If you follow the Americana music genre, in all its facets, it’s not long before you become a fan of one or more regional bands. It’s not that they don’t have fans around the country or internationally, but rather they’ve found a community, their community, that supports them financially and emotionally. Even without new music or viral TikTok clips they’ll fill 250-500 person clubs in a given town year after year. My observation is their repertoire of music tends to be more varied than average because their fans have been on the journey, too, and trust the band’s taste. All those things apply to Marley’s Ghost, a Pacific Northwest/Northern California band that as of March this year has been together 40 years. They’ve just put out their 13th album, Honky Tonk, a collection of their favorite old school country music tunes.
The record’s namesake is Honky Tonk Song, a Mel Tillis-penned, Webb Pierce hit that’s been a live favorite over the years. Speaking of Webb Pierce, he wrote Slowly, a number the band has been playing since their inception in ’86. It supposedly is the first country song recorded with a pedal steel guitar, so there’s your trivia for the day. Marley’s version of Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line is twangier than Waylon’s, but it’s still outlaw. Cowboy Jack Clement, who produced a couple of the band’s earlier albums, wrote Just Someone I Used To Know. It was a hit for Dolly & Porter, and here producer Larry Campbell’s better half, Teresa Williams, provides the female half of the lead vocals. You can’t have a project inspired by honky-tonks and country dance halls without a Hank song, and Rockin’ Chair Money ticks that box with one of his lesser known songs. Red Foley gets a couple of slots: the rockabilly Birmingham Bounce and the oh-so-cool, almost jazzy, Chet Atkins/Boudreaux Bryant-written Midnight.
Although the band has plenty of original compositions in their catalog, the 14 songs here are all covers. But that term doesn’t do them justice. What Marley’s Ghost has really done is make a mixtape of classic country music for themselves and their friends (aka fans). All the band members contributed song suggestions, and then they took them to Campbell, who has produced their last 3 records. Although he played guitar and fiddle on all the songs, there aren’t really any of the flashy solos he’s capable of. This is a band album focused on the songs and sound, just like the period most of the material comes from. So if you’re ready for a throwback to the early heyday of country music, I can’t think of a better sample than Honky Tonk.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.