Tales of the New West (Reis)

Beat Farmers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 26, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: AMERICAN BEAT
• ASIN: B002XIN16C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,069 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Bigger Stones

2. There She Goes Again

3. Reason To Believe

4. Lost Weekend

5. California Kid

6. Never Go Back

7. Goldmine

8. Showbiz

9. Lonesome Hound

10. Where Do They Go?

11. Selfish Heart

12. Happy Boy

13. Powderfinger

14. Beat Generation

15. Glad 'N' Greasy

16. Big Rock Candy Mountain

Editorial Reviews

Led by one of the most adored figures in cow-punk/roots-rock, Country Dick Montana (he often made his away around the room after sets, greeting fans), the Beat Farmers built a big cult following in the 80s and 90s. Country Dick died too young, but his huge fan base will be stoked to see the Beat Farmers 1985 debut masterpiece back on CD! This roof-raising collection of drinking songs, jangle-pop gems and wildman blues was made on a budget of just $4,000, and it s the only album that comes close to capturing the on-stage intensity of this legendary live act. Includes their sing-along anthem Happy Boy, covers of the V.U. s There She Goes Again and Springteeen s Reason to Believe; plus Bigger Stones; Lost Weekend; California Kid; Never Goin' Back; Goldmine; Showbiz; Lonesome Hound; Where Do They Go, and Selfish Heart. Exclusively from our American Beat label!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "real" Best of the Beat Farmers, September 9, 2004

By 

Dean Stogsdill (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of the New West (Audio CD)

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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indescribably delicious, January 18, 2000

By 

Spencer K. Stephens (Rockville, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of the New West (Audio CD)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best band in America, March 25, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of the New West (Audio CD)

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.