Americana Music Reviews

 

The Weary Boys
The Weary Boys
Self-released

by Jud Block

When I think of down-home country and bluegrass music, California rarely, if ever, comes to mind. Oh, of course, there's Bakersfield with Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and, most recently, Dwight Yoakam, but that really had more to do with displaced Southerners. The "Bakersfield sound" is about as much the sole product of California as "Chicago blues" is of Illinois. But, as they say in real estate, location is everything, especially if you're dealing in serendipity. So when I read the biography accompanying the eponymous debut release of The Weary Boys, and it said they were a country band from Humboldt County, California, I found myself faced with a philosophical conundrum akin to being told about a reggae group out of Wisconsin. Can such a thing logically exist? Well, I don't know about dairyland dancehall, but as far as California country, The Weary Boys laid all my doubts to rest.

To be honest, The Weary Boys are not an unadulterated California band. The founding members Brian Salvi (fiddle), Darren Hoff (lead and tenor vocals, rhythm guitar), and Mario Matteoli (lead and tenor vocals, lead guitar) are from the aforementioned Humboldt County, but migrated to Austin, Texas, where they met Cade C. Callahan (snare drum and brushes) and Darren Sluyter (stand up bass) to round out the group. And to say that they are merely a country band is also a bit misleading because they actually have a high-energy style that mixes traditional country, bluegrass, rockabilly, and a little bit of the Texas Playboys with a facile authenticity. In fact, when I heard the opening track, a hillbilly take on a blues classic, Jimmy Reed's "Runnin' Hidin'," I had to wonder if my player hadn't somehow channeled the spirit of the Louisiana Hayride.

Four of the twelve tracks on the disc are original, with the other eight being covers of traditional tunes as well as songs written by such revered names as Monroe and Williams. But if you don't know any of the cover material or look to see who wrote which song, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the new ones and the old. That's not to say The Weary Boys are simply imitators, far from it. They play every song with an adrenaline rush abandon that owes as much to punk rock as the honky tonk. And a song like the Reverend Horton Heat gone acoustic, "Lose One More Baby," a tale about the toll jealousy has exacted in one man's relationships, will have most two-steppers reaching for an oxygen mask.

My friends all say they've seen you cheatin'
I ain't gonna stand for all your lies
And how I hate you for what you'll make me do
A girl who cheats on me is a girl who dies

If I lose one more baby
Forgive me, lord, what I'll do
If I lose one more baby
One more baby's gonna wind up cold and blue

On "Pick up the Steam," a song in the classic Hank Williams vein about a man who is riding the rails after having embraced the drifter's cynical way of life, the sound is so authentically traditional that you can almost picture The Weary Boys huddled center stage around one microphone way back in 1948 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Well, I've never owned no two-dollar bill
The only joy I've known is cheap ol' thrills
I never met no good-hearted man
In this life where you make the best you can

Pick up the steam, boys, pick up the steam
Keep this train a-rollin', boys, pick up the steam

"Can't Finger Me" is definitely more on the outlaw side of country. It's told from the perspective of a truck driver whose avocation just happens to be murdering female hitchhikers he picks up along the way. It has a great Waylon-esque lead guitar riff, and the narrator does warn young women to stay away from men like him, but, for some reason, I doubt it'll get the NOW seal of approval.

Well, the funniest thing that happened
They caught the wrong guy
I was listenin' to Bill Monroe
When I heard the radio
It sorta made me chuckle
And then something caught my eye
A little gal by the side of the road
With her thumb up in the sky
They found a femur by the creek
But they're still lookin' for me

I'm warnin' all you good gals
You best stay out of my way
'Cause I'll be ridin' these nation's highways
'Til the day I die
If they ever catch me, just wait and see
On your color TV

The final original song on The Weary Boys, "Struggle," addresses a favorite bluegrass/traditional country topic of a farmer's poverty, but tempers the bleakness with a gallows humor that goes a long way in conveying the exasperation of a person who's trying to reconcile what has happened to them with the spiritual beliefs that are supposed to protect against such things.

Well, the banker took my farm away
And I don't have no place to stay
And we don't have no food or hay
We're all gonna starve

It's a struggle (struggle each day)
To live this Christian life

Well, my preacher tells me it's all right
I got Jesus on my side
The Lord will always help us through
I wish he'd help us get some food

The Weary Boys are like a margarita of music. The numerous combinations that they embody -- California and Texas, traditional country and punk, rockabilly and bluegrass ­ may seem superficially incongruous; like tequila, salt, and lime when taken separately. But when mixed together, the result is refreshing and exhilarating.

*I hope you're not yawning because it's still early, and there's plenty of time to shuffle on over to www.thewearyboys.com for merchandise, a list of tour dates, and a biography of the weary ones.


Contact Jud Block at jud-at-rockzilla.net

 
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