Dirty Linen Reviews Dale Watson “Whiskey or God”
Posted by: admin in Dale Watson, Reviewsby Paul E. Comeau
Dale Watson is going through a prolific streak. Given that Watson is a honky-tonk singer, the songs on Whiskey or God cast a wider net than most both in terms of musical influences and subject matter. Several songs (”Sit and Drink and Cry,” “Tequila and Teardrops,” and the title song) are worthy additions to the canon of drinking songs. “No Help Wanted” does likewise for the trucking song repertoire, but then Watson also offers us “Truckin’ Queen,” a song about a transvestite trucker. Watson was playing catch-up on Whiskey or God. The album consists at least partly of old songs and fan favorites that the artist had yet to record.
From the Cradle to the Grave, on the other hand, came about quite suddenly. While the singer was moving his family to Baltimore, he was offered a chance to record in a Tennessee log cabin that once belonged to Johnny Cash. He spent the first three days writing 10 new songs and then recorded them with his band in two days. Watson seems to have been inspired as much by Cash’s spirit as by his sound. The songs deal with soul-baring and weighty life and death issues.”Yellow Mama,” for example, is a song about a condemned man, the song title referring to Akabama’s infamous electric chair. Several songs evoke Cash’s sound, and on “Runaway Train,” the last track, he briefly references a few of Cash’s most famous songs.
Little Darlin’ was a country music label that’s most known for having released Johnny Paycheck’s earliest albums in the 60’s. The fact that those recordings (now cult favorites) were Paycheck’s best was in no small part due to label founder and producer Aubrey Mayhew and to the musicians he brought to the sessions. Now Mayhew and those musicians, which include steel guitarist Lloyd Green, pianist Hargus”Pig” Robbins, guitarist Billy Sanford, and fiddler Hoot Hester, have teamed up with Watson to record new versions of some of those old songs. More than half the songs on The Little Darlin’ Sessions are credited to Paycheck and/or Mayhew, and they include some of their best, including “Jukebox Charlie,” “Lovin’ Machine,” “Apartment #9,” and “The Pint of No return,” as well as a few classics by Groovey Joe Poovey, namely “Late and Great Me” and the vengeful “He Thought He’d Die Laughing.” Watson has come to believe that the term country music has become meaningless and has begun referring to his band of music as Ameripolitan. As the booklet notes affirm, this is “old school” country. [Ed note: This CD was released inder protest from Dale Watson because he feels it is an unfinished recording. See www.dalewatson.com.]�
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