By Don Jacobson

Once upon a time, Jerry Jeff Walker ushered in the spirit of a musical movement with the cry, “Up against the wall, redneck mother!” And all the cool kids in the South, indeed the whole country, responded to this satire of hippie-bashers by getting rip-roaring drunk, lighting one up, and buying the album Viva Terlingua! by the hundreds of thousands, securing Jerry Jeff’s place in the world of cosmic country music.
Nowadays, though, it seems Walker is the one doing the bashing.

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Posted on November 29, 2006

By Don Jacobson

To a jaded Minnesotan who lived through the administration of one dubious-celebrity-turned-governor, the candidacy of Kinky Friedman for the Texas governor’s mansion doesn’t quite hold the same irresistible allure as it appears to have to the rest of the country. I saw what happened in St. Paul with Jesse Ventura and I’m not sure I’d wish that on Texas, even though that place is one heckuva political cesspool that could do with more Jewish cowboys and fewer corporate Nazis in office. But still, if you judge strictly on underlying talent, Kinky has it all over Jesse. Despite his reputation as a musical satirist a la Frank Zappa, two new albums show Friedman is more than just a joke – his “cosmic country” songwriting from the 1970s and later reveals that just like Zappa, there’s meat on them funnybones.

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Posted on October 23, 2006

By Don Jacobson

A couple things got me thinking about good ol’ Lounge Ax today: the closing of CBGB in New York and the re-opening of the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue as a glittery new hangout for the CSI actor guy. CBGB’s closing, of course, is a replay of that dismal day nearly seven years ago when Lounge Ax gave up the ghost as Jon Langford belted out a few choice Johnny Cash covers on its beloved cramped stage, while the Biograph is right across the street from Lounge Ax’s former space, now occupied by a trendy martini bar with pristine white walls.

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Posted on October 17, 2006

By Don Jacobson

Ever since I told people I was going to see a Tommy Keene show, I’ve found it suprisingly hard to explain to these folks (mostly 20-somethings) just what “power pop” is. I always knew it was a niche, but I also always thought it was quite a substantial one. Now realize I was so far into it during its heyday in the 1980s – which in turn made me ultra-aware of how it was influencing vast swaths of the rock kingdom – that I just assumed most music fans, even the younger ones, knew what it was.
Apparently not.

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Posted on September 29, 2006

By Don Jacobson

This time in Don’s Root Cellar, the Hoyle Brothers hold ’em in down in Texas, Jon Christopher Davis makes me laugh in my beer and Lee Rocker shows why he’s still an O.C. (Original Cat).

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Posted on September 16, 2006

By Don Jacobson

Sometimes I just can’t believe all the musical synergies and mysteries flowing all around me. No sooner do I mention Arthur Alexander, the semi-obscure early 1960s singer/songwriter who greatly influenced John Lennon with his soulful singing style – foolishly thinking it would be the last time such a reference would be made – than he surfaces in another context, this time in a (gulp) alt-country milieu.

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Posted on August 21, 2006

By Don Jacobson

What is the meaning of this strong connection between goats and bars in Chicago? I have detected new evidence of the curious goat/tavern karma here. As if one all-too-popular bar that fetishizes the animal isn’t way more than enough, now there’s another popular watering hole in town that’s sporting a thing for horned ruminants.

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Posted on July 31, 2006

By Don Jacobson

Jamgrass.
That’s the kind of band Yonder Mountain String Band has been accused of being. Like the jam bands of a more rock ‘n’ roll persuasion, they’ve been known largely for wild live performances that go on forever, reaching groovitude after a few songs and sustaining the high for as long as humanly possible as the smell of that other kind of jamgrass wafts far and wide. As the glow sticks bounce in rhythm, instead of electric guitars and plugged-in keyboards, bluegrass jammers pound away on the acoustic tools of their trade, thus combining two essential elements: The community-building qualities of the rock jam band ethos and the undeniable authenticity of the countrified mandolin plucker and acoustic flat-picker.

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Posted on June 18, 2006

By Don Jacobson

– The Detroit Cobras will incongruously perform an in-store at the Virgin Records Store on the Magnificent Mile this Wednesday night. The Cobras are neither virgins nor magnificent, at least in the North Michigan Avenue sense of the word. They are, however, quite possibly the smokin’est band going, and this chance to see a free in-store should not be missed. The show is scheduled to go off at 7 p.m. See if the Virgin cops cramp Rachel Nagy’s style.

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Posted on June 15, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Music Choice Classic Country Channel (703)
Thursday , June 8
1. Do You Love As Good As You Look/Bellamy Brothers
“Honey, do you love as good as you look?
Can you satisfy your man the way your body says you can?
Judging by the cover, I’d love to read the book
Honey, do you love as good as you look?”
2. She’s Single Again/Janie Fricke
“She’s single again
Hold on to your men”
“Is this number four? Number five?
Tell me how many men has she buried alive?”
3. Southern Rains/Mel Tillis
Music Choice Trivia: Mel Tillis enjoys gardening, cooking, fishing, and painting.
4. You and I/Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gayle
This is the Classic Country station, right? Not Today’s Country?
This song is from Eddie Rabbit’s Greatest Hits. I suppose the term “greatest” is relative.
5. Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’/Charley Pride
Finally, some real country!
“You’ve got to kiss an angel good mornin’
and let her know you think about her when your gone
You’ve got to kiss an angel good mornin’
and love her like the devil when you get back home”

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Posted on June 10, 2006