Notes from Nashville
by Michael McCall and Jim Ridley
Collective Efforts
From WRVU’s seminal mid-1980s compendium City Without a Subway to Kevin “K.C.” Chopson’s Major Potential collections in the 1990s, various coalitions have attempted to kickstart the city’s rock scene with compilations of unsigned or alternative bands. Although on occasion the music has been exceptionally good, the impact of these compilations has been mostly minute, as the used record and CD bins at the Great Escape will attest.
Maybe that will change with the release of the first CD from the organization formerly known as Nashville Rocks, which hits local record stores Oct. 21. The CD will feature 12 unsigned Nashville bands, including Brymer, Soulskin, Hellbilly, Mother Mercy, Sha Sha Boom, Thicket Grove, Faith Carnival, the Thompsons, Surfing the Coaldust, Shari Sweet, Dutch and Doug Hall. Funds for releasing the record have come primarily from benefits held at local clubs—a financing process that has taken more than a year.
According to spokesperson Christie Taylor, the bands did not have to pay anything to be included: The tracks were instead selected by a panel of judges. That alone is an improvement over some previous compilations. Now all we need is a local commercial radio station that will play local alternative bands in regular rotation. Any station willing to volunteer can call the organization formerly known as Nashville Rocks at 227-6764 for a copy of its CD.
Nashville guitarist Tony Sarno, who performs with Shaver’s Eddy Shaver and Keith Christopher in the Thunderhawks, has released a CD on the new blues label Icehouse, which is distributed by the pioneering rap label Priority Records. Entitled It’s a Blues Thing, the CD contains originals as well as covers of Willie Dixon (“I Ain’t Superstitious”), Robert Johnson (“Walkin’ Blues”), B.B. King (“Gambler’s Blues”), John Hiatt (“Alone in the Dark”) and Champion Jack Dupree (“Talk to Me Baby”). It was recorded in Memphis, Sarno explains, because the guitarist wanted to soak up the city’s blues vibe. Sarno celebrates the CD’s release with a performance at the Ace of Clubs Oct. 18.
Elliptical dispatches: Last week’s jam-packed Jason & the Scorchers show at Mainstreet with Hank Flamingo featured a couple of surprise guests onstage: guitarist Warner Hodges’ mom and dad. The elder Mr. Hodges, dressed head to toe in black, strapped on a guitar and led a sledgehammer reading of Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues”; a song later, Mrs. Hodges took the mic and belted out a red-hot rendition of Rufus Thomas’ “Walkin’ the Dog.” Meanwhile, Jason Ringenberg played harmonica in customary fashion—dangling from Mainstreet’s rafters....
What better way to spend Halloween than a dream date with Los Straitjackets, who return Oct. 31 to 12th & Porter for one night only. Their label, Upstart Records, has reportedly slated the group’s next LP for an early 1996 release....
Murfreesboro rapper Me Phi Me has a new song on the soundtrack of the Ralph Fiennes-Angela Bassett cyberpunk thriller Strange Days, which arrives in theaters this weekend....
Watch for the companion volume to Memphis writer Robert Gordon’s superb book It Came From Memphis, an alternative history of the city’s richly idiosyncratic music scene that remains one of the most entertaining music books of recent years. The Upstart Records CD will feature such representative artists as producer Jim Dickinson, legendary photographer William Eggleston and bluesman Furry Lewis. It should arrive in local record stores Oct. 19.
If you have an item for , call 244-7989, ext. 402, or send an e-mail message to mr.pink@mail.nashscene.com.
