Customer Reviews

Tales of the New West

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't imagine how many times I have seeked, "beat farmers", in search engines, in vain hope that I might find "Tales of the New West" on cd. I had over ten years of only finding it on ebay where it would be selling for $25 or more. This is the true best of the Beat Farmers. If there is anyway for you to buy this cd now, buy it now! I had the privilege of seeing the Farmers many times in the Eighties and early Nineties, so I am sure this has skewed my love for this album and band.

It is almost twenty-years-old now and it does more than stand up. It still falls down and spills beer all over you. I listen to "Tales" almost on a weekly basis. Up to this cd release, all I had was the vinyl and a cassette recorded off my old turntable that played everything just a bit too fast. Even my off-speed recording was a treasure to me. Alt-country is all over the place now, but the Farmers were there when folks that wanted rock hated country and folks that wanted country hated rock. Yet, the Farmers still managed their way through it all in a brazen, beer swillin' and spillin' style that changed my life.

R.I.P. Country Dick

You will like this album, but only if you like rock and roll songs about laughing at dead dogs in drawers and about waking up hungover and newly married and about the old west and about gettin' even with the woman what dumped ya. When anthropologists a thousand years from now point to this album as the major turning point in western civilization, you'll want to be able to them you understand why. Plus which, this will put "Green Acres" in a whole new light.

My introduction to the Beat Farmers was hearing a ditty called Happy Boy in 1987. Interesting but just a novelty.

A year later the band was touring and came through town. I went, and was truly thrilled to hear something in the band's sound that had been lost to poular music in the decade preceding their show. ROCK AND ROLL! All caps, beer, sweat, no posing, no haircuts. Not metal mind you but honest, ballsy throwback rock. Played extraordinarily well and thoughfully. Piercing harmonies and twin lead guitars were the ID's of this band.

Calling on Springsteen for one song and their own talents as writers for most of the rest, this album paints pictures of maturity and yearning to rival The Boss himself. The difference, you could still catch these guys in a club instead of an arena.

Then there's Country Dick Montana the group's drummer and story teller. The aformentioned Happy Boy is pure Country Dick. Askew but not psycho. His entries on the album include a whacked out western, a Rod McKuen sendup and of course the "ditty". You've got to hear them.

Tragedy struck this group in 1997 when Country Dick was felled by an aneurysm while performing in Vancouver. Our loss. But the groups records live on to provide some of the finest rock and roll of the last twenty years. Get it.

5 stars for the original release -- and 5 more for the Rhino reiussue. Amazon needs to stock it, and don't settle for less. The reissue has 28 tracks including some brilliant live performances from the Spring Valley Inn and other unreleased material. The sound is improved over the original and there's not an ounce of filler. This is the definitive Beat Farmers collection. (And no, I'm not with the band!)

A gem from the southlands of California, the driving guitars and spirited percussion on TOTNW pays musical homage to a bacchanalian, devil may care attitude that can only be achieved by spending far too many hours in San Diego.

However, there is more to this fine album beyond just songs about drinking too much and waking up with a mysterious bedmate (Lost Weekend), the perils of wayward dog ownership [the classic Happy Boy] and nostalgia for rapidly vanishing youth (Bigger Stones, Where Do They Go?). New West also features energetic cover versions of Lou Reed's "There She Goes Again," Bruce Springsteen's final track from Nebraska, the thoughtful "Reason To Believe," as well as the late Country Dick Montana's twisted, spaghetti western psychodrama "California Kid." Anyone who ever had the good fortune to see this band live should already have this album, and those who sadly missed the chance to do so should pick it up, turn it up lou! ! d, and become inspired to do things they might regret later. It kicks ass.

Amazon may have corrected the songlist by the time you see this review, but for weeks leading up to its release, Amazon listed this reissue of the Beat Farmers' first record as featuring four bonus tracks from the "Glad N' Greasy" EP, which would have made for a nice 16-track compilation. Unfortunately, my copy arrived today with just the 12 tracks from the original incarnation of "Tales of the New West."

The "Expanded" Tales is lightening in a bottle. This is the best music put out by the best American band to come out of the 1980's, period. This roots/rockabilly/protopunk group of San Diego music scene stalwarts were together for only two full-length discs and an EP, and here are most of the best cuts from all three. The late Buddy Blue, in particular, shines on such rockabilly gems as his 'Goldmine', 'Lonesome Hound', 'Lost Weekend', and the great 'Gun Sale at the Church', included in a demo version here that is as good as the version on the group's excellent 'Van Go' album. His singing and guitar licks are matched by Jerry Raney's harder rocking edge on 'Selfish Heart', and the wistful 'Where Do They Go'. This would be a must-have without the six cuts from the EP "Glad n Greasy", which include the superb Blue title cut, the best cover of Neil Young's 'Powderfinger' ever done, and two other great cuts, 'Delayed Reaction' and 'Death Train'. The late Country Dick Montana is in full, booming voice on cut after cut as well-his best moments being the hilarious 'California Kid' and 'Beat Generation'. The addition of several cuts from the group's live demo album at the end are cream on top of this prize. If you get this disc and don't come away convinced that Blue was one of the best rockabilly songwriters and slide guitarists of the time, Raney one of the rock guitarists ever, and Montana an all-time great entertainer, you need to look for your music soul.

Of the many "roots-rock" bands that sprang up in the 80s, the Beat Farmers were one of the very best and Tales of the New West is their Sistine Chapel ceiling. I was playing my lp version of it the other night (17 years after it was originally released) and was floored by the band's boundless energy and wit-something sorely missing from rock these days.

To my ears, their cover of "Reason to Believe" surpasses Springsteen's. The song is driven by incendiary slide guitar work that would have made Duane Allman grin and driving bass and drums that simply blow the roof off the joint. Toss in "Lost Weekend," a tune that achieved anthem status for me during the bleak late 80s reign of Ronald Reagan, the wistful but hard-driving "Never Goin' Back," and the delirously loopy "Happy Boy," and you have one of the truly great lost masterpieces of rock. Let's hope that it is reissued-Rhino Records take note-and while they are at it, how about some of the other great bands from this period. Jason and the Scorchers, the Del Lords, Rank and File, the Textones and a superb California Rockabilly compilation that included Los Lobos and the Blasters.

Don't ask me why, but when I decided to review this album I fully expected to be the first in this forum to do so. Hah, fat chance! It's encouraging to see that others appreciate this overlooked treasure from the 1980's. The Beat Farmers' playing, writing, and downright addictive country-tinged melodies are often (criminally) overlooked in favor of their sense of humor and over-the-top live shows. There are no clunkers to be found here and "Lost Weekend" and "Goldmine" may just be the best damn songs ever written about inebriation and vindication, respectively. Woefully, things went south for the band when Buddy Blue left after their third release, "Glad N Greasy." Buy all of the Buddy Blue-era material (this one, "Glad N Greasy" and "Van Go")...

When my friend first played this album(I just dated myself -- he has it on vinyl!) we were enjoying a few brews doing one of our favourite passtimes on a Friday night -- spinning records. He told me I might like it,and by the end of the first cut "Bigger Stones", I was hooked. For me, most albums that endure for any length of time, are not instant hits. They grow on me. But "Tales of the New West" was one of the rare exceptions. By the time I had listened to "Lost Weekend" and "California Kid", I knew this one would be around for a long time. The Beat Farmers are just one more example of unbelievably good, sound music that never made the "top ten";an example of good music that the record companies were wrong about or never promoted. But who cares. If you are willing to do a little searching, these guys are worth looking for. Buy it.