FROM IOWA TO TEXAS

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer

   I’ve written here more than once about Slewfoot Records out of Missouri as demonstrating the right way to start up a small label. As it so happens, there’s another Midwest company following a similar template: Trailer Records out of Iowa.
   Their biggest star is Bo Ramsey, Lucinda Williams’ longtime guitarist, whose solo albums practically define cool. (I’ll soon review his re-issued live album which is terrific.) David Zollo, a keyboard player-songwriter who’s the label’s co-founder with Ramsay, is soon to release his second album. And out now is Regulars, the latest effort by the alt-country Brother Trucker.
   This unpretentious, easy-going CD reminded me of an album I reviewed last year by Eric Straumanis called Thunder and the Plains. This is in part because both recordings share a Bruce Springsteen-Steve Earle-Tom Petty point of view but it’s also due to the fact that they’re both on Trailer Records. The opening Brother Trucker track, “Bought & Sold,” has a very nifty verse: “Empty cans and Winston butts lay crushed around the car/As they left for the 7-11/Two burritos and a six pack and it’s back in the car/As they try to chase down 1987.” This is a perfectly described moment of trying to recapture one’s youth. It’s also one hell of a rocker that rolled over me like a wave I had no business trying to surf. “Knockin’ Em Down” is a swoony I’m-drinking-cause-she’s-no-longer-thinking-about-me song. Finally, “Dottie’s All Night Diner” is a tribute to a favorite dive café which claims “they got a forty cent coffee put a dance in your leg.” Come to think of it, a dance in your leg is exactly what Brother Trucker provides with their brand of small town stories set to a big town beat.
   Trailer Records just signed a distribution deal with New York’s Rubric Records that’s affiliated with The Knitting Factory. So, it would appear these Midwest boys are going places.
   One of the late Doug Sahm’s most famous songs was “Anybody Goin’ To San Antone.” Well, Lucky 13 are a bunch of players who settled in that Texas town and have been playing roadhouse, horn-driven blues for ages. (Many of them gigged with Sahm at various times.) On their debut CD, Lucky Club Music, “Halloween Blues” has such a smoky feel that it could make you start buying cigarettes again. To prevent this, slap a nicotine patch on before you put this track on. Lead singer Lucky Tomblin’s vocal on the easygoing “Survivor’s Song” sounds like Bob Dylan taking a stab at country reggae. For pure funk, look no further than the instrumental “Funky Butt” which will force you onto the nearest dance floor.
   Miles Of Music has Regulars for $13.00 and you can get Lucky Club Music for $15.00 at www.texasmusicroundup.com.
   *Blues gal Candye Kane will be right here in Santa Monica at Harvelles on January 31st. Attendance is mandatory and roll will be called. On that same night, Hollywood hoodoo hipster Chuck E. Weiss is having a record release party at The Viper Room. It’s open to the public, so you have no excuse not to attend. In case you missed my recent review of Mr. Weiss’ new CD, Old Souls & Wolf Tickets, I liked it more than Geraldo likes being in Afghanistan.
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … The Incontinentals.