The Dirt Daubers – ‘Wake Up, Sinners’      (COLONEL  KNOWLEDGE/THIRTY TIGERS)

The deeper the Roots, the closer to heaven must be carved over the doorway that leads in to The Dirt Daubers. The band take a messianic message and turn it up to eleven on “Wake Up, Sinners”. Raising a ruckus out of Paducah, Kentucky, The Dirt Daubers are a three piece containing Colonel J.D. Wilkes of The Legendary Shack Shakers, his wife Jessica and stand up bassman Mark Robertson. ‘Wake Up Sinners’ is a holy hootenanny cramming thumped-up ragtime, disgruntled jazz and Appalachian music into thirteen songs. Vocals are shared with The Colonel (banjo, French harp, piano, accordion, kazoo) and Jessica (tenor guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo).

The lessons of life are re-told in “Be Not Afraid” as Jessica Wilkes holds on to safe words of her youth and the phrases coming from those who have lost their youth while still young “the boys don’t like the good girls no more”. ‘Wake Up, Sinners’ provides advice for those looking to rise from the grave and the ones who would rather dance on top. Sinners and saints can benefit from the testifying of The Dirt Daubers. The traditional title track puts faith on the front burner to “prepare for that great day to come” as original “Can’t Go to Heaven” encourages with do’s and don’t’s for the great beyond. The line between traditional songs and self –penned songs is non-existent. Riding a railroad beat, “Angel on the TracK” clicks along, “Get Outta My Way” does  One-Step at full throttle and “She and Us Pets” performs at as three piece minstrel show.

The common ground for the music Is the playing of The Dirt Daubers. Their enthusiasm with which they play is tangible, and infectious. The rhythms are bare boned skeletons, the passion forming the flesh. The constant force of the trio propels blood through your system faster than morning coffee or late night overindulgences. The band weave a southern spell in their stories and raise hell with their beats. It is a heavenly stew, with the devil on your left shoulder and the angel on your right each having their say.                                                                                 Danny McCloskey

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Slight shifts of wording or inflections can change things. For instance, “bring the wagons in a circle”. Cut from the American West, the phrase once meant shelter from danger. It has moved on and become a way to keep ideas in-house, a way for a small group, even one, to be protected from an enemy or simply someone out to take your stuff. Stick a cap into the middle of the sentence, “bring the Wagons in a circle”, and it becomes more of a challenge. Wagons, the band are flexible and probably bendable given the right time/place/motivation but bringing them into a situation that is defined by borders, closing them in with say, a circle, is not an option.

Wagons have delivered “Rumble, Shake and Tumble” and like the title, the band offer lots of options with their music. They can be filed into the ever expanding world of Alt Country but even that is a limitation. There is a common factor in Wagons song, however. Rule number one is that they have to be big. The power of rock is cast across bombastic arrangements as guitar distortion lassoes chords and notes.  Opener “Downlow” stamps out a marching four-time beat before exploding into hammer hit drumming and knuckle shredding power chords. The song sets up a getaway, traveling in the dark for a brighter future. The band carve their name into deep down country and claim head space with the perfect riffs to stick on your mind with sharpened hooks and claws. Heading the Wagons train, lead singer and main songwriter Henry Wagons has a guttural bellow that has way too much character and resonance to ever seem like a growl. For sourcing on where his vocals range, place him somewhere between Johnny Cash and Nick Cave with a dash of Leonard Cohen. Henry Wagons’ natural low register frames words with emotion. He is the kind of guy whose voice that takes charge. Lost your way? Henry Wagons is your guy. Even when seeking personal salvation, like on “Save Me”. What starts out as a lone voice in the chorus wilderness comes out with lots of friends echoing the title march forward as a united front.

Mostly, a promise is no more than that….a promise. Wagons make sure that they serve up exactly what the album title claims on ‘Rumble, Shake and Tumble’. The band uses love as confession in “I Blew It”, cruising along on a rockabilly roots rumble.  Beats and chords tumble over and around as an anvil-solid chorus chants “it’s sizzling, crackling, smoking and fizzling”, fanning the flames on “Love Is Burning” and shakes AM gold-dust glitter across “Moon Into the Sun”.   “Life’s Too Short” takes a back porch breather as the album heads towards closer “Mary Lou”. The story line in “Mary Lou” leads the pain of lost love down a sonic feedback drenched rabbit hole before breaking into a solo acoustic guitar reverie that is wrapped gently in soft organ tones.

Wagons have been hailed as one of Australia’s best kept secrets in their homeland. They come up from down under with music marinated in dark country rock to stalk stages in the land of sweat equity opportunity. Henry Wagons is happy about it, “I'm chomping at the bit in anticipation, looking forward to getting my guitar hands dirty on American soil. The opportunity to play music in and around the source of so much inspiration has me foaming at the mouth.”

Wagons track “I Blew It” was picked by NPR radio for song of the day. The video for the track was selected by The Alternate Root for the debut issue. More on Wagons can be found online.

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Grit, twang, swoops and swirls, yep, all the usual suspects. What separates Darryl Lee Rush from the pack of country contenders is that voice. Rings like that old bell you’ve heard about. Clear like glass, deep and fluid as water, Darryl Lee’s vocal delivery brings you into the tale, not knowing how you got there; you are involved in the story, an observer who understands what the participant is experiencing.
The narrator does some soul and car searching in “Las Vegas Christmas Eve”. As he does “one last dance to the cash machine”, you are sitting one seat over, punching for money and having internal buttons pushed by the same thoughts, maybe a little envious that another can “walk through those doors and face the street”. As the characters head down to Bandera and Fredericksburg in “Broken Glass”, you’re riding shotgun, same goes true in “Leaving Virginia” and “Jackson Hole”. As the last bit of love hits the floor, you grab your git-it-on and head with off with Darryl’s decision to “take it right on down to the dance hall, take it right on down to the bar, take it right on down to the edge of Sunday morning and I hope I don’t take it down too far” (‘Dance Hall’). That is what clarity in a voice offers, the lines between them and us, him and her, blur. The bridge that stands between song and listener is gone.
Making sure not to rely on words alone, the music on the self-titled Darryl Lee Rush album comes up bright. Whether propped up with frenetic chord strums and tom tom-ed back beats on “Burn It Down”, riding a riff fueled hook into “Hard Rain” or slowing down in a dream about “Marissa” as it sways to a rhythm dominated by acoustic guitar notes, accordion, strings  and muffled drumming, the music shares clarity with the voice. The leading men of voice (Darryl Lee Rush) and guitar (Scott Oldner) shared production credits and they should be proud. The natural ability of what comes through throat and finger is amplified with all its perfection intact and expanded on with studio technology.
The characters share self-reflection and the need to have their tales heard. A life in war is retold through the eyes of a father gazing on his son’s words in “Letter From A Soldier”, the pain and pride of both is felt as the letters on the page take flight.
Darryl Lee Rush is a Texas singer/songwriter. To find out about playing for the hometown crowds and beyond, look to his website for more information.                            Danny McCloskey

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Environment plays a big part in perception. The basic album tracks for Ha Ha Tonka's latest effort, ‘Death of A Decade’, were laid out in a two hundred year old barn in New Paltz, about eighty north of New York City. You can imagine the thirty foot ceiling capturing every note, letting the tones take shape organically. Lead singer Brian Roberts wanted to seal in what they were creating, “We wanted to make sure we left in all the imperfections of the barn such as the chairs squeaking and the boards creaking”.

Exene Cervenka is loaded with love. So much so, that by Tuesday night, as early as 8AM and within the first chorus of the first track she is ‘Already in Love’, opening her recent release, ‘The Excitement of Maybe’, to a host of possibilities.
Ms. Cervenka is no stranger to excitements. She has plowed through decades of delivery, changing the face of rock and carving out a place in music history for Alt Country with 80’s punk legends, X, and The Knitters, both bands still performing and touring.

The Alternate Root (TAR): You work in various forms of art...music, word, paint...how does the medium you use for a project materialize?

Exene Cervenka (EC): Art is  the ability to capture the images that you see in your mind. There is a different path for each thing you create.  Sometimes you sit down with guitar and a book, you write a line, get a verse structure, pick up the guitar and play it.

TAR: Finding an outlet for the feeling?

EC: Songs on record are emotional landscapes. I look at collages in the same way. Both create images of the discordant elements that are put it together in your mind.

TAR: There is a love theme on ‘The Excitement of Maybe’.

EC: It is a love album. Love songs are super narrative. He and her went on the story of a love, it’s a narrative.

TAR: How did you find a way to channel all these muses when you started creating art?

EC: I got lucky. I came to California in 1976. I worked with a literary organization, Beyond Baroque, that was funded by state money for the arts. I was introduced to a small press library. I met people. Jim Caruso, I met John (Doe) my first night there. It was amazing. I looked at books, took books home from the 50’s and 60’s, I read those books.

TAR: Did that change you as a writer?

EC: It didn’t change my writing but made me a better writer. The experience taught me how to be a writer, as a person. I was twenty, I was young and I soaked it all up.

TAR: Did you think about your art as having such a future at that point?

EC: I was talking to my friend last night, asking if they could imagine me at a party at the age of twenty-two, saying that in thirty-five years I would still be playing in X. If I had said that and it was true, I would charge people for my predictions.

TAR: And punk rock, and all it created, has continued?

EC: The real spirit of punk rock was about love, we helped each other. That spirit was also about being artistic, not being corporate. Telling the world to fuck off, we don’t want your shit.

TAR: Successful battle?

EC: We didn’t want to leave radio in their hands.....until today. The Germs, X, Southern CA sound and whatever came after that. It only mattered that every song was fast. There became all guy groups, with girls on sidelines. What is now considered punk is nothing like the original ideas. Rancid has carried on traditions, the rest is more superficial punk. There is also not that drive to right wrongs. Regan destroyed Planned Parenthood, Music needs to get more off the grid, more like off the mental grid, the American Idol grid. What is Charlie Sheen? That is just something brought up to waste time instead of getting out and fighting for our reproductive rights.

TAR: I was in radio, at WBCN in Boston, in the 80’s and from where we were, X was a huge band.

EC: We loved that station. Whenever we got to Boston we would ask if we were going to that radio station that plays us? Being played like that really made it difference in our following. Boston has always been one of our best cities, and it still is today.

TAR: See any difference in the people showing up between now and then?

EC: The people that came out to those show in the 1980’s, they were the truth seekers. Those were the individuals, it was the underground, something waiting to happen. People are always going to be looking for that something. A younger crowd will be looking to older people. What the sixteen year old girl is singing is not really what life is about. Listening to Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits gives a better look. Pop music is not helping kids. Life is confusing and hard, artists give meaning to it.

TAR: Are you seeing any changes in the culture?

EC: Restaurants and stores are going to out of business. There is a lot more homegrown live music. People are getting access to play to other people, It seems that people are saying “God damn it, now I’m getting mad”.

TAR: The world constantly provides reason for getting more pissed off.

EC: People are being forced into anger. For entertainment in the past, you would sit down with new friends, new friends and old friends, and watch a concert. Just because people can’t afford to go out and see bands, doesn’t mean they don’t want to. They sure want to go out, getting a babysitter, parking, gas, travel, put a ticket price on top of that,

TAR: Is change coming?

EC: Everything is in place, like in the civil rights days. Everything went on from one day to the next until Rosa Parks. Things now may need a tipping point. Sometimes you need a martyr, sometimes an accident. Lawmakers keep screwing around with women’s reproductive rights, making abortion punishable by death, these states are making it tough. There are actually laws trying to be put in place that will make women prove that their miscarriage was valid,  prove that it wasn’t done on purpose. It is super frightening. The thing about punk, and about hippies and beatniks, we didn’t wait to be pushed around.

TAR: The times that had beatniks, punks, hippies, brought about multi-level changes

EC: If it wasn’t for the hippies, we wouldn’t even be eating what is good for us. They said “we are not going to eat Wonder bread” They gave us the food we eat today. They put a lot of change in motion. The times were really restrictive. If you were black you couldn’t vote, being gay was illegal.

TAR: And what about the women in the past that made cultural changes?

EC: Women in country music, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, they were the first, in my opinion, to stand up. Women standing up and saying “we are not whores just because we dress up”. When I do solo shows, I always play “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”. Women blues artist before the country women, not asking for hand outs, letting people decide for themselves, play everything and let people decide.

TAR: And in your own music, you have stayed the same, the world has caught up.

EC: I was always an americana artist and helped invent Alt Country. I didn’t care if what I was doing sucked or would fail. People don’t trust themselves enough. They have to look at TV and magazines to find out how they feel or want to look.

TAR: And the women performers of today?

EC: I look at Madonna and Britney, I look at Beyonce, Pink, Lady Gaga. I only know Pink and I like her a lot. Though I don’t know her music, I like what Lady Gaga is doing with her influence. She has already spoken out about don’t ask, don’t tell. That is the kind of person you need to count on, push a button and tell a hundred million people. You see other people, who have the same platform and they don’t come through. Come out for a cause, you have all the money need, come out and say you are for gay marriage.

TAR: Where is it all leading?

EC: There is a lesson coming from all this. I hope it is spending more time with your kids in the backyard, not taking that vacation to Disneyland. Instead of all going in different directions you go, “you know what, let’s do that jigsaw puzzle”.

Since speaking with Exene Cervenka, some health issues have come up that are affecting Exene’s immediate future. Here is Exene’s blog entry from April 7, 2011.....“as you probably know by now, i was diagnosed with ms. i have been doing relatively well. i thought i could handle sxsw in austin, and a short solo tour. however, i got sick in austin during sx, it is a hard event even under the best of circumstances. it didn't seem that hot to me, but heat is very bad for those of us with ms. i started feeling bad almost as soon as i started playing on wednesday and by sunday night, i had a terrible headache and couldn't get out of bed. i didn't feel any better by wednesday so i called  my neurologist and got a prescription for steroids. i started to improve a little and thought i'd  be okay to start my southwest southeast tour on the following friday. in retrospect, i should have called off the tour then and there. but i didn't want to cancel. kevin seconds, who was on the tour with me, met me in austin, and we played our first show. but i wasn't getting better in knoxville tn, a week later, i was fatigued and having a hard time functioning. when i took the stage that night, i was surprised to discover that my right hand and arm were not responding to my commands, and i couldn't play guitar. i apologized to the audience, talked alot, and sang acapella. because i had driven ten hours from new orleans, i hoped it was just fatigue from gripping the steering wheel so long. but i knew the tour was over. the next morning, after i called my booking agent and gave her the news, i sat down with kevin seconds and explained to him that i was too sick to continue, and would only be going as far as memphis. i apologized. my friend flew into memphis and drove me home, where i am now. i wouldn't have made it as far as i did without the help of my friends and the kindness of fans strangers along the way. i am not an invincible road warrior anymore. the easiest part of touring is the hour on stage. the driving and staying with friends and finding hotels and advancing the shows and hauling around merch and guitars is the hard part. i've never cancelled a tour before but it is more important for me to regain my health than continue. i never know when my ms will strike, and this was certainly bad timing for an attack. my apologies to the clubs, the fans, my label, and mr. seconds for this unfortunate event”.

More on Exene Cervenka can be found at exenecervenka.net.

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