Gear-Jamming
Brooklyn label taps local talent for new release
By Jim Ridley and Bill Friskics-Warren
The best damn country-music label in Brooklyn, Diesel Only Records made a name for itself servicing America’s truck stops and jukeboxes with its patented brand of nitro-burning “rig rock.” In 1990, Diesel Only began paying homage to the classic 18-wheeler anthems of the 1950s and ’60s with vinyl singles by Northeastern neo-country outfits such as the World Famous Blue Jays and the Blue Chieftains. Not only did these become cult favorites, they heralded the coming alt-country movement, then just a blip on a county-Mountie’s radar gun.
That tradition continues with two brand-new singles on Diesel Only. “Sweet Lucinda,” an ode to Lucinda Williams, introduces the much-ballyhooed SWAG, a Nashville supergroup consisting of Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson; the Mavericks’ Jerry Dale McFadden, Paul Deakin, and Robert Reynolds; Farmer Not So John’s Richard McLaurin; and local monster-of-pop Doug Powell. It’s even available on cool blood-red vinyl, with glossy cover artwork by hip urban folk artist Steve Keene. The other single, lifted from honky-tonker Dale Watson’s excellent recent LP The Truckin’ Sessions, offers the Diesel Only credo in a nutshell: “Good Luck ’N’ Good Truckin’ Tonite.”
Both singles are available from the Diesel Only Web site, http://www.DieselOnly.com.
They're also available by mail order from 100 N. 6th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211. The label is also gearing up for the Aug. 24 release of The Best of Red Simpson: Country Western Truck Drivin’ Singer, the first in a projected series of reissues with Razor & Tie Records. After that comes a multi-artist anthology of truck-driving music spanning the years 1939 to 1969. If all goes well, that’ll be released by the Country Music Foundation label next year. For more information, e-mail the label at DieselOnly@aol.com. That’s a big 10-4, good buddy; over and out.
—Jim Ridley
Unlimited potential
Austin, Berkeley, Chicago, and San Francisco all have ’em: public radio affiliates that broadcast live music and interviews with local pickers, singers, and songwriters. Nashville’s public airwaves, however, have been curiously silent in this regard—that is, until last month. On July 3, WPLN-90.3FM premiered Nashville Unlimited, the first in a weekly series of 13 60-minute segments showcasing hometown talent. The show’s cohosts, session pro Dave Pomeroy and Grammy-winning tunesmith Don Henry, chat informally with their guests, many of them backed by Pomeroy on bass and percussionist Sam Bacco, who serve as the Nashville Unlimited house band. The program airs 7 p.m. Saturday nights, right after A Prairie Home Companion.
Taped before a small audience at WPLN’s Studio C in MetroCenter, each episode of Nashville Unlimited presents a fairly diverse trio of performers. The first show in the series featured hit songwriter Gretchen Peters, bluegrass standard-bearers the Del McCoury Band, and club favorite Victor Mecyssne. Guests on the July 24 broadcast included mandolin ensemble the Butch Baldassari Trio, torch singer Angela Kaset, and pluperfect pop-rocker Bill Lloyd. Country singer Allison Moorer, mountain-soulman Aashid Himons, neo-pop duo Swan Dive, and twang-god Duane Eddy will appear during August. Blues, bluegrass, jazz, contemporary Christian music—indeed, just about everything but hard rock, heavy metal, and hip-hop—will have a forum during the program’s initial 13-week run.
Hoping to secure a national audience, the sponsors of Nashville Unlimited will offer these first 13 installments, via satellite uplink, to public radio stations around the country. Gearing up for a 40-show season next year, they are currently seeking funding from local and national sources, including the National Endowment for the Arts.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Elliptical dispatches:
Broken Things, Julie Miller’s first solo album since the superb Blue Pony two years ago, arrives in stores Tuesday. She’s joined once again in the studio by her husband and co-producer, Buddy Miller, as well as by guests including Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Victoria Williams, Patty Griffin, and NRBQ’s Joey Spampinato. The record carries a heartfelt dedication to the late drummer Donald Lindley and his family....
Watch stores and online retailers next month for Chester, an EP collaboration between Josh Rouse and Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner on the Rykodisc/Slow River label. Wagner wrote the lyrics; Rouse did the music. Both Lambchop and Rouse should have new albums available early next year.
Elliptical dispatches:
Broken Things, Julie Miller’s first solo album since the superb Blue Pony two years ago, arrives in stores Tuesday. She’s joined once again in the studio by her husband and co-producer, Buddy Miller, as well as by guests including Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Victoria Williams, Patty Griffin, and NRBQ’s Joey Spampinato. The record carries a heartfelt dedication to the late drummer Donald Lindley and his family....
Watch stores and online retailers next month for Chester, an EP collaboration between Josh Rouse and Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner on the Rykodisc/Slow River label. Wagner wrote the lyrics; Rouse did the music. Both Lambchop and Rouse should have new albums available early next year.
