, shake their heads and say "Well, I always knew that girl would come to no good anyway." Better pack up and go, Detroit or Buffalo Anybody want to know where, you don't know God knows everybody gotta go sometime And I'm taking the train to the end of the line Missing every mile that friend of mine While all the songs are first rate, 'American Child' is a real three-chord rocking standout. Another commentary on the current state of the music business, musically the tune is a mix of Chuck Berry modernized into a Ramones mode, and the simple-but-smack-you-right-between-the-eyes lyrics are just Zen-perfect for a rock song. Some of these new boys they say they want to fight But it takes them three days to get the drum sound right It's enough to make a poor girl want to weep and moan Give me Jerry Lee Lewis, give me Joey Ramone One listen to the Coyotes and it is apparent they know their rock history, their rock classics and their rock bands. What better way to close out the album than with a scorching rocker, 'Call Off Your Dogs,' that calls to mind one of the most popular rock bands and songs of the 1970's and '80's, Foghat's 'I Just Want To Make Love To You'? If you've given up on rock records, if, like me, you often recoil at the idea of listening to a CD described as "rock" because you expect it to be nothing more than the typical product of posturing, preening, over-indulgent, excessively over-the-top, show-biz cookie-cutter bands that MTV pollutes us with in a constant barrage of cleavage and crotches, of glitz, glam and grunge, give The Stone Coyotes a listen. This wife-husband-stepson team of Coyotes will make you believe in rock again. *How cool are The Stone Coyotes? Cool enough to have been the model for the rock band in Elmore Leonard's novel, "Be Cool," the book/movie sequel of "Get Shorty." And cool enough to have been on the leading edge of the Internet marketing revolution. The Coyotes only market via the Internet. Their first release, "Church of the Falling Rain," which features four songs whose lyrics were included in Leonard's novel, was #1 in sales on Amazon's Emerging Artists chart for 9 straight months. Their second release, 2000's "Situation Out of Control," had been the #1 download on Amazon's New Music Spotlight Chart for 10 straight months. "Born To Howl" can only be bought at www.amazon.com or at www.stonecoyotes.com The Stone Coyotes will be touring Texas in October, with a headlining appearance at the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival scheduled for October 13th. Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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