The Last Call for Return of the Byrne

Just a quick post to thank everyone who came out on Thursday night in St. Louis. Music fans in Mound City had a wide variety of choices -- including Willie Nelson -- but we managed to attract a pretty nice crowd that plunked down $10 to help Taffety Punk Theatre Company and hear some amazing new music by Leadville and Magic City and astonishingly rare reunions by Stillwater and Free Dirt. And oh yeah... Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann showed up with the Diesel Island posse to play some songs -- and the evening kicked off with a set by a Chris King-led Three Fried Chamber Players.

I'll update this post if some of the music and photos become available. But I want to express my immense gratitude to the folks who played and the folks who came to listen. I caught up with a lot of folks over the five hours (It was terrific to see former RFT colleague Mike DeFillippo, longtime St. Louis music scenesters Rick Wood and Jarrett Tindall, Adam Reichmann from Nadine and Robert Griffin from Prisonshake), and made a couple new pals as well. (I should also thank old friend Fred Friction for hosting on his KDHX show, "Fishin' With Dynamite.")

And a big shout out to Kevin Belford -- who designed our marvelous poster. Have you checked out his book, Devil at the Confluence? You should.

Won't do reviews or anything, but some quick impressions, in roughly the order of appearance:

Three Fried Chamber Players: I really hope that Chris King and the rest of this gang -- Tim McAvin on drums, Josh Weinstein on bass, Adam Long on cello, Dave Melson on lead guitar and mandolin and Heidi Dean (who did not appear due to family bereavement) -- keep on doing this. The subtle energy of this acoustic lineup truly flatters Chris' songs.

Stillwater: Man, they rocked. It was also a reminder of how much of the energy and melody of Chris Grabau's present work as the ringleader of Magnolia Summer was present at the beginning of his songwriting career. Throw in a stinging version of the early classic "Handlebar" and a Guided by Voices cover and you had Grabau and John "Obie" O'Brien and Mike Rose provide one amazing 30 minutes.

Free Dirt: Standing on the stage as I was about to introduce them, it was like 1998 or something. Tom Buescher and Greg Vernon cracking wise. (Vernon played with a cast on his left arm, by the way!) Dave Harris exuding a sheer infectious delight in getting ready to play music. Dan Niewohner absent from the stage 'til just before they were ready to begin. The start of the set was a little like a prize fight -- the four players feeling each other out a bit. But about two songs in, the band just locked in with that fierce and frictive intensity that always made them one of my favorite bands. Just wonderful.

Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann: They came -- with fellow Diesel Island members John Horton and Kip Loui. They saw. They conquered with a couple sharp Neil Young covers and a smashmouth version of the Premiers' "Farmer John." The squall of guitars was staggering.

Magic City: They were everything that their Facebook tunes promised -- and more. The combination of theatrics, power and dark soulfulness in the sinews of every song portends really big things from this band. The version of "Animal Spirits" had me transfixed. See them.

Leadville: Another band whose promise on MP3 was fulfilled and underscored live, where the clean lines of many of the recorded versions is roughed up considerably. Tom Buescher is one amazing songwriter!

Last note: Door prizes are a key to any successful event! Again, immense thanks to everyone!

The Bands @ Return of the Byrne: Leadville

Return of the Byrne: A St. Louis Fundraiser for Burn Your Bookes at the Schalfly Tap Room is only a few days away. (Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m.)

In the lead up to the gig, we'll have a look at the bands who'll be playing. Today it's Leadville.

* * * * *

"Don't try too hard, son/ You look dumb." (Leadville, "Shittown")

Leadville plays that good 'ol fashioned alt-country with intensity and panache. That's to be expected when you're essentially a Lou alt-country supergroup: Tom Buescher (Free Dirt/Fran) -- vocals/guitar; Larry Bulawsky (Magic City) -- guitar; Will Horton (Phonocaptors) vocals/bass; Michael Rose (Stillwater) drums.

The band released their first and only record, Time Kills, last year and garnered terrific reviews from local media and a nomination as "Best Americana Band" in The Riverfront Times' annual music poll.

The raves and nomination are well-deserved. I'm spending a lot of time with Time Kills in the run-up to Return of the Byrne: The weepy wonder of "On Your Own," the raggedy fizzy handclap country of the opening track, "Wheels," the smash and grab "Shittown" (quoted above) and a powerful holdover from Free Dirt "Pretty Songs."

The cool thing about Tom Buescher's songwriting here and in Free Dirt is its emotional honesty. Fran? Well, as one could tell from that band's essaying my own drunken behavior at state fairs in a song, the Fran always had its own thing going on that put a premium on absurdist humor.

But I digress. What I mean by "emotional honesty" is simple: There are few songwriters who tackle what used to be called the "honkytonk" lifestyle the way that Buescher does, with self-awareness, humor and absolute candor. These days, honkytonk tends to mean a bunch of clean and comped-out (and compromised) bullshit that are fucking line dance fodder. Buescher takes the honkytonk back to its true roots.

You can hear a couple tracks, including "On Your Own," "Wheels" and "Got Your Number" on Leadville's MySpace page. I'm very excited to hear them played out live!

I e-mailed a couple of questions to Buescher and Rose about the band a few days ago. Here's what they say:

Q: How did Leadville form? How is it a continuation/disconnect from what you've done before with Free Dirt, Fran and Stillwater?

Buescher: I spent a year in England from 2000 to 2001. This kind of took the air out of the Fran band. So I was bandless and bored in 2002. I ran into Will Horton, ex-Phonocaptor bassist, and we hatched a plan for a band. Mike Rose was available and interested, so we put the three of us into a band. Larry joined up in a few years ago, and expanded the sonic landscape of the band in a huge way. To me, Larry really helped Leadville turn the corner. I think we are a much better band with him. We do some versions of Free Dirt and Fran songs that I wrote, but these have been re-tooled in tempo, feel, and sometimes structure. They are now Leadville versions.

Leadville is an evolution of styles for me. Fran and Free Dirt were a sum of the members, as both were filled with songwriters and the set list was a near even split of songwriting styles. Leadville is a Buescher songwriting setlist.

Every band change has been a transformation for me. Free Dirt, Fran, and Leadville were complete line up changes. Playing with different people was critical to my growth as a song writer and player. Fran was a dramatic departure from Free Dirt, and Leadville is a similar departure from Fran. I loved playing in all of them, and I share a special relationship with all the people I've played with over the years. There are bits and pieces of all of these people in the songs I write today.

Rose: I was getting itchy and called Tom about forming a group, and Will Horton (of the original Phonocaptors) asked Tom about forming a group around the same time. It was weird because I moved shortly after calling Tom, and my phone number only forwarded for a couple weeks. Tom called back to say he was interested on one of the last days that my phone number was forwarded (and my new number was unlisted).

Q: What's it like playing music in the Midwest at this particular moment? The whole music industry seems to have undergone a sea change since I was writing music criticism: Much of that traditional infrastructure of the music industry has disappeared. Bands get signed off a blog or an mp3 or two. And yet there still seems to be some demand for live music and entertainment. Rock clubs haven't disappeared. What's in it for bands these days -- aside from simply wanting to make music? (Which for alot of people, is quite enough thanks...)

Buescher: We play for the sake of playing now. We've all got kids now, and priorities have shifted. In the past, we would have been pleased with a 6 week stint in an old van, but not so much anymore. I have become existential about music as a business these days. The excitement of a new song or a well done show is my reward.

Rose: While we're serious about the music, Leadville is pursued at a slower pace than Stillwater (and probably Free Dirt). So if we miss practice once in a while and meet at a bar instead, its cool. There is less of a rock n' roll agenda. It's about writing good songs and playing well, but it isn't as consuming as my earlier band.

The barriers to entry into the music business have lowered from their already low status. Recordings have gotten better, and the amount of people who will pay for an original work has decreased. One thing that hasn't changed is that people who are in music to make money are in music for the wrong reasons. I think for bands the 'joy' is being able to express yourself, and express what you love.


(Leadville from left to right: Mike Rose, Larry Bulawsky, Will Horton and Tom Buescher.)

The Bands @ Return of the Byrne: Free Dirt

Return of the Byrne: A St. Louis Fundraiser for Burn Your Bookes at the Schalfly Tap Room is only a few days away. (Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m.)

In the lead up to the gig, we'll have a look at the bands who'll be playing. Today it's Free Dirt.

* * * * * * * *

By the mid-1990s, I was sort of burned out on what had come to be known as "alternative country."

I know, I know. It's a contested term. You could argue that everything from George Jones to Gram Parsons to the Blasters was "alternative country." Hell, I saw Mary-Louise Parker interview Elvis Costello the other night and she argued that Almost Blue was the beginning of alt-country. I almost fell out of my chair.

What I mean here is the particular wave that started with Uncle Tupelo and blossomed into the No Depression movement, named after the Tupes' first record. My burnout on it shouldn't really shouldn't come as a surprise. As one of the critics who helped boost the first wave of No Depression bands, I had done a lot of heavy lifting. And I was getting less and less enamored with the bands that followed that first wave. The edge was being lost. Plus, I felt like I was getting pigeonholed. I wanted to write about the other stuff I loved: trip hop, French pop, art rock, the Mekons.

The successes of Uncle Tupelo and the Bottle Rockets (who both signed with major labels) did prompt a lot of Midwestern bands to try and duplicate what they had done. The ones I gravitated towards -- despite my burnout -- were the ones that attacked the music with ferocity. Omaha's Frontier Trust are just the sort of band I loved at that point: furious tractor punk. The Waco Brothers, too.

In St. Louis, the bands who cut through the droning alt-noise for me in that era were Stillwater (more on them in a future post) and Free Dirt (Dan Niewoehner, guitar; Tom Buescher, guitar; Greg Vernon, drums; Dave Harris, bass). Their recorded output is a couple songs on justly-celebrated compilation, The Way Out Club, (which also feature the Highway Matrons, Johnny Magnet and the Trip Daddys among others) and an eponymous record -- both on the Rooster Lollipop label.

I had gotten a demo tape from an earlier incarnation of Free Dirt called The Maurys, but it didn't really penetrate my consciousness. The first time that Free Dirt really made me sit up and pay attention was a night at the old Way Out Club in St. Louis in the mid-90s. (I think it was Halloween, but I won't swear to it.)

They were pretty wonderful that night -- the band's songwriting chops survived and even shone through a sloppy but incredibly powerful set. And they sealed the deal with a simply devastating cover of Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge." I still prefer Free Dirt's version of this song to the original, and it was their version that stripped the uptight neurosis from the Devo version and revealed the spinal column of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop" at the core of the song.

That night turned me into a believer. The songs were edgy scenester odes -- slightly seedy, slightly sozzled and yet knowing and reaching for something higher. (That pretty much summed up my existence at that particular late 1990s moment.)

And as I dug deeper into their songs, I discovered a lot of gems that are still on my iPod to this day. Niewoehner's "Rude Pets" is a jaunty ode to his past bands that had ill-fated dreams of getting past the classic rock that dominated the radio of that era. Buescher's "Slippin'" starts with chiming chords that his voice grinds down as the lyrics pursue their dismal and fatalistic race to the bottom. And when Buescher and Niewohner's sensibilities collide on "Settin' Myself Up/Medicine," it's one-two punch of undeniable power: Buescher's world-weary ode to decline is carried on waves of chords and then surges into Niewoehner's deftly-painted journey through a drugged -out landscape and its insufficiency to cope with life's enduring pain. It's just terrific.

I've always regretted that I wasn't able to single-handledly drag Free Dirt into a bigger spotlight. They really had that mojo that gets you signed... especially in that era. Check out "Untie My Head," which is up on their MySpace page. This song came late in the band's heyday and while this studio version is terrific, it doesn't quite capture the transcendent version that they'd crank up live. I remember seeing them do it live in Belleville one night and it nearly took my head off.

No Depression magazine eventually took notice of them but my recollection is that Free Dirt sort of imploded eventually and everyone went on the pastures and projects new. So I am delighted that they are getting back together for Return of the Byrne. I saw them play tight, blistering sets and I saw them veer toward shambles on occasion, but I never saw them play without passion.

Can't wait to see that again on March 11.

Free Dirt (from left): Dan Niewoehner, Tom Buescher, Dave Harris, Greg Vernon