The 1980s
Knoxville Grass
Painted Lady
(MN Records)
Another very influential record that has finally been released on CD earlier this year is the 1980 Knoxville Grass album Painted Lady. With the core of the 'Grass being Glenn Laney, Mark Newton, Gary Baker, and Gary Ferguson, Painted Lady is a fantastic project that reflected the style for which Knoxville Grass became famous for. Mandolin player Newton called it "a conventional bluegrass sound combined with a contemporary presentation." But Painted Lady took it even further. The record combines traditional classics like "Teardrops in My Eyes" and "Down in the Valley to Pray" with songs written by John Fogerty ("Up Around the Bend") and Jerry Garcia ("Friend of the Devil"). And although drums in bluegrass is an acquired taste, Doug Klein's playing complements the more contemporary songs on the album nicely.
(B.S.)
Balboa
Live Like This
Whether or not many people remember it, this was the single most influential recording of the early '80s underground scene. Balboa was to Knoxville what The Velvet Underground or The Ramones were to the rest of the world. They were the band that made everyone realize that they, too, could do it themselves and rock harder than what was on commercial radio.
Balboa mixed good musicianship with art rock and a garage aesthetic to make a record that sounded like a mix of King Crimson and The Ramones. Live Like This sounds good to this day, though it pales in comparison to the band's later, unreleased material. Balboa was the prime motivator for the primordial punk/new wave scene in town. This band was the first in what has become a tradition for Knoxville's best bands: They were good enough to make it big, but never in the right place at the right time.
Terry Hill, the band's resident genius and guitar technician, went on to key roles in several important Knoxville bands such as The Semiconductors, PLYNTH and WH-WH. Hill is now a guitar instructor at Rik's Music and a computer fiend. Another member, Doug Kline, now composes background music on several HGTV programs. And we all know what happened to Hector Qirko, Knoxville's reigning king of the blues.
(J.S.)
Koro
Songs For A Grave Age
Almost all of the key players are gone, but Knoxville had a ferocious hardcore punk scene back in the day when everybody looked like the kid on the Circle Jerks' album covers and bald was beautiful, baby. 1982 was a banner year for the 'core, and Koro was the best band of a loosely knit group of hometown bands known as "the hardcore four," which also included Turbine 44, STD and Angry Youth.
Like their songs, Koro's time in the limelight was short, hard and powerful. The band was as tight as Minor Threat, with a bit more metal tendencies and testosterone to burn. The band's subject matter was the usual sex, drugs, and blasphemy, but done with a bit of humor and much more anger than the usual hardcore practitioners. Copies of the original pressing of Songs For A Grave Age fetch upwards of $500 on the vinyl collectibles market these days, and the E.P. has been bootlegged many times.
The band only lasted for about six months, with band members going on to other projects. Fabled enigma Carl Snow (guitar) went on to a motley local career with Red and Whitey. Lead singer Scott Semple is rumored to now be some kind of a cosmic, new age pottery guy out west. Guitarist David Teague made a bigger mark, going on to a flash in the pan with Muzza Chunka, and is now the lead guitarist for The Dickies, an L.A. group that is probably the longest running punk band in American history, chalking up 23 years at this point.
(J.S.)
Jesus Chrysler
This Year's Savior
(Toxic Shock Records)
People seem to have forgotten this period, but in the first era of post hardcore, most American punks grew their hair out and took the more profitable speed metal route. That's why Jesus Chrysler's retro punk leanings were considered a bit strange in the late '80s. The band predated Rancid and Green Day by making perfect replicas of The Clash and The Buzzcocks long before the old punk sound got popular again. And their lead singer was really from England, so the English accent wasn't a pose.
Jesus Chrysler had a self-released 7-inch and a full-length album on the now defunct Toxic Shock Records. The band caused a stir in Europe, and toured the U.S. a couple of times before disbanding. Rumor has it that former members of Chrysler have gone on to teaching careers and that one member is now an attorney.
(J.S.)
Beyond John
Beyond John
(Box Records)
Back in the mid-'80s, Knoxville had just gotten the hang of punk rock, much less tried to move beyond it (except maybe to metal). But then a bunch of quirky young guys from Lenoir City moved to town and started a group called Beyond John. Postpunk had arrived.
Beyond John was dark and shouty and noisy. It was the first band in town to display the influence of Joy Division and the Velvet Underground more so than Black Flag, the first to embrace feedback as an aesthetic. The band's self-titled 1985 debut was kind of a mess—Jimmy Scarborough's guitar was out of tune almost as often as bassist Paul Booker's vocals. But its sheets of shrill strum and hiss carried a certain moody mystery; it was sort of hard to believe these guys actually lived here, in the Home of the Vols. Listening to the cascading "Kneel" or the epic "Ruffles and Lace" now, you can hear the modest local roots of a powerful, raw, but melodic sound that bands like Smashing Pumpkins would later peddle to masses better-prepared to hear it.
Beyond John certainly didn't stick around long enough to capitalize, though drummer Roger Canada got a fan letter from Italy the day the band broke up. Scarborough and Canada would go on to form the ill-starred, many-monikered Ministry of Love. Booker moved on to another town somewhere. Beyond John probably doesn't warrant a CD reissue, but what it represents shouldn't be forgotten.
(L.G.)
Taoist Cowboys
Cholo
Born in Fort Sanders in the late '80s, the Taoist Cowboys were destined to tear up the China King and house parties. They didn't really sound much like anybody else—except themselves—due to the four distinct personalities of the band. The secret here is incredibly cool songs done with reckless abandon. The later Punt was probably a better record, but you can't beat this one for fun and originality. Bob McCluskey wrote some of the best songs ever to pass through the air on Cumberland Avenue, and Scott Carpenter and Brad Deaton also wrote very fine ditties of their own—and Brad's cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" is the best since Nancy herself. Current V-roy Jeff Bills on drums gave it glue and the extra dose of personality it needed to be the almost perfect garage band/high top rock release.
(T.S.)
Donald Brown
The Sweetest Sounds
(Evidence)
Donald Brown is a walkin' talkin' civic treasure, but Donald's probably more respected in western Europe than in these parts—not unusual for American jazz artists since the Beatles set the world's music market on its ear in the '60s. The (I'd love to say "our") pianist, composer, educator, band leader and recording artist has been lowering the limbo beam to challenge UT students for many years and taking summer semesters to record and pump up his rep in Europe and Manhattan.
Like so many players who started in the '50s or '60s, including, for example, several members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Donald started in R&B, often playing bass, with the likes of Al Green and B.B. King. He first came to my attention at the keyboard with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Donald's composition "The Insane Asylum" was used by Wynton Marsalis to put together his first really distinctive album J Mood, still the one I return to. The tune was nominated for a Grammy. Friends especially like the recent solo piano disk Piano Short Stories (Space Time Records, from France). The fine recent group effort, Enchante (also Space Time Records) stars Billy Higgins on drums and Steve Nelson, vibes, and includes Boling on three tracks, one of which is the steel-band-like original "A Dance for Marie-Do" that by quirky fate seems to be my entrance theme at Lucille's on Saturdays.
My favorite though, is a decade-old session, recently reissued, called The Sweetest Sounds (Evidence). Nelson is here, along with Charnette Moffett, bass, and Alan Dawson, drums. In addition to three originals, tunes range from the nearly-Dixieland Don Redman tune "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You" to a pop classic, "Killing Me Softly With His Song."
(M.D.)
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