Customer Reviews

Love on the Dial

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Out of tragedy, new opportunities sometimes spring. With the passing of vocalist Chris Gaffney, the Hacienda Brothers were shuttered, and Gaffney's partner, Dave Gonzalez, was left to seek a new musical outlet. As a founding member of the California-based Paladins, Gonzalez had explored rockabilly and blues, and crafted a reputation as an ace electric guitarist. His work with Gafney on three Hacienda Brothers studio albums refined his playing with quieter country and southern soul flavors. His new partner, the Texas-based Mike Barfield, cut his teeth leading the Houston-based Hollisters, folding together country-rock hillbilly twang, tic-tac train rhythms, and deadpan baritone vocals that brought to mind Johnny Cash and John Doe. After two group albums, Barfield turned solo, issuing the superb Living Stereo in 2002.

Barfield's second solo album, The Tyrant, was heavier on the funk rhythms than his debut, and though elements of that remain in this new collaboration, its his background in southern soul, blues and swamp rock that makes him a natural fit with Gonzalez. This isn't Hacienda Brothers Mark II, as Barfield and Gaffney are very different singers and songwriters, but the songs, including a few well-selected covers, draw on similar sources. Barfield reprises his cover of Tyrone Davis' "Can I Change My Mind," which appeared on Living Stereo in more raw form. Here the earlier twin guitar leads are replaced by Dave Biller's pedal steel and James Sweeny's Hammond organ, and the entire track finds a deeper, smoother soul groove atop Scott Esbeck's bass line. Barfield also revisits his own "Lovers Prison," slowing it down slightly and adding more bottom end. It ends up sounding like a winning cross between the Buckaroos and the Lovin' Spoonful.

The album's most unusual cover is a take on Goffin & King's "Take a Giant Step" that melds the psychedelic inflections of the Monkees' original (the B-side of their first single) with the slow tempo of Taj Mahal's 1969 cover. Barfield and Gozalez's originals, written both separately and together, include southern-funk dance numbers, country rock, and most winningly, country-soul tunes that include the Gonzalez-sung "Still Feel the Feeling" and the co-written "Love's Gonna Make It." Barfield's Texas sensibilities fit well with the Memphis influences Gonzalez picked up working with Dan Penn [1 2 3], and both fold perfectly into the duo's country roots. Backed by a band that's equally at home with twang and deep bass, the Stone River Boys are all set to burn it up on the road. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

One of the coolest records I've heard this year.....and the guy who gave them one star because he didn't like the blues is a moron, there isn't a blues tune on the record! It's all Honky Tonk and R+B. Love it

Albums like this don't deserve to fly under the radar. From the ashes of the Hacienda Brothers, Dave Gonzalez and Mike Barfield (The Hollisters) continue in a similar vein of high quality soul and funky country combining some snappy tunes like Bluebonnet Blue and Lovers Prison with the more soulful refrains of Love On The Dial and Take a Giant Step. Grab yourself a copy along with your favourite cowboy shirt, boot, six pack and get some Love On The Dial into you!

Guitarist Dave Gonzales is no stranger to the world of twang guitar aficionados having fronted the Paladins for some twenty years before forming the Hacienda Brothers in 2005. After band mate Chris Gaffney's untimely death in 2008 from liver cancer Gonzales was left with the task promoting the band's swan song album, stone river boys on the alternate root`Arizona Motel,' without the services of his long time side kick. He assembled an all-star cast for the heavy lifting which included former Hollisters front man Mike Barfield to handle vocals and acoustic guitar.

Dave Gonzales: "A buddy of mine had a recording studio up in Nebraska, and while we were out on tour he invited us to come over there. We went in and cut a couple. I said to Barfield, `If you want to do a record, I'd love to, man.' And we just started making a record."

The result was a magical connection between Gonzales and Barfield and by natural progression the `Stone River Boys' were formed in 2008.

Mike Barfield: "We really naturally just started keeping it going. The name of the band came from the first place we rehearsed for that trip, in this little subdivision in deep South Austin, on a street called Stone River."

The band's performances at SXSW and The Americana Music Conference and Festivalstone river boys in the alternate root in 2009 led to a deal with Massachusetts based taste maker label Cow Island Music. In May of 2010 `Stone River Boys' released their Cow Island debut, `Love on the Dial' to a slew of critical raves from the press and a strong run at the top on the Americana Airplay Chart. Their mix of twang, rockabilly and country soul blended with Barfield's Texas-funk is all but a genre unto its own and reflects the diversity of the Stone River Boys as players, singers and songwriters.

Dave Gonzales: "When I hooked up with Barfield, he had a whole pocket full of tunes. I felt, `We need to record these things right away.' We wrote a couple right on the spot together. He had a few that were unfinished I kind of helped him with. But he wrote the majority of the material on the record."

The fourteen song extravaganza touches every base from Bakersfield to Memphis to Austin and back again without an ounce of the contrivance that permeates much of what comes out of Texas today. `Stone River Boys' sound like a lot of things in parts and like nothing you've heard in quite a while when the parts are added together and in a world where just about everything has been done that's a lot to say.

In September 2010 during the Americana Music Association Conference and festival in Nashville the Stone River Boys joined up with The Alternate Root magazine and alternate Root TV to record a raucous set of originals and a well placed cover written by the late Steven Bruton. The resulting session is featured here as an Alternate Root exclusive while the band is on their current US Tour which takes them from Wisconsin through new England during the month of October and into November. For more information, swag, music check out Stone River Boys at[....]

As all who are reading this likely already know, the Stone River Boys were birthed from the Hacienda brothers, with singer Mike Barfield sitting in for Chris Gaffney while the latter was terminally ill. After Chris died, Mike permanently took the helm, and with a few other personnel moves, the Stone River Boys were born. Given their origins, it is impossible to listen to "Love on the Dial" without making the comparison to the three Hacienda disks (all of which are great). To these ears, the new boys mine the same territory as the old brothers for most of the disk. The main difference is that when the new boys stray it is towards rather hard core R&B, whereas the old brothers tended to stray towards the soul end of things. The Stone River Boys also appear to tackle their R&B tunes in reverse, meaning they sound like they are adding a county influence to their favorite funk tunes, whereas the Hacienda Brothers sounded like they were adding some soul to their country sound. At this point in time I prefer the Hacienda brothers attack since since all their stylistic variations were of the same piece. Nearly everything had the "high lonesome, west coast country" sound. I don't get that from this disc. In fact, I have recently reverted to playing "Love on the Dial" sequenced without overtly funky tunes. Listened to that way, this new disk stands just as tall as the three Hacienda ones, which means its Great with a capitol "G". When played as designed, it seems much choppier, which is why I docked this one star. All that being said, I must make it clear that all this is fan nitpicking. This is a really solid disk by a band of real musicians playing serious, original, music for adults. Check them out!!

Mike Barfield and the rest of the crew are a stereotypical club band singing the blues. They bring nothing new to the table and their music, to me, is just a rehash of what others have done. To me, it is simply boring, as are most bar bands who sing 'the blues'. Yeah, y'all won't like to read this, but I have had to hear them on the radio and I didn't like that!