Former Georgia Satellite Dan Baird and his band Homemade Sin release their new album Get Loud on September 25. As his gift, he passes along another fabulously greasy, gritty, Satellite-esque chunk of rock and roll. The title is essentially a command. This stuff sounds best cranked. “Fairground People” is a highlight. This is another good record, featuring an old recipe.
Baird has built a career out of one big hit (Keep You Hands’ to Yourself” ) and a couple smaller radio gems (“I Love You Period”, “Open All Night”). He’s had former/current Jason and the Scorchers guitarist Warner Hodges in tow for live gigs and albums for nearly ten years, and his Georgia Satellites drummer Mauro Magellan has stayed loyal to Baird, with him from the beginning of the solo career.
The new album is more of the loud Telecaster and pounding drums that Baird traffics with each record. And that’s as it should be – he does his part in keeping the smart, lyrical side of the Satellites alive, with throwbacks to The Faces, Stones, and Petty in his music.
Alas, the band spends most of its touring time in Europe, and US fans have to get by with a few of the bootleg-y live videos and scattered live albums between proper studio releases. So enjoy this blast of new, old rock and roll, best turned up loud, just like they tell you to.
Get Loud: SONGS
1. Get Loud, 2. Nothin’ Left To Lose, 3. Don’t Be Wastin’ My Time, 4. Thin Disguise, 5. A Few Of My Own, 6. County Black, 7. Fairground People, 8. Silver Little Lies, 9. A Little Bad Luck, 10. Get It Right, 11.Movin’ Right Along
Georgia Satellites
VIDEO: Truth and Salvage Co. in the studio
The coolest band in my world. I’ve heard some of the new records’ songs on a demo. Great hang backstage at the Avett Brothers show in Indy. Always good dudes. And they rock like I want a band to rock, with some country, some gospel and some Memphis soul.
Check out this video. Best part? As they are listening to Joe South’s original take on “Games People Play” – great tune.
I saw Mellencamp do a Joe South medley for his encore at Cobo Arena in Detroit during the Scarecrow tour. It killed. Georgia Satellites did decent cover on 1989’s Land of Salvation and Sin album.
Oh, and at the 1:55 mark, the camera goes 90 degrees sideways, and we hear people singing “for he’s a jolly good fellow” and see a dog barking. Surreal and kinda beautiful.
http://youtu.be/ejIS2bf0ETs
Joe South – legendary songwriter ("Games People Play", Rose Garden", "Walk a Mile in My Shoes") dies at 72
One of the great forgotten names in late 60’s rock/early 70’s country music songwriting – Joe South – died last week a age 72.
The records he made were oddly compelling, full of vocal echo, strings and reverb-drenched guitar – and the others too – sound. But his songwriting was killer. I love the Geaorgia Satellites version of “Games People Play”, John Mellencamp did a down-and-dirty Joe South set during his “Scarecrow” tour encore when I saw him at Detroit’s Cobo Arena in 1985, and South freakin’ wrote “Rose Garden” for Lynn Anderson, a #1 for 16 (!) weeks.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/JpPpCubCKig?t=3m]
from wikipedia: South was also a prominent sideman, playing guitar on Aretha Franklin‘s “Chain of Fools”,[1] Tommy Roe‘s “Sheila”, and Bob Dylan‘s Blonde on Blonde album…1969’s pungent, no-nonsense “Games People Play” wasva hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Accompanied by a lush string sound, an organ, and brass, the production won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. He wrote the back-to-nature “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home” (also covered eight months later by Brook Benton With The Dixie Flyers) and the socially provocative “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” (also covered by Elvis Presley in a Las-Vegas era version.
Artists who had pop hits with South compositions include Billy Joe Royal’s songs “Down in the Boondocks“, “I Knew You When”, “Yo-Yo” (later a hit for the Osmonds), and “Hush” (later a hit for Deep Purple.
VIDEO: Dan Baird and Homemade Sin
Fomer Georgia Satellite and longtime member of the turn-it-up-loud Fender Telecaster thinktank, Dan Baird just don’t care what you think. Here’s a video shot close to the stage, with pretty great sound, as his band rocked a bar in Leicester, England earlier this month. Video notable for it’s sweatiness, disdain for subtlety, and general rock and roll bad-ass-ness – Doing Elvis and one of his own songs. Brilliantly rough.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tYp1wLtX1c]
Santacular Christmas Song Countdown – #16 – Rusty Bladen
You will notice, if you are a longtime reader, I throw in a fair amount of unsubstantiated opinion on my way to passing along facts. In reality, if you have read the blog posts over the past year, you already know – via these little nuggets of insight that roll out of my brain, into my fingers and onto the computer – what I like. And trust me, this has everything to do with the song at #16.
If you listed the six (I needed six – five wasn’t enough) musical sounds/songs/albums/artists that are the influences behind this here Rockforward site, it would read like this:
1. The trio of Mellencamp albums in the mid 80’s – “Uh-Huh”, “Scarecrow” and “The Lonseome Jubilee”. Anyone who is 35+ that likes the music we do should recognize how much these albums – especially “Scarecrow” – influenced tons of Americana and roots-rock bands and fans.
2. Tom Petty. Anything Tom Petty.
3. Those late 80’s bands that came on the heels of Petty and Mellencamp (including Gear Daddies, Uncle Tupelo, BoDeans, Del Fuegos, Georgia Satellites, Jason & The Scorchers, Lone Justice, and regional/Indiana artists like Larry Crane, Duke Tomatoe, The Hammerheads, and Henry Lee Summer. That is some and there are more ) Alt-country before they called it that. Heartland rock at the time.
4. Springsteen – for the majesty of the rock and roll, the brilliance of the lyrics, and the passion of the live show. And for the lineage to bar band rock and R&B (like the outstanding J. Geils Band)
5. Power Pop. I think Cheap Trick is woefully underappreciated. Rick Springfield’s “Working Class Dog ” album should be considered great power pop/rock. The Cars debut album is one of the best records in the rock music era. Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend ” record was killer. I saw the Romantics live at a bar in 1989 and they were loud, into the performance, and rocked hard, fast and righteously.
6. The current crop of bands that carry on the sounds: Bottle Rockets, Todd Snider, James McMurtry, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Will Hoge among many more…
So that’s where I come from. And it leads to #16 on our countdown of 20 Christmas roots-rock songs. Indiana’s Rusty Bladen has been working for the past 20 years in the bars, clubs and parties throughout the state. I’ve known him that long, first meeting him when I was a radio jock down at WORX in Madison, Indiana – I was just out of college and had a Sunday night radio show and eventually did mornings for a couple years. He was just starting his solo career after a few years in cover bands. He now plays mainly solo live shows that are always high energy. His sound hits all of the influences I already cited. His writing is blue collar.
About a year ago, he released “Feels Like Christmas”, a holiday album of 11 classic Christmas songs and one original – the title cut. That’s the one we have here. Mellencamp drummer Dane Clark produced the effort, and made it all sound really good. A great country rock/heartland/Americana record. The record is simply my favorite Christmas album of all time. Overstatement? Nah. Listen to the album.
Here’s the song, with it’s fun, quaint, and homegrown video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2BFQCKHAdE]