Your mother knows best...

Girls Guns & Glory - Pretty Little Wrecking Ball

Of all the little details that make up the band Girls Guns & Glory, the one I like best is that drummer Johnny Surprises’ mom made him take percussion lessons from Tito Puente.

It’s like I’ve always told my boys, “Listen to your mother. Sometimes she knows what she’s talking about.”

So listen up.

While a band from Boston evokes images of a certain blue-state philosophy, these guys seem more like they should be jumping around a stage in some red-state backwater where the politics are insane, but the music is terrific.

GGG offers no oh-so-earnest Shawn Colvin-inspired acoustic strumming or tediously crunchy metaphors of flowers and sunshine. The sound is straight-up traditional country and early rock-and-roll with honky-tonk piano and tight Tex-Mex rhythms. And yet, their music, particularly their latest CD Pretty Little Wrecking Ball, remains easily accessible. There is nothing here that is offensive or even particularly thought-provoking. They have the spirit of a bar band, in only the best sense. And you gotta wonder: Why isn’t this considered to be mainstream commercial country? And then, you remember. Mainstream country must suck. In a fair world, Kenny Chesney and Brooks & Dunn wouldn’t be able to score a gig at a used-car lot grand opening. There is no justice.

Pretty Little Wrecking Ball is filled with catchy songs, but sometimes slightly twisted lyrics. I can’t tell if Soft Raccoon is a tender but playful ballad about a child’s lost stuffed animal, or the threatening and obsessive rant of a stalker.

And Tennessee Rose is something of an ironic reverse on the typical wayward country boy. Songwriter and lead singer Ward Hayden plays off the tale of a boy overcome by the spirit to wander and now sits alone, most likely in a cold northern city, pining for the bluegrass of his southern home. But instead of that story, Tennessee Rose is about a momma’s boy whose feet are firmly planted in a northern town and is too fearful to jump that train with the beckoning whistle. So he stays where he’s supposed to be, most likely with the reliable job, good health benefits and profitable 401k.

To Hell that train is bound
Hear that whistle blowin' as it rides this town into the ground
A train is not enough for me to turn my back and walk away,
You know I love my momma very much

Awww, see? The boy can’t leave because he loves his momma. I’m so definitely buying my sons this CD.

Anyway, I saw Girls Guns & Glory last fall at Dewey Beach’s annual Americana Festival. I just checked their tour schedule and these boys play pretty much close to home. So it gets me a little misty to know that they drove all the way down to the southern tip of Delaware and played such a terrific show for nothing more than beer money – and the mutual glowing appreciation that you get any time you get a bunch of drunken musicians together in a bar for three days.

Admittedly, I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details from the weekend – I remember something involving shots and banana crème - but here are my recollections on GGG: They were great. And while they played with lots of energy and polished enthusiasm, one never got the feeling that they took themselves too seriously – unlike the guy that took the stage after them and who, in my opinion, has been receiving far more attention than he deserves. Lead singer Hayden looks like Buddy Holly, trills like Dwight Yoakam, and owes inspiration to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and a great number of other country music singers who came along before country music sucked. I also remember thinking Hayden wore great shoes…and had nice lean hips.

The performance was mixed with their catchy originals and some great old standards. Near the end of the show, they played Folsom Prison. Now, there are a few songs that a band can play to make me love ‘em forever. Especially after a few drinks. Folsom Prison is one of those songs. So, admittedly, I’m biased here.

In addition to Hayden, and drummer Johnny Surprise, the band’s other members are: Bruce IV, on bass; Brendan Murphy, percussion; and Colt Thompson, lead guitar.

In December, Girls Guns & Glory signed a management deal with Perriello Productions. And in the Dec. 28th issue of The Boston Globe, Pretty Little Wrecking Ball was listed as one of the top 15 local releases of the year. So hopefully, they’ll be getting more attention in this year.

You can listen and buy 'Pretty little Wrecking Ball' here.

Kerfuffle Erupts at Carter Family Fold

UPDATE: The Bristol Herald Courier has a guest op-ed piece responding to Dale Jett's forced resignation from the Fold's board of directors. Jett doesn't have much to say about the details, but the writer makes it clear that Jett's loyalty to his family's heritage has never wavered: "I am first, a member of the Carter family."



According to an article in the Richmond Post-Dispatch, the Carter Family Fold board booted the grandson of Sara and A.P. Carter. Ron McConnell, a walking wealth of information on country music, alerted me to the story.

Apparently, the dispute is over a collection of audio recordings that Dale Jett, the country-music legends' grandson and a long-time member of the Carter Family Memorial Music Center's board of directors, gave to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


In December Jett was formally voted off the board. The article says:

At the heart of the dispute was an April 2007 agreement that Jett signed
with UNC. Under the deal, Jett sent about 4,000 audiocassettes containing 1,500
hours of live performances from the Carter Fold to the school's Southern
Folklife Collection, (board President Howard) Klein said.

"This began as a project to find the best way to preserve 30 years of tape
recordings from the Fold," Klein said. "I don't know when it changed into giving
the collection away. The board never knew about this."

Klein's account is disputed by Maxine Kenny, former project director for a
grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to preserve the Carter
Fold's audio archives. Kenny, who left the project in response to Jett's
departure, said in a written statement that the board was notified of the
agreement with UNC in April, the month it was signed.

The dear Janette Carter - Jett's late mother - created the fold in 1974 in tribute to her parents A.P. and Sara and her aunt "Mother Maybelle." The threesome's 1927 recordings made in Bristol, Tenn. - along with Jimmie Rodgers - are usually referred to as the "Big Bang" of country music.


For folks who haven't been to the Fold, it's an amazing experience, a place filled with music lovers of all ages and from all around the world. Tucked into a corner of Poor Valley, Va. at the foot of Clinch Mountain, the Fold is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of old-time country and folk music with performances every Saturday night. The music is all acoustic and in the history of the Fold, Miss Janette granted exceptions and permitted plug ins for only two performers: Johnny Cash and Marty Stuart.


While I have never met Jett, I can say his sister Rita Forrester is a lovely, lovely woman. Within minutes of meeting her, I felt as if we'd been friends forever. On one of my visits, she made it possible for me to spend a Sunday afternoon with her mother, not long before Miss Janette passed away. I sat with her in her tiny living room filled with porcelain angels as she talked about her life and the history of her family. It will remain forever one of my most treasured memories.


As Ron McConnell said in an e-mail, "Let's hope (the controversy) gets worked out." I agree. I hate to see such a wonderful place be disrupted by disharmony.


For more information on the Fold and its events, go here.