Americana/Country
The year was 1974, and Bobby Bare, Jr. was 5 years old when he was nominated for a Grammy Award. He had duetted with his dad on the song "Daddy, What If," from the senior Bare's album Lullabys, Legends and Lies. The Grammy in question was for Best Country and Western Performance Vocal—Duo or Group. (Weirdly, the Pointer Sisters won the prize, for their song "Fairytale.") Although Bobby Bare Jr. grew up immersed in the Nashville songwriting tradition and surrounded by legends in the field, he's never been one to take his musical legacy for granted. With his band Bare Jr., he put out two albums full of angst-filled, hook-laden, poison-pen rawk. But after being on a major label for several years, Bobby decided that success was to be found somewhere else. He found a record label that was passionate about his music and surrounded himself with talented musicians. Crisscrossing the land in a minivan, Bobby has spent the last two years reinventing his career. And now, with two records on the Chicago-based Bloodshot label under his belt, well over 300 shows in the U.S. and Europe, and a rapidly growing fan base, Bobby is poised to reach new heights. His latest record, From the End of Your Leash, is surely the catalyst he has been waiting for.
Washington, D.C., native Paul Burch grew up in Virginia, Mississippi and Indiana in a family of writers, painters and cowboys. Soon after moving to Nashville in the early '90s, he began performing downtown in the vacant honky-tonks once home to Music City's nightlife. Forming the WPA Ballclub, he took up a yearlong residency at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. The WPA's marathon shows quickly attracted a following and became part of the "Lower Broadway Revival" of live music downtown. Burch's debut, Pan-American Flash, was voted the No. 5 country CD of the '90s by Amazon.com. Wire to Wire and Blue Notes were released in 1998 and 2000, both placing in Village Voice's year-end Pazz and Jop critics' poll. In 2001, Burch released Last of My Kind, performed at the Kennedy Center for Tennessee State Day, and appeared on the soundtrack to Walt Disney's The Rookie. In February 2004, Burch recorded a duet with Grammy winner and Grand Ole Opry member Dr. Ralph Stanley, which they will debut in concert at the Ryman this summer. Currently, Burch is scoring the Public Television documentary The Appalachians, which will broadcast worldwide in early 2005. Burch contributed to a book of essays based on the film, which also features interviews with Johnny Cash and June Carter.
Th' Legendary Shack♦Shakers started their hell-for-leather road show a couple of years ago, but their collective musical experience goes back a bit further. Frontman "Colonel" J.D. Wilkes began blowing the blues-harp at his boyhood home in Paducah, Ky.—not far from where future bandmates Mark Robertson and Paulie Simmonz were cutting their teeth on punk rock. Years later, when the three met in the lawless honky-tonks on Lower Broad, they found their separate styles and interests meshed well together. With the recent addition of David Lee, Th' Legendary Shack♦Shakers have become the best Southern Gothic amusement you can get for your hard-earned money. Melding the locomotive rhythm of Appalachian hoedowns, the intensity of Mississippi roadhouse blues and even the infectious oompah of polka, the band have created a unique, hybrid sound of mostly original material. Onstage, they bring an eye-popping display of authentic sideshow humbuggery, lending even more color to their peculiar pageant of vaudevillian exuberance.
Individually, Buddy and Julie Miller are respected songwriters and musicians. Together, the husband-and-wife team are a Grammy-nominated powerhouse, having written and performed with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Jim Lauderdale, Victoria Williams and Mark Olson. Buddy is an accomplished singer, songwriter and producer who has played alongside Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle; produced Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jim Lauderdale and the Vigilantes of Love; and whose songs have been covered by Lee Ann Womack, Brooks & Dunn, Hank Williams III and the Dixie Chicks. With five solo albums to his credit, Buddy has earned the reputation of a renaissance man. His latest solo effort, Universal United House of Prayer, is set for release on Sept. 21. Julie Miller's Hightone Records debut, Blue Pony (1997), launched a torrent of accolades for a woman who not so much sings her lyrics, but surrounds them with a passion and honesty that grabs the soul. The couple's self-titled duo album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2001. Today, Buddy and Julie Miller continue to work on their respective solo endeavors while still finding time to perform together.
Here are the things Allison Moorer didn't change when she set out to record The Duel, her first release for Sugar Hill Records. She kept her husband, co-writer and co-producer Butch Primm around. She continued to build upon her remarkable rapport with producer R.S. Field, and she retained her unwavering devotion to singing hard songs of deep, emotional truth. Where 2002's Miss Fortune was an elegant, sophisticated update on classic Southern country-soul, The Duel is heedless and blunt, and a little bit rough around the edges. This is intentional. Allison, Butch and Bobby took a new, unrehearsed band into the studio and cut 11 songs in 12 days. The Duel isn't exactly a rock record. It's simply the newest installment in the series of deeply personal and profoundly beautiful albums Moorer has made. That the Academy Award nominee's (for "A Soft Place to Fall" from The Horse Whisperer soundtrack) first of four records came out on a Nashville-based major label is as powerful an endorsement of her tenacity and the quality of her work as one could ask for. That she finally felt compelled to ask for her release from the label seems, in hindsight, inevitable. Label politics had nothing to do with the creation of The Duel. No matter what label she would have been on, this is the record that would have been made. And that is the freedom that Moorer was looking for.
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