A Good Year for the Outlaw

Today’s underrated bands and acts, just gonna list ‘em without going to much into detail:

The Derailers

These guys should’ve gotten a bunch of airplay outside of Texas these past few years, but haven’t. It’s a band that can channel Buck Owens, the Everly Brothers, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles, and make it all sound so very hip, cool, and modern today. Texas radio embraces them, the rest of the country radio programmers across the land, thanks mostly to idiot consultants, don’t play their stuff. Whenever I played it, I got calls. “Who are those guys?”, “Wow, that’s great stuff, play it more!” 

Charlie Robison

See above, same story. This guy is one of America’s great storytellers, in the mold of John Hiatt and Gus Van Zandt and even Tom T. Hall. The guy can flat write a song. He can cook (”Barlight”), honky tonk (”You’re Not The Best”), he can longingly ache for a return to his roots (”My Hometown”) and he can be Funny with a capital “F” (”Sunset Boulevard”). Every one of those songs, by the way, are on one of the finest albums ever recorded, “Life Of The Party”. Charlie’s music can’t be pigeonholed. Some is country, some is folk, some is rock, some is TexMex, some is bluesy, but one thing it all is: Deserving to much more commercially successful than it has been. Again, blame country radio consultants.  

If you see it in a store, BUY it, you’ll thank me. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll tap your toes, you’ll close your eyes and see incredible pictures he paints with his words. Charlie is married to Emily Robison (Dixie Chicks) and a lot of his stuff is produced by Lloyd Maines (Natalie’s Dad), a Texas legend.

Jack Ingram

Jack is just now getting some major notice and airplay, with a couple of recent fantastic singles like “Love You” and “Whereever You Are” and his cover of “Lips Of An Angel”, which is better than Hinder’s original. But Jack has been making great music for quite a few years, and yes, just like the Derailers and Charlie Robison, little notice has been given to it outside of Texas, and yes, it’s the blame of country radio consultants.

I got turned onto Jack’s music when I got a copy of “Hey You” (1999) including the fabulous “Barbie Doll” and “Mustang Burn”. In 2002, he came out with “Electric”, another gem. Jack is a great live performer, who as I said is just now getting his due. He got a big break last year when Sheryl Crow took him out as her opening act, and this year he’s touring with Brad Paisley, which will further expose him to a more mainstream country audience. He deserves it. He still likes to play some smaller venues like roadhouses, if you ever see him, make him play “Barbie Doll”. Awesome.

BoDeans

Out of Wisconsin, formed in 1983, I’ve always liked the music these guys put out. “She’s A Runaway” should have been a huge, huge Top 40 hit back in 1986, and the followup “Fadeaway” deserved more attention than it got.

“Closer To Free”, a single from 1993, was the theme from Party of Five, so chances are you’ve heard BoDeans music, but that was not their best work.  If you want to save time and just hear the main body of their work, I’ve seen a 17-song collection called “Slash And Burn” that pretty much covers the band’s talents.