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No Depression March/April 2002
Troy Campbell
American Breakdown (M-Ray)
It’s been five years since the Loose Diamonds - Austin’s genuine link
between it’s heady, 1980s indie/roots-rock days (think True Believers)
and its contemporary status as alt-country haven - decided to suspend
their career. Since then, guitarist Scrappy Jud Newcomb has proved to be
a jack-of-all-trades on the Austin scene, collaborating with countless
artists onstage and in the studio. The other Diamond principal, Troy
Campbell, has trod a quieter path; but his second solo outing,
American Breakdown, is likely to change that.
Where Campbell’s 1999 solo debut, Man vs. Beast, was a mostly
muted, impressionistic affair, prone to sonic experimentation that
showed only flashes of Campbell’s true strengths, American Breakdown,
finds him returning to the peak of his singing and songwriting powers
for the first time since the Diamonds’ 1993 album Burning Daylight.
Campbell and ace producer Gurf Morlix have fashioned a cool, brooding
sound; the shadowy noir of the title track demonstrates how perfect
Morlix’s velvety production is for Campbell’s dusky, haunted voice.
Themes of disconnectedness and the transitory nature of life run through
the songs, particularly the Twilight Zone-ish title cut. The album
culminates in a guitar-driven tour de force, ‘Home After Dark’, an
ominous edgy narrative about a love affair gone terribly awry (written
by Dan Stuart and resurrected from his Can O’ Worms album).
These sinister-sounding tracks are balanced by several strikingly
intimate, open-hearted ballads. The gorgeous ‘World Of Tears’, an
existential treatise, features Campbell’s most delicate, aching vocal.
‘Sleepin’ Without You’, is even better, a glistening, moonlit love song
evocative of Roy Orbison at his most sublime. And then there’s the
irresistible yet fatalistic mountain jig ‘Rosabelle’, a song rooted in
the coal mines of Campbell’s Appalachian roots.
-Luke Torn
No Depression October 2001
The Highwaymen
Live Texas Radio (3rd Coast)
One of the quirkier aspects of the Austin music scene circa 1990 - and
likely in other towns as well, to a certain extent - was the quality of
music being released only on cassette. Compact discs were not yet
ubiquitous, while vinyl was being phased out. In Austin, an
artistic oasis known for slackerly independence and shoestring budgets,
the result was that some of the best music being made was limited to
tapes.
Some of these, such as David Halley's Stray Dog Talk, eventually got
pressed onto CD. Others remain resigned to obscurity, most notably
a series of remarkable rootsy-pop efforts by Grains Of Faith. And
a few have lately been rescued from the scrap heap - the latest being
the Highwaymen's Live Texas Radio.
Captured in 1990 on the exemplary KUT-FM program "LiveSet," this
recording documented the local blossoming of a band that had relocated
from Ohio a couple of years earlier, largely because they wanted to
live in the same town as the True Believers. Indeed, frontman Troy
Campbell and lead guitarist Scrappy Jud Newcomb had a yin-yang fire that
recalled the True Believers' Alejandro Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham,
though they ultimately forged their own distinct musical identity on
three subsequent discs under the name Loose Diamonds.
Live Texas Radio, expanded to fifteen cuts from the original nine on the
cassette version, displays their rawer side well, and, perhaps most
importantly, features three remarkable originals that remain among the
best in Campbell's catalog: the restless rocker "Side of the Road"
(sparked by a classic Newcomb riff), the unapologetically anthemic "All
I Know," and the gorgeous waltz "Kentucky Eyes." Also of note is
Jo Carol Pierce's "Buttons of Your Skin," evidence of Campbell's keen
eye for a special songwriter (he would later co-produce a tribute album
to Pierce). Among the added tracks is the band's blistering
rendition of Dylan's "Highway 61."
-PETER BLACKSTOCK
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