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October 23, 2000 |
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Waldschlager by Any Other Name or strange tales of Courtney, Dolly and Billy Buttermilk by Robert Logue
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Brian Waldschlager is a name you need to remember.
Nevermind that George W. Bush could never pronounce it, and forget any
ideas that he change it to "Puma" or "Wildcat" or
the like. ("It's been suggested before. I was Billy Buttermilk for
about a week," he says.) 'Waldschlager', I'm pretty sure, means
"hick who rocks", or something similar, in its native tongue
and that is not a bad thing. After all, rock and roll was created by
crazy hicks in the first place, no?
For the sake of context, maybe it would be apt to mention at the outset that Brian has shared a house with Courtney Love and sung duets with Dolly Parton. These unrelated incidents in his personal history serve as fitting bookends for a musician who, like many Southerners of his generation, grew up steeped in the musical heritage of his native region while simultaneously becoming addicted to the raucous sounds of rock and punk. All of this is apparent in his songwriting, singing and performance. A Knoxville native, his songs echo performers like Eddie Cochran, Tom Petty and Dave Edmunds, but they are distiguished by a voice that rings with the earnest beauty of a choirboy at one moment and the woozy menace of a drunk hillbilly at the next. His stage performance is equally all over the road. Live, he struts the stage like the bastard offspring of Mick Jagger and Minnie Pearl, a soulful troubador, rock and roll peacock, or tent revival preacher by turns. But at bottom, he is a solid songwriter, an eccentric traditionalist and an eloquent story-teller. If you want the inside skinny on Courtney Love, you'll have to corner Brian at one of his gigs and see if you can bribe him with beer. But if you want to hear his duet with Dolly Parton, all you need to do is grab Down There, his fine new record on the Disgraceland label. Much of the material was recorded while Brian was fronting the late, great Shinola (later known as Five Bucks) and features the immaculate playing of bandmates and longtime Nashville rock veterans Bob Ocker and Richie Owens, who produced the record. Brian, Bob and Richie all appeared on Dolly's 1998 record Hungry Again, and Ms. Parton returned the favor by contributing her trademark vocals to Brian's song 'Touch of a Dove'. This is a record that I have worn the grooves out of in recent weeks; many a night has found your faithful scribe warbling loudly and drunkenly along with my favorite cut, 'Red Clay and Limestone', or 'Rock and Roll Deli', which name-checks legendary 80's rock venues like Knoxville's Vic and Bill's, or Nashville's own Cantrell's. And that's not to mention the album's big finish, a rip-roaring take on Todd (Smokin' Dave) Steed's Knoxville classic You Must Be From Nashville. So you can take this as a personal recommendation that you log onto disgraceland.com to find out more about this east Tennessee rockabilly cat, and that you purchase his fine disc. And ok, since TAG readers want to know, I couldn't get away without asking Brian one more thing: Did Courtney kill Kurt? Brian's insider assessment? "I'm pretty sure she probably name-dropped him to death." Amen! |
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