Looking at the current state of the Nashvegas mainstream, you've got to wonder how T. Graham Brown ever slipped through all the filters and energy shields and the fashion police and the dumb-it-down cultural gatekeepers to arrive smack in the middle of the country charts with some of the biggest sellers of the '80's. T. Graham's act is no more "country" than Kinky Friedman's or Delbert McClinton's or Tom Jones's are. Somebody was definitely asleep at the polygraph when they swore T. Graham into the Country Music Mainstream, 'cause he fooled them. Badly. Toby Keith and Bryan White and Clint Black ought to fire the whole Nashville Border Patrol for letting an illegal alien like Brown slip into Music Row without a cowboy hat and a tight pair of starched jeans.

It only takes one listen to "T. Graham Brown Lives!" to know that Brown is a combination blue-eyed soul singer, blues shouter, Engelbert Humperdink Vegas supper club pop crooner and mean roadhouse Southern rocker who is savvy enough to balance his shows with just enough heartthrob balladry to make sure he doesn't have to invalidate his Nashville passport ­ even if it may be a counterfeit anyway. Brown is country, but he is no more a country singer than Ray Charles is. He's a consummate live showman and a flannel-voiced singer who can work in any genre that strikes his fancy, a singer who has more in common with Lou Rawls and Tony Joe White than with any of the current crop of falsely-sincere rhinestone video plowboys.

On his first release since 1998, "T. Graham Brown Lives!," Brown is backed up by an expert six-piece roadhouse ensemble called The Mighty Rack of Spam (the very name alone could cause severe psychological trauma to any mainstream Nashvegas executive) that can hang with anything the mainstream has to offer. Spam features two guitarists, Jeff Jordan and Rick Kurtz, Leo John Finn on keys, Ian Wallace on drums, co-producer Dwight McConnell on bass and a monster soul sax player named Jeffrey Scot Wills. Bekka Bramlett (daughter of Delaney and Bonnie) handles the back up singing as this band takes no prisoners as it ranges from smoldering ballads to the sounds of big time blues orchestras like B.B. King's or Bobby Bland's. They handle the ballads like a seasoned soul band and completely without saccharine, and on the roadhouse rockers they just simply torch the building and burn it to the ground.

Brown, who has been credited with helping to break the major label hold on Nashville by putting his 1998 independent release "Wine To Water" at the top of the country and gospel charts, has made another sound strategic and economic decision with "Lives!" by combining a live record with a greatest hits record. All of Brown's albums for Capitol recorded between 1984 and 1990 are now out of print and not available commercially, and the independent company that produced his 1998 comeback hit "Wine Into Water" went bankrupt. Brown fans will really love this record because it not only covers the hits from 'I Tell It Like It Used To Be' to 'Wine Into Water,' it delivers them with a new energy while remaining scrupulously faithful to the original sound.

Hearing the live version of Brown's monster hit "Darlene" ten years later, I'm amazed that this song could have gone to the top of the country charts. But 'Darlene' hit before the hat acts became the flavor of the day, Tony Brown took over as the ruler of Music Row and the cookie cutter machine went into high gear. Brown's smoking version of 'Hide and Seek' makes Nashville hits like Toby Keith's 'How Do You Like Me Now?" sound like a Betty Crocker box cake compared with Brown's performance, which is comparable to Grandma's made-from-scratch, four-layer, Double Dutch chocolate skyscraper with pecans on top. Brown's 'Memphis Women and Chicken' and 'Livin' On Love' are as low-down and roadhouse as music gets and would have been a perfect part of the soundtrack for the Patrick Swayze movie "Roadhouse." And Brown's soulful 'Good Days, Bad Days' is the absolute epitome of blue-eyed soul singing. Good old Georgia boy then and good old Georgia boy now, Brown ends the record by paying homage to Otis Redding by reviving Redding's biggest hit, 'Dock of the Bay.'

But don't think Brown can't handle material that fits smack in the heart of the country radio mainstream. His versions of 'Come As You Were' and 'Hell and High Water' only make it painfully obvious to anyone with their ears on what a woefully underpowered torch singer the likes of Kenny Rogers and some of the new crop of wannabes are up against a road-hardened, club-tested Southern soul singer like T. Graham Brown.

I'm still amazed that no one in the Nashville machine said, "Put a hat on this man and let's make some zillion sellers!" Yet Brown slipped virtually out of sight and out of mind from 1992-1998, completely vanishing from mainstream radio until the fabulously successful 'Wine Into Water' made the industry sit up and take notice again. But with the release of "Lives!", there is no doubt Brown is back now. Although as a result of remaining true to his style Brown may never have another mainstream country hit despite having one of the most genuine and soulful voices working the boards today, it is virtually certain that he will be in demand as a concert performer just as he has been throughout the period of his "disappearance." A performer and showman of Brown's stature and ability is not going to fade away in the public consciousness no matter what the fad of the moment may be. And with his cross-genre talents and penchant for soulful tunes, in the rapidly fluxing landscape of the music business Brown may position himself to become a Delbert McClinton-like fixture in the Americana charts rather than attempting a return to Country Top 40. "T. Graham Brown Lives!" clearly demonstrates Mr. Brown is about the music, not the fad, about the song, not the genre. Sounds like Americana to me.

* Here's another chance to thumb your nose at the Nashville establishment, folks, by clicking your way over to www.tgrahambrown.com and writing a check to T. Graham Brown for a copy of "T. Graham Brown Lives!" Every financial "vote" for guys like Brown is a vote against the cookie cutters.

Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook