Margaret Lewis

How Would You Know

(Sun)

One falls silent in respectful awe when Margaret takes the turntable. Her Sun ventures shine brilliantly. Each is a 1960s Country testament to how remarkable art undeniably is, when imperial songcraft, musicianship of executive caliber, and glossy (but never overly so) production fall in behind velvet voicings. You've reached popular music's acme.

(Together with Mira Smith, Margaret authored hits for Jeannie C. Riley, Connie Francis, Margaret Whiting, and more.)

Recommended: "How WouldYou Know," "Kangaroo of Love," "Moondawging," "Holding onto You," "Mrs. Cooper's Tea Party," "Honey (I Miss You Too),"  "Miss to Mrs. to Misery," "Milk and Honey," "Stop Turn Around," "Last Day in the Mines"

Videos: "Kangaroo of Love"   "Moondawging"  "Mrs. Cooper's Tea Party"    "Miss to Mrs. to Misery"   "Stop Turn Around"

Sun

Bandcamp

Amazon

Apple

qobuz

pandora

Spotify

Bubba Feathers with the Hi-Fly Rangers

Raised on Rockabilly

(Goofin' Records)

The hiccup scion acquits himself as a unique talent capable of down-home good-timin', rather than attempting to robotically xerox his storied pater's fevers. (Bubba does embroider on historic gestures -- but does so with legitimacy.) Kari Kunnas/Gary Hiland and the Hi-Fly Rangers not only lend slapback skills within studio confines, but also keep important fires burning on gig stages at Bubba's elbow. (Kari's toils at hand also included songwriting. He and fellow Ranger Vesa Haaja co-produced. Vesa himself contributed backing vocals, songcraft, and acoustic guitar.)

Recommended: "Mean Hepcat," "London '77," "Everybody's Lovin' My Baby," "One-Sided Love Affair," "A Man in Love," "Thirty Nine Miles"

Videos: "Everybody's Lovin' My Baby"   "A Man in Love"   "Tongue-Tied Jill"

Facebook

Goofin' Records

jpc

bol

Crazy Times Music

Bear Family

Juno

Amazon

MovieMars

Shortstack & Sides

Long Time Coming, Planet Bop, In Person

(Self-issued digital, Always a Hit Records)

"R.I.P Mr. Colin Jones of Shortstack and Sides," read a recent Facebook post authored by Rumble Road Records. "I'll listen to you sing and slap that bass and think about you while you're on your journey beyond us here, show em how to Rock'n'Roll."

Colin and combo consistently rolled halcyon bop that favored the country lineage with which it was thoroughly comfortable. It never affronted nor challenged, just eased down the lane. One gladly welcomed refuge from everyday life severities.

Recommended from all three: "Hobo Blues," "Love at First Sight," "Planet Bop," "So Lonesome," "Broken Heart," "Hey Little Diddle," "Shadow and Me"

Videos: "Love at First Sight"   "Planet Bop"   "Shadow and Me"

Facebook (inactive since 2024)

Bandcamp (Long Time Coming and Planet Bop)

Bandcamp (In Person)

J.C. Thomaz and the Missing Slippers

s/t

(Slovenly Recordings)

I know it'll be hard to believe, but I'm 96% positive I encountered these happily delirious stimulatons in a forbidden-substance 1978 hallucinogenic episode: Maila Nurmi was at the frying pan, Jimmy Carter was passed out on a bean-bag chair, and a composite party band including day-glo flamboyances from the Dolls, 13th Floor Elevators, Cramps -- and innumerable, determinedly insurgent 1967 middle-class neighborhood Garage bands no one ever heard of -- was swinging ga-ga chops omnidirectionally. Pheromones were running down paneled walls.

You hadda be there.

(When the guys with butterfly nets run bed check and discover this latex/fishnets menagerie absent, they're gonna be out looking.)

Recommended: "Cheat R Bad," "She's a Wave," "Kelly Lynn," "Over Me," "Unchained Insanity," "Walk the Streets," "Shit on the Street"

Videos: "Cheat R Bad"  "She's a Wave"   "Kelly Lynn" (live)   "Isadore's Peace of Mind" (live)

Facebook

Slovenly

Bandcamp

Midheaven Mailorder

Strange World Records

Antone's Record Shop

Tower Records

Amazon

The Big Black Bugs

The brass-knuckled roundhouse thrown is precisely what can be expected from ex-members of the Spastiks: Headlong. Resolute. Airtight. (Bass-wrestler Jorg also slaps for the Grims.)

Video: "Spider Baby" (live 1:00 excerpt)

Facebook

Monte Warden and the Wagoneers

On his Facebook page, Monte noted "Doghouse Flowers" had already enjoyed 11 weeks on the Americana Music Association's charts. The jump-up-and-holler air these Texas Hall of Famers kick out is deftly offset by melancholic "Yesterday Stopped By." Monte and Wagoneers have trod the Opry stage 15 times previously, and are set to galvanize future diehards there.

Videos: "Doghouse Flowers"   "Yesterday Stopped By"

Facebook

Instagram

Opry.com

Hope that the Afterdarks will again stalk                                        

Descending crumbling gray stairs, taking care not to stumble, you uncover a cobwebbed receptacle. Once the lid is cracked, ethereal spirits billow out and vanish into upper darkness. Recordings stacked within are robust and rough; atop their storminess ride declarations of vitriol and raw passion.

"The Afterdarks use vintage tone and Punk pace to drive a doom laden soundtrack to the end of the world," once explained the group's Facebook bio.

"As brashly demonstrative as linear and economical," was my appraisal of the Afterdark's 2011 The End is Nigh. 

"Fury and propulsive attitude enjoy confident employ," I continued. "They are of broader visceral effectiveness for their counsel. Beer-spattered danger-kicks smack dab in up-all-night, shouted Punk furor."

Some time prior to penning those phrases, I was among chain-swinging attendees at Iowa's annual Vintage Torque festival. (Wayne 'The Train' Hancock and Brains! Brains! Brains! were also afoot.) The Afterdarks hurled wicked bombardments of Psychobilly ammo at rowdy fans who'd stormed the stagefront and remained focused on every technicolor antic.

Every mili-cube of atmosphere burst wide with perilous, dropkick chording that ricocheted between noggins hirsute, razor-cut, and pinheaded. As the festival stage went up in conflagratory shambolism and Afterdarks' macabre minstrels did kamikaze PsychoPunk dances of Other Side authorship, strained-throat urgings rained from the goaded-into-pandemonium crowd.

At one point, band members passed a goodly vessel -- within which slopped who knew what mixture of intoxicants -- each gulping greedily before resuming slamming out partytime broadsides.

Today.sadly, such reflections are all that's available. Because a May 20, 2024 Facebook post disclosed unfortunate truths: 

"Hey guys Ol' Papa D [Darkness] here, otherwise known as Joe Robertson. All the guys have appreciated your support in the past two years. I know that for all of us, you all mean a lot. We have a few last dates promised, and the new release promised. The turnouts to our shows just ain’t what they used to be. Maybe the scene has changed. As far as I’m concerned, we will keep our obligations and release the last album. But (and I can only speak for myself), I’m done. Thank you for all these wonderful years. I appreciate every one of you."

You climb the crumbling cement steps, tectonic recordings in hand, hoping that live tapes exist and will one day enjoy issuance.

Videos: "Hotroddin' Gravediggin' Man"   "No Cops No Stops"   "King of the Sinners"   "The End is Nigh"

Discography: Blood, Sweat, and Gears (2009), Music for Things That Go Bump in the Night (2010), The End is Nigh (2011), Rock'n'Roll is Dead (2016)