I count myself a fan of Twangville as well as an occasional contributor. This is mainly because I often discover new music that I hadn’t heard before. But sometimes, Twangville reminds me of forgotten voices that I had embraced long ago.
When I was growing up in the Twin Cities, my older sister Peggy turned me onto a local radio station, KQRS, that was the epitome of Twangville long before the site was dreamed up by Mayer and Tom. KQ (until the late 70s when the station was sold to a corporate conglomerate that controlled all the content) had an open platform in which the DJs played the music they liked. There was classic rock like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, but I also got to know the likes of artists as diverse as John Prine, David Bromberg, John Hartford, Loudon Wainwright III, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Leo Kottke, John Lee Hooker, Weather Report, and even more obscure artists like Sammy Walker (another one I rediscovered when Mayer featured him on Monday Morning Videos) and Steve Tibbets (whose original label was literally called “Obscure Records”). I spent countless hours listening to KQ’s unique programming, which included the nationally syndicated “King Biscuit Flour Hour” and also it’s own “Windowpane Acitate Hour,” in which they played a new album release straight through (with me, of course, taping it all).
One of the artists I came to know from KQ was James Talley, whose quiet Nashville career included great Americana albums long before anybody was calling this music “Americana.” I picked up his 1977 album, Blackjack Choir, which had so many great songs (if you listen to “Alabama Summertime” in the morning, it’ll stay with you the whole day). I couldn’t talk about James Talley with any of my friends, though, because none of them had ever heard of him. Yet, Blackjack Choir remains a prized possession in my archived collection.
Then last week, James Talley resurfaced on Twangville, where, for a moment, his new album, Bandits, Ballads and Blues, initially led the Reader’s Poll for release of the week (he lost). Talley, who grew up in Oklahoma, Washington State and New Mexico, has been a Nashville fixture for many years. An artist’s artist, Talley has penned songs for many others while releasing his own music intermittently.
So, I picked up the new album and it’s great! It’s a full on shot of Woody Guthrie (whose music Talley honored in his Woody Guthrie and Songs of my Oklahoma Home, released in 2000, which is said to be the only album on which Talley covered another’s songs), with a Townes Van Zandt chaser. The feel of the entire album is intimate and unvarnished. Among the best of these great songs are the earnest “Jesus Wasn’t a Capitalist,” “Those Who Can’t” for those impacted by the War in Vietnam, the touching “In the Stars,” and the captivating “Christmas on the Rio Grande.” Check it out.
In the meantime, check out some concert footage below.
About the author: Bill Wilcox is a roots music enthusiast recently relocated from the Washington, DC area to Philadelphia, PA and back again.