The Time Between

Rusty Dean


I was looking for some Clarence White – actually I really wanted to find Muleskinner (haven’t heard that for 20+ years but my remembrance of the version of Muleskinner Blues with Clarence’s playing on it has taken on mythical proportions) – when I found this,. Evidently it’s Clarence with Gary Barlow (I think). It’s very straight country and to be honest doesn’t much to the Clarence legacy. It’s a fine record in many ways – classic hard country - but so many others have done this better – much better.

Roy Buchanan

There’s really only two songs you need to hear from Roy – The Messiah Will Come Again and Sweet Dreams. This guy was a tone master. Beautiful telecaster sounds. There’s a great bit on Messiah where you can hear him flipping the tone switch from the neck pickup to the bridge and he just gets THAT sound. I don’t think anyone’s come close since him. I can get pretty close to playing some of this stuff (until he throws these little shards of notes into the mix) but I can’t get close to the tone and feeling. Absolutely beautiful stuff. I saw him in the UK in the 70’s. The bill was Arthur Brown (Mr Hellfire himself), Roy and Family – doing one of their last gigs. Great stuff.

Beechwood Sparks

I never heard this when it came out (10 years ago?) but I loved the look and the idea (the reviews and photos of them made me think they could be really interesting but I never got round to listening to them). So now here I am and….they’re OK. Just OK. The singer’s voice is an acquired taste (it’s not very strong – and there’s a lack of feeling there somehow) and they’re a little closer to America than the Burritos. They sound like a bunch of just OK musicians really, really wanting to be a classic LA 1967 band – 12 strings, lap steel and attempts at Byrds-ian harmonies are made but don’t quite get there. I’ve talked about a number of English bands trying to sound like their heroes. Here’s an American band doing the same. Not sure what happened to them – probably got day jobs. Great attempt at this type of thing. I sure hope they at least got laid.

Bottle Rockets

Here’s another one that’s interesting. They sound like an American band wanting to be Dave Edmunds (while Dave, obviously, wanted to be American). Talk about recursive.
Nicely played. Pretty Wilco first album-esque. Must have been great in a small, sweaty bar.

Bryan McClean

OK. I’m a huge Love fan. I even drove past the Castle recently (it’s close to my house and where Love lived before they made Forever Changes – the best LA record ever – maybe the best album in the rock genre made too). Anyway I just found a solo album of Bryan’s. It’s weird I have to say. It has his versions of Orange Skies, Old Man and Alone Again Or. I always thought Love’s styling was all Arthur’s but listening to this I’m completely confused. Listen to Old Man. It’s either the best Arthur impersonation ever or Bryan came up with this style. On Barber John – which I’ve never heard Arthur do it sounds like the lost FC track – including the little weird rupa-dup-dupa type stuff that I always thought was pure Arthur. The little guitar riffs (it’s just Bryan solo) sound like Love too. I’m totally confused. I always thought that Arthur threw out the band and tried to make FC with studio guys – and then realized he needed them after all. Maybe it’s the chemistry – Arthur never got close again and you have to ask why. Was it the mix of him and Bryan? It’s changed the way I think about Love I have to say. It’s a nice record. Well worth checking out.

The Bunch

Here we go. A bunch of Brits – Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Simon Nichols – basically all the Fairports – playing straight ahead country and rock and roll standard.s. Crazy Arms, That’ll be the day (very Linda Ronstadt), Don’t be Cruel and the Locomotion (pretty good version actually). My favorite track is learning the game (I should check out who did the original version) – but then it’s hard not to be wooed by Sandy. Won’t set the world on fire but it’s fun – and they obviously had a great time making it

Clover.

I loved Clover. I saw them in the UK just as punk broke and felt sorry for them. They were unbelievable musicians, had great songs (it was around the time of the Unavailable album), played on the first Costello record, and had the looks – and the hair (especially John McPhee – I sure hope he’s not bald now). This was right before I cut off all mine too. A great mix of rock and soul. I just found their first two albums and have to say they haven’t aged well. Poor production and just OK songs. Again you can see how they influenced a bunch of people (list to range war by the Brinsleys which even includes the line “where clover play”). The first album does have a nice version of stealin on it I have to say. It’s kind of the blueprint for where they went – and where Huey Lewis went too. The second album (Forty Niner) is better produced but still on the thin side – how come so much stuff from this period sounds this bad – when some stuff hasn’t dated and still sounds great. These albums sound like a 4-track demos – terrible drum sounds, guitar sounds like they were played through the worst, cheapest amps, and vocals with no presence. Didn’t they have reverb in the studios these guys worked in? Now I would say if the songs were great the production wouldn’t as important but the songs aren’t great either – there are exceptions Mr Moon is pretty good – the Brinsley’s didn’t just borrow from these guys they stole everything. Unbelievable if you put this song onto Silver Pistol you wouldn’t know it was two different bands. Alex Call has a great voice I have to say – and I’m glad he wrote 545-6543 Jenny Jenny (or whatever the number is) as he didn’t make any money with these guys. Now I need to find there two 70’s albums.

Cochise

Another set of brits who wanted to be yanks. OK production (finally) and BJ Cole on pedal steel. Interesting stuff. Starts with an OK version of who do you love. Love hearts sounds like an outtake from Ride’s Carnival of Light (I know it came afterwards). Almost Floyd-y. And strange images sounds like Radiohead – no really. It’s a nice record – the vocals are a little strained at times. It does sound like there’s a couple of guys fighting for the vision of the band – one singer obviously wanted a more standard rock direction the other guy