The Tequila Cowboys are the kind of band Houston loves to love. They could give a damn about polish and flash and all the accouterments of showbiz. They just come to play. And maybe to drink. But mostly just to play.

The story goes that singer Ray Cashman and guitarist Pat Neifert used to meet regularly and play together in the park, even playing occasionally for spare change in front of various establishments on Main Street downtown. An audience of winos and street people would often gather at the appointed hour (that being any hour Ray and Pat showed up and unpacked their guitars), pass a bottle amongst themselves and listen and critique and applaud. Or offer suggestions for improvement. One day, a regular named Red Johnson said they ought to call themselves the Tequila Cowboys, men who liked to ride the bottle. The name seemed cool and Cashman and Neifert adopted it.

After a while in the park and at all the open mike nights that would let them get up and play, they had come up with a handful of original songs and decided that they needed a band to get anywhere. They eventually hooked up with journeyman musician and multi-instrumentalist Mark Zeus, who had recently come down from Chicago. More recently they have added Mark Sellers on bass, and Venezuelan Manuel Perez on drums. After months of hitting all the open mike nights and eventually earning their way into a few opening gigs around town, they found a home and a supporter in long-time Houston music aficionado Angela Mullan Jenkins of The Ale House, one of the hippest and most revered music emporiums in Houston. With The Ale House as a home base and semi-regular gigs leading the Wednesday night open mike sessions at Blanco's, a following quickly developed and other venues began to call, in particular the Continental Club. And then the press began to sniff around. Suddenly what had begun on a park bench had a buzz.

The Cowboys recently released their first album and, while it's no masterpiece by Nashville standards, it reflects what Houston has come to love and respect about the Tequila Cowboys: it's them. Made on a tight budget in only 13 days in a garage apartment studio that had so little electrical capacity the airconditioning had to be shut down while they were recording (no wonder the studio is dubbed The Hot Box), there are no big production numbers, no hired guns to add flash and marketing appeal, no cynical big-shot cameos aimed at someone else's fans and market. No processors or synthesizers or studio tricks. No lipstick, powder and paint. No, Broken Glass is the Tequila Cowboys. What you hear is what you get. Like it or lump it. It's no wonder Houston has grown to love them - they couldn't suck up or pretty up if they wanted to. They don't know that game.

Cashman wrote all the songs on Broken Glass and he handles all the vocals. He has a rough, throaty, tequila-cured inflection and it works well with his earthy material. Neifert handles the electric guitars and he handles them well, refusing to be limited to any one style or genre of playing. Unfortunately the CD doesn't reflect the full range of Neifert's ability the way the Cowboys' live shows do. Maybe next time.

The Cowboys' sound is augmented by violinist Kristen Jensen (Mark Zeus & The Thunderboltz) and John Gorena on harmonica. Gorena gets lots of space on the record to show his chops, and he adds a lot of whump to the record.

If the Cowboys' first audience was among the street people, Cashman has played on that experience by authoring songs that reflect life's rough, down side. There are the inevitable relationship crashes and clashes but, true to their beginnings, there are also lots of themes that deal with less fortunate side of life, the life of the street, the life of the people who missed the train headed for the middle class suburbs.

But the title cut tells of a love gone to pieces. Cashman's voice drips with regret as he looks at the wreck his love has become.

Rain coming down, feeling kind of blue
Trying to get used to this feeling that's new
Remembering things that used to matter
Now they lay all broke and shattered
Hoping this feeling will pass
Because it's looking like broken glass

The most psychologically complex piece on the album is the sinister "Millionaire." Cashman gets just the proper amount of menace in his voice for this edgy, murky crime tale about a serial killer who is stalking hookers. Let's just call it a serial killer love song and leave it at that.

If i had an ocean liner, with a theater and a pool
And all the cocaine to keep you higher
Buy you clothes that look real cool
If i had a building downtown,a penthouse on the top floor
We'd drink martinis looking at the skyline,
Scream tothe world that we want more
Deranged i see the river flowing,
Ain't been this high in years
And tonight someone is dying,
Gonna watch that river make them disappear
I see her downtown, fishnet stockings and 5 inch heels
And you know she has been around,
Tonight she's gonna feel cold steal

But the Cowboys' opus is "Red Johnson," written about the man who coined the name Tequila Cowboys. Never a Tequila Cowboys' show goes by that there aren't cries of "Red Johnson" from the crowd.

He says that he is gonna quit someday
That God's word is stronger than the bottle
He preaches night and day for spare change
Then drinks it like there's no tomorrow
Well Red sobered up for a couple of weeks
Spent his time reading from his Bible
But one night he was jumped by a couple of freeks
Ended up in the county hospital
Red died and they scattered his ashes
Behind the Walgreen's parking lot
And thunder clapped and lightning flashed
An empty bottle marked his final spot

Broken Glass will be a must for Tequila Cowboys fans, who will most likely be happy to overlook some of the production deficiencies and niceties that the album lacks. The album serves as a fine introduction to the unvarnished sound that is the Tequila Cowboys on stage. Undoubtedly the next CD from the Cowboys will be better planned and will have better production. With their widening tour schedule and the new material that is evolving, we have nothing but good things to expect from the Tequila Cowboys in the future. There's no going back to the park bench now.

* You can purchase Broken Glass at www.tequilacowboys.com The Tequila Cowboys will be opening for Houston Marchman and Max Stalling at the Lake Amistad Festival in Ciudad Acuna on September 1.



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

 
View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook