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THE HIGHWAYMEN LIVE TEXAS RADIO
3rd Coast Records 00
- Thom Jurek
The Highwaymen are better known to most Americana fans as Austin's
late, great Loose Diamonds, that awesome, almost mythological rock band
that, like their homeboys the True Believers, almost cracked it. Before
the name change, the Highwaymen were a badass rock band tearing up
Austin after relocating from Ohio. This CD is mostly a recording of a
performance that took place on radio station KUT-FM's weekly "Live Set"
program. This disc---once a cassette on Jungle Records that has long
since vanished into the murky night of collector's hell - is woolly and
powerful. It's so raw and possessed. It's haunted by the mysterious
American rock and roll cipher that writes its names on the airwaves,
careens through the satellite sky and disappears into the heart of memory, only to leave the trace and impetus of transformation
on both performers and listeners. That this gig could be remembered by
so many, not only in Austin, but throughout the Midwest and Southwest,
is a testament to its mythological presence. Over a decade later, the
document of that gig is no less raucous, no less messy or full of its
own naive vision than it was when broadcast to the astonished thousands
on KUT. Troy Campbell's songwriting and forceful frontman presence,
innocent as the open sky and mischievous as a winking Buddha, is as
renegade and romantic as an entire herd of Great Plains buffalo being
herded by a ‘65 Thunderbird. And Scrappy Jud Newcomb's deliciously
knotty, switchblade guitar wrangling keeps him company, insisting that
Campbell sing every word true and play his rhythm guitar from the
pocket. Tracks like "725" come blasting out of the gate with a fiery
idealism that's tempered only by the desire to play faster, louder and
brighter than anybody ever has before. On "Side of the Road" and "Wearin'
Away", rock and roll punches country into overdrive, carrying Campbell's
wise-beyond-his-years lyrics behind the whine of Champ Hood's
electrified fiddle, Mike Campbell's down-low bass and Mark Patterson's
only what's true to the music-drumming. On the cover of Jo Carol
Pierce's classic "Buttons Of Your Skin," Campbell caresses that lyric as
if it were the last country ballad. Newcomb shores him up, carries him
out onto the ledge of pure, jagged emotion and lets him dig deep into
the shadows of the lyric's brokenness and acceptance and paints him a
way home note by ragged note. The CD version of Live Texas Radio
contains five bonus tracks to make it an absolutely indispensable
addition to any country rock library. (Forget alterna-country-twang,
whatever; these cats thought they were Hank Williams lost ghost band-and
they may have been right). There's a burnin' tear down of Bob Dylan's
"Highway 61", four other studio recordings (including the original
version of Wearin' Away") from the Highwaymen's debut recording dates in
1987 and ‘88. From smoky corridors of myth and memory to digital
reality, Live Texas Radio is a dream come true.
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