FREDDIE STEADY'S WILD COUNTRY: Lucky 7
Wild country is just that. Country through and through yet,well,wild. The sounds of hot,sweaty Gulf Coast Texas,from bar rooms to bayous,city streets to back porches,yet all filtered through the iconoclastic talent of Freddie Steady Krc.
When this mighty album was recorded in the mid-80s Freddie had already put behind him spells with New Wave almost-made-its the Explosives and Texan psychedelic guru Roky Erickson. Then he fled to England,assembled some of the nation's finest crossover musicians(devoted to country when not playing alongside the likes of John Cale,Bill Wyman,Bob Geldof and others)and made Lucky 7,aided by the engineer from the Sex Pistols' bombastic sessions.
The result is,quite simply,stunning. Alt-country before anyone knew what that was(if,indeed,they do now). Country as rock'n'roll,rock'n'roll as country. A handful of well-chosen covers and a welter of Freddie originals,hummable,danceable classics from a time before he became a known Texan singer-songwriter with the thundering twang of his now band,the Shakin' Apostles.
Listen to one of the most beautiful pure country songs you're ever likely to come across,(I Hear)Neon Angels Sing. The instrumental crash of Ride Through Wild Country(led by the album's producer,Brit guitar genius Wes McGhee). The divine High Lonesome Country Soul (and real country soul it is,too). And then a host of out-and-out rockers,all pedal steel and fiddle and squeezebox and killer guitar.
It's an album that's as new and exciting today as it was then. And with the added bonus of four extra tracks featuring Austin's high church of wayward country geniuses...Butch Hancock,Jimmie Dale Gilmore,pianist Floyd Domino,fiddler Alvin Crow and more.
If you're not sweating and grinning by the end,it really is time to worry.
Nick Dalton MAVERICK MAGAZINE (UK)
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.nonerds.com/krc
Track List:
1. Say You'll Go
2. What I Got
3. Night Time
4. Love You Tonight
5. High Lonesome, Country Soul
6. I Like Whiskey
7. (I Hear) Neon Angels Sing
8. You Can't Judge A Book
9. I've Been Framed
10. Ride Through Wild Country
11. For A While
12. Bar Room Balladeer
13. Blue Blue Day
14. Loser's Gumbo
Suggested CDs:Other Genres: