|
|
||
Extra Andrea
Nemerson's Norman
Solomon's nessie's Tom
Tomorrow's
PG&E and the California energy crisis Arts and Entertainment Electric
Habitat Tiger
on beat Frequencies
Culture Techsploitation
Without
Reservations Cheap
Eats
|
|||
    |
|||
 |
PERSONALS | MOVIE CLOCK | REP CLOCK | SEARCH
Second Time Around Don WalserDare to Dream: The Best of Don Walser (Lone Star) The highlight here is "Truck Drivin' Man," which features this great big White Freightliner of a Texan singing and yodeling in a way a person doesn't hear much anymore. Actually, to be honest -- and why not be honest, right? – he does it like I never heard, because in Babylon, Long Island, where I grew up, a fellow didn't hear much country music. In fact, I never heard any country music at all, not one note of it, until I moved to Berkeley and heard Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen doing that same "Truck Drivin' Man" song. And George "Cody" Frayne was from the Babylon area himself. But that's another story. So what do I really know? Well, not much, which is where Don Walser fits into the no-yodeling, no-pedal steel world we live in. He might be a real, live Austin, Texas, original and maybe down there music fans hear yodeling and such all the time, but most people only hear it at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, where we get the chance to hear Walser play live. Maybe he's the real deal – word is he's been doing the same act for some 50 years – maybe he's just what the rest of us need him to be. In any case, he's a good singer who surrounds himself with solid musicians, and on this compilation he cuts loose on tunes like his own "John Deere Tractor Song" and "Rolling Stone from Texas," and covers like Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Shotgun Boogie," Don Gibson's "Legend in My Time," and Hoyle Nix's "Big Ball's in Cowtown." This is a great album, and like I said, Walser isn't only the best yodeler I've ever heard, he's also the only yodeler I've ever heard. (J.H. Tompkins) |
||
