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Prior to The Lowdown,
Roger Wallace had
already built himself a hefty reputation to live up to. His first two
releases, Hillbilly Heights and That Kind of Lonely, were
solid hardcore country releases of the memorable kind.
Roger's debut on his new label, Lone
Star Records, carries on the tradition he's set of delivering no nonsense,
real country music. Although the label change itself doesn't seem to have
been traumatic, the move did allow for the involvement of Derek O'Brien
as co-producer.
"I’ve
known Derek a few years, just as an acquaintance. I’ve been a huge fan of
his for ten years at least. He was the guy who produced almost all of
Antone’s records that I was playing, that I was liking. When I came here,
I was going to see him on Monday night’s at Antone's. It was really an
honor and a privilege and a lot of fun to get to work with Derek."
Derek's contribution to the project is a solid one.
Helping to take an eclectic sampling of musical styles and molding them
into an artistically rock-solid album, while creatively packing in a few
left hooks is no easy task. "I think he helped fuse all those things
together sonically on a record.
He and Stuart
Sullivan (our engineer) were able to take all those things and make all
those songs sound like one record."
Backed by a stellar group of players,
the album takes the listener on the twists and turns of a well traveled
road, while hugging the centre line, never once hitting the shoulder with
a careful balance of outstanding original songs and familiar, sometimes
surprising covers.
The title track, The Lowdown,
is the first out of the gate; an unadulterated
lovin' and hurtin' honky-tonker
that Roger wrote while touring in Europe, that powerfully showcases his
knack for writing a great country song along with his remarkable
vocal phrasing.
Austin songwriter Teri Joyce
contributed the first single of the album: Blow Wind, Blow, a catchy
roadhouser steeped with plenty of fiddle, guaranteed to fill a jukebox
with quarters or a dance floor with people. The duet with the definitive
Toni Price was a song Roger happened to accidentally stumble on after
asking Teri to write him "a
straight ahead, fast ball down the middle shuffle" for the album.
"She called me up a few days
later and said I think I got something down, come on over to the trailer
and let me play something for you. She played the shuffle for me and I
said ‘That’s really cool.’ She said ‘Hold on to that, I want to play some
more songs for you.’ She played three or four other ones for me and Blow,
Wind, Blow was one of them." he continues. "She kind of went through half
of it. She said ‘I think it kind of goes like this.’ She kind of
remembered the chorus of it and another verse. I was listening to the tape
at home, hanging around and I got another taste of that song and I thought
‘Oh man! That’s a great song. It was probably one of my favorite ones of
the batch."
"We
started putting it
together, getting a feel for it and I thought this song needs some harmony
on it. I was sitting around thinking Toni Price would sound perfect on
this song and instead of a harmony thing it actually became a duet. which
was a total thrill because I’ve been a fan of Toni’s for a long time. I’ve
been listening to Toni ever since her first record had come out. That
record, in particular and Toni’s voice to me personally, and to a lot of
people around here, really help define Austin and a lot of what Austin is
all about. Getting to sing with her, having her voice on a record of mine
was definitely a thrill for me."
Incorporated from his live show to the project, the song
was one of Roger's personal favorites by the legendary songwriter, Harlan
Howard. The
true test of a great country song is it's impact despite the era in which
its played. Roger proves Harlan Howard's music timeless with the crowd
pleasing 'Catch You When You Fall.'
"He’s up there with the Top 10 songwriter’s of all time including Cole
Porter, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Willie, Kris Kristofferson and Roger
Miller. He’s one of the greatest songwriter’s that ever lived and had a
huge impact on country music and popular music. He had a lot more impact
than people know." Roger reflects "There’s not a thing that’s old or retro
about it at all. It’s just good songwriting, and if he lived to be 200
he’d make hit records til he was 200."
The album continues to coast from one
pinnacle to another. Other
memorable highlights include the "western swing epic" Me and Abalina Jane,
a song Roger wrote when he was seventeen, a tune that could easily stand
toe to toe with Ray Benson's Hot Rod Lincoln; So Long (Be Gone) ("a
lowdown blues shuffle" that Roger claims "has Derek O'Brien written all
over it) and the blistering instrumental "Stranger Pickin penned by Dave
Biller.
Just when you're all fired up from
those
the album shifts effortlessly to
such unexpected covers as Mel Torme's jazzy 'A Heavenly Thing' or the
Hammerstein penned 'Rose Marie.'
Now that the record's done is he pleased? "Yeah
definitely. I keep telling everybody ‘Well I don’t hate it yet" he laughs.
"You make a record and listen to it and listen to it to death and
sometimes you can just go ‘God I’m sick of this stupid thing’. It doesn’t
make the record any less, you just get tired of listening to it, I’m not
tired of listening to it yet, I get a song in my head and pop it in and
listen to it. I still like it."
It's obvious Roger Wallace
understands what country music fans have been looking for and believes in
delivering it.
"The people that listen to nothing but
country radio their entire lives, no matter what it’s on it, those are the
real hardcore country fans. Even though they may be listening to whatever
crap Nashville’s putting out. They just don’t know how many bands that are
out there that are playing real country music. That are playing
good country music, that’s not retro, but just straight ahead, real
good country with a lot of twinges to it, with good production, good
talent, and good playing."
Sounds like Roger just described his
latest album.
Laurie Joulie Take Country Back May 2002 |
