CD Review: Southern Drawl Band

 

Southern Drawl Band "Against The Grain"

 

 

I first heard about the Southern Drawl Band from my friend, Shurl Galliher-Gates. Shurl lives in the Tampa area and runs a music management business, where she works with a number of artists – including the Southern Drawl Band. I was talking to her about last year’s Meeting Of The Minds and the possibility of doing some recording for my internet radio show, “Trop Rockin’ Live” (heard Thursdays and Sundays on BeachFrontRadio.com). Shurl suggested I check out SDB and put me in touch with lead singer and front man, Mike Nash (aka “Nash Mike”).

 

At this point, let me tell you a little about my background. I’m currently a radio dj in Atlanta – and can also be heard weekday afternoons on stations in Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida. But, for a number of years, I was in record promotion. That is, I worked for some major record labels and my job was to try to get radio stations to play the records – singles – released by the artists we represented. I was also the Music Editor for an industry trade magazine, and, before moving to Atlanta, worked for radio stations from Charlotte to Philadelphia. Over the years I have worked with groups from Yes and Motley Crue, to Blondie and the Go Gos and met stars like David Bowie, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones – and Jimmy Buffett. I mention all this for a couple of reasons. I am used to hearing hit records. And I have also dealt with a lot of a-holes. The latter makes it that much more of a pleasant surprise when I encounter someone in the music business who is not an a-hole, someone who is a genuinely nice person. One of the reasons I like “Trop Rock” is because so many of the people performing it are just that, genuinely nice people. Which brings me back to “Nash Mike”. Following Shurl’s advice, I dropped Mike an email, told him about my upcoming trip to Key West and plans to record for Trop Rockin’ Live. Within a day I got an enthusiastic email back, saying “Sure you can record us!”. Mike and I exchanged friendly emails over the next couple of weeks, then met during Meeting of the Minds, where I found him to be just as nice in person as he was over the internet. I also had a chance to hear the band live at the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon.

 

All that leads me to the point where Steve Kesegich called and asked if I would be interested in reviewing cds for Crab Island Mambo. Among the first batch of discs Steve sent me to check out was the most recent release from the Southern Drawl Band, “Against The Grain”. Having met “Nash Mike” and seen the band live, I was anxious to hear what they sounded like on record (yeah, I’m old enough to remember – and still call music – records). So, I popped the disc in the player on a recent road trip. As I said earlier, I have spent years in the music business – and listened to thousands of albums (there I go showing my age again). I can usually tell whether a record is going to be good or not within the first three tracks. This record – ok, cd – isn’t just good. It’s DAMN good.

 

First up is the title track, “Against The Grain”, a swampy Southern Rocker –Lynyrd Skynyrd meets Jason Aldean. Mike’s voice has just the right touch of gravel and grit, backed by bluesy harp and a bluegrass banjo. If these guys were on a major record label, this song would already be on the radio. From there the cd takes a Trop Rock turn, with “Another Day In Paradise”. With an island feel and lyrics about sun and surf, it would sound right at home on a Zac Brown Band record. Next up is “The Backroads”, an achingly pretty number about escaping to someplace where time passes while sitting in a front porch swing and “shellin’ beans”. There you are. I told you I could tell if a cd was going to be good or not after the first three tracks, and these three are as good as I’ve heard from any album – independent OR major release – in some time. This doesn’t sound like a band that’s big in Knoxville, Tennesee (their hometown). This sounds like a band that is ready to be big EVERYWHERE.

 

There are plenty more good tracks on “Against The Grain”, from the raucous, rocking – and hilarious – “Party Trained” (“She’s the life of the party till you get her started on double tequila shots and twisted Bacardi”) and “My Johnson (“When I pull up the girls all grin, they love to watch me put it in”), to the nostalgic “When Kids Played Outside (“Our Playstation was an old swing set”) and even a Phil Collins-y piano ballad,  “Gone”.

 

A little back ground on the group: according to their bio, SDB was formed in 2011 by Mike and drummer Larry Dunsmore. They added percussionist Melanie Howe (who, I must say, won a lot of admirers - mostly male - at Meeting of the Minds) and bassist Daniel in 2012, the same year they recorded and released “Against The Grain”. More recently, they have released a five song ep titled “Another Day In Paradise” that includes that song and four more island-inspired tracks, including one – “Floriday” – recorded with fellow Tennessean Taul Paul. The ep was released largely to quiet folks who kept saying, “These guys are good, but are they TROP ROCK?”

 

The SDB will be on the road throughout 2013, including a number of dates throughout Florida. More info – as well as a free download of their take on “Rocky Top” – can be found on their website, http://southerndrawlbandofficial.com/

 

CD Previews: New Music from Howard Livingston, Eric Stone, Jerry Diaz & Hanna's Reef and Loren Davidson

Howard Livingston, Six Pack And a Tan

“He’s got this habit that I’m growing to hate, his almost continuous status updates ‘bout his life in the Keys and all that he’s going through…When it’s all said and done, man you know we wanna be like you. I wanna be Howie….” - Paul Roush, “I Wanna Be Howie”

Who WOULDN’T want to be Howard Livingston? A closet full of shorts and flips flops, fishing and playing Trop Rock…with the blue water and sand of the Florida Keys as the backdrop to your daily activities? It’s a Parrot Head’s dream! But, there’s only one “Howie” and if we can’t BE him, the only choice remaining is to live vicariously through him, via his Facebook page…and his cds.

Howard’s latest release is called “Six Pack and A Tan” and, like of all his earlier cds, it’s a lyrical and music tour of the Conch Republic, a tropical party on a round silver disc.  “Six Pack…” opens with the title track, the story of a retired military man who makes “cold beer and a fishing pole his new battle plan.”. Ditching it all and heading for somewhere warm and sunny is a recurring theme in Howard’s music and, why not? It’s what he did many years ago, leaving the corporate life to be a guitar picker in the Keys.

Next up is “Magic In Key West”, an ode to the Conch Republic that name drops Jimmy Buffett and Jerry Jeff Walker. One interesting thing about Howie’s music is that, although he calls South Florida home, many of his tunes sound like they were written South of the Border – with Tijuana brass and Mariachi rhythms that would make Mark Mulligan proud.

“Keysified” is another in a long line of ‘leaving the business world behind and heading for the beach’ songs that owes their origin to Buffett classics like “The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful”. In Howard’s version, the heroine is headed to a convention in Miami when she gets the bug, rents a convertible and heads down US1. Fueled by a Pina Colada in Islamorada, somewhere over the Seven Mile bridge she loses her business suit, changes into “a little bikini” and never looks back.

Another recurring them in Howard Livingston’s music - and a key ingredient for a majority of all trop rock, for that matter - is alcohol and the partaking of it. Boat Drinks, Margaritas, Rum, ice cold Cervezas. It’s not much of a Parrot Head Party without ‘em . “Five Lines in A Tervis Tumbler” is a reggaefied tribute to those wonderful hot/cold drink recepticles –  a Trop Rockin’ version of “Red Solo Cup”, featuring Howard’s favorite beverage, Coconut rum.

Marine-based puns are nothing new to Trop Rock (see John Reno’s “Lobster But Never Flounder”) and Howard incorporates a number of them in the boogie woogie “Something Fishy’s Going On”.  Funny song, but all I can say is, if I ever walk into my house and find “candles were lit, lights were low, Marvin Gaye on the stereo” and find my wife “laying in our bed wearing a leopard skin thong”? I’m not questioning the motives!

“Six Pack and a Tan” also features one of the oddest Trop Rock songs I have to say I’ve ever heard. Riding a “Puff the Magic Dragon” beat, “Peeing On A Coconut Tree” includes lines like “we were peeing on a Sycamore tree, just my daddy and me”. I’ve GOT to ask Howard about that one the next time I see him…

But, not all of “Six Pack and a Tan” is about throwing responsibilities to the wind and firing up the blender (or relieving yourself on vegetation). Howard intersperses the party tunes with some self reflection and songs tailor-made for swinging in a hammock.  “Another Sunset” rocks gently on a Mexican breeze, “Slow” is a romantic ballad with an appropriate title, and “Younger Every Day” is a mellow number about not fearing the passing the time. Need a song to help you take a mental vacation the next time it’s cold and cloudy? Cue up “Rainy Day in Paradise”. Somehow, even bad weather seems imminently more bearable when the rain drops are falling into the ocean. 

Wrapping up the cd is an upbeat musical snapshot of life in Livingston Land: “Out On Sandy Key”.  Friends, food, music, booze and boats – all under the South Florida sun.  Like Paul Roush’s song says, I wanna be Howie!

Eric Stone, Time To Fly

I have heard his name for years but only recently became familiar with Eric’s music. On the way down to last year’s Meeting Of The Minds, my wife and I stopped by to see him play a set at a roadside tiki bar in Islamorada. Since then, I have included several of his tunes on my show, Trop Rockin’ Live, and can now, happily, answer “Yes!” when someone comes up to me at one of my dj gigs to ask, “Do you have any Eric Stone?”

His latest cd is a well-blended mix of Trop Rock and good old American R&R with a swing through the Lonestar State. Much of the material focuses on chasing your dreams and living life on your own terms, especially if those terms include beaches, boats and bars. The main character in “Ave De Paso” is an “old man chasing the wind”. “Jimmy’s Drive In” finds the hero leaving behind West Texas for a different kind of sun and sand, and in “Way Down In Mexico”, Eric invites anyone who wants to join him to “follow me…we’ll drink Pacificos, we’ll be free…down by the sea”. “Life Like A Novel” and the title track continue the theme of escaping and “searching for a better state of mind”. From name-dropping tumbleweed towns like Odessa to mentions of rattlesnakes and crossing the border, Texas also looms large on “Time To Fly”, musically and lyrically… The Tex-Mex party is in full swing on “Bad Tequila”, where Eric teaches us a lesson about the difference between rock gut and the good stuff.

Jerry Diaz & Hanna's Reef "On A Beach In Mexico"

 I spent some time – many years ago – living in Corpus Christi, not far from Jerry Diaz’s home on the South Texas Gulf coast. I loved the lifestyle, sailboats, wind surfing and Margaritas (why I left is a long story but involves thinking I needed to get somewhere less laid back if I wanted to develop a career. I know, stupid, right? Now, all I can think about is getting back to the beach!), While I was there, I also fell in love with Tex Mex music; Freddy Fender, the Texas Tornadoes, Joe King Carrasco. Which is just another reason why I love Jerry and Hannah’s Reef so much. They mix plenty of south of the border into their Trop Rock for something they appropriately call “Texas Beach Music”.

Named after a local Texas fishing spot, Hannah’s Reef is Jerry on lead vocals and guitar, Mark Mireles on steel drums and acoustic guitar, Chuck Willingham on drums, Bobby Summers on Bass, Bud Byram on percussion, and Heli Martin on guitars. If there is a theme to Jerry Diaz and Hannah’s Reef’s latest cd, “On a Beach In Mexico”, which I guess can be said about most Trop Rock, it is escape… Songs like the title track, “Senoritaville”, and “Down To the Islands” are all about packing your bags and heading to somewhere with sand, sun and drinks with salted rims. In “Down To The islands”, the singer is “stuck somewhere in Arkansas” and says, “I’m a restless soul in a watering hole, drinking rum just to get away” then offers “When my ship comes in, I’m gonna jump right in. I can’t wait to get outta here”.

The desire to leave what ails you behind and head to “a place to go when you’ve had your fill of honey do’s and honey don’ts” continues in “Welcome to Senoritaville” where the singer is down on his luck, “broker than hell” and the IRS is “moving in any day”. Then the answer hits him, “a flight down to Laredo was just what I needed”. And in “On a Beach In Mexico”, the singer dreams of  “tropical islands and places I wanna be” while suffering under a “Cold Nebraska sky”.  

But the songs on “On a Beach In Mexico” aren’t simply about wanting to swap a bad situation for a better one, they’re also about the flip side: thoroughly enjoying a really good situation: “I’ve got something money can’t buy, a good lovin’ woman standing by my side” (“I’ve Got Love”), as well as making the best of the hand you’re dealt:  “Just give me ten to twenty, and I’ll feel just fine. The wind at my back and a bottle of wine” (“Ten To Twenty”) and “If  there’s beer in the cooler, I’ll be alright” (“Beer In The Cooler”).  Wrapping up the cd is a staple of Hannah’s Reef live shows, “We’ll Get By” – which features a guest appearance by John Reno. Think of it as a Margarita glass half full kind of tune, with lines like,  “Well it takes me nearly all I’ve got,  just to make ends meet”and  “But that’s ok, come what may, we’ll get by”. Amen, brother.

Loren Davidson "Of All The Rum Joints"

If you want to make music for a living, writing and recording is just PART of the process. You also need to PROMOTE. And few people work harder at it than California’s Loren Davidson. Anytime I post something on Facebook asking artists to submit information for my blog or music for my BeachFrontRadio show, “Trop Rockin’ Live”, Loren is always one of the first people to respond. The title of latest cd, “Of All the Rum Joints” and one of the songs on the cd, “Looking at You” are both nods to my favorite movie of all time, Casablanca. Produced, engineered and mixed by popular Trop Pock producer, Kevin Johnson at Orca Sound in Maryland, “Of All the Rum Joints” features eleven original songs written by Loren, plus two covers – The Doors’ “Moonlight Drive” and “Sunshine on My Shoulder” from John Denver. The originals are some of Loren’s best ever – “Voodoo Lounge” has a bluesy, back alley New Orleans vibe, “Fly Away” wouldn’t sound out of place on a Zac Brown Band cd, and “One More Rum” is a clap along tune about the trials and tribulations of being a live performer in a room full of party people who want to buy you drinks all night.