Interview w/ The Shack Shaker’s JD Wilkes

Pound for pound, possibly the most underrated personality in music is the frontman and founder of the Legendary Shack Shakers, one Colonel JD Wilkes.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask Jello Biafra of Alternative Tentacles and The Dead Kennedays who called JD Wilkes, “the last great Rock and Roll frontman.” Robert Plant is also a big fan, personally endorsing their albums which are no slouch either, and handpicking JD and the band as openers on a European tour in 2005.

Yet when I went to see them on Saturday at Dallas’s famed Granada Theater, they were playing first out of three bands. The Granada might be the best place to see live music . . .ever. And after their set in the crowd, in the bathrooms, at line at the bar, and on a big screen where between bands The Granada projects their Twitter feed, people were raving about the Shack Shakers, and bewildered why they were booked first.

After their set I sat down with Col. JD Wilkes about why the secret isn’t out about them, about his side project The Dirt Daubers, his new album Agridustrial and about his involvement in the Lower Broadway scene in Nashville from about 1995-2005.

Triggerman: I’ve been tracking you for a while. I saw your movie Seven Signs. In the last few years, you seem to be taking some sort of intellectual. . . you’re coming across as an intellectual figure. Not pushy or pointy nosed, but more just letting the stories tell themselves.

The Colonel: I don’t want to come across as too intellectual cause its just rock n’ roll. Country music has always been working class music. I think it should retain a lot of that quality, and shouldn’t lose sight of it’s origins too much. We’re trying to push forward and create new things, but still embracing the past. That’s where the whole title Agridustrial is, is we’re pushing in new directions sonically, but at its core is a good old fashioned country song, hopefully, even though the trappings are a bit more abrasive and crunchy at times. At the heart of it is a country music melody. We don’t want to intellectualize it too much, but sometimes you have to point it out to people, given what is happening nowadays with corporate country and pop culture.

Triggerman: You’ve has some pretty big endorsements over the years, Robert Plant and Jello Biafra, yet tonight you’re playing first (out of three bands). There’s something inside of me that thinks, “This band should have a better following than it does.”

The Colonel: That’s just a sign of the times. The only way for a band like us to break into the mainstream is if we get lucky with a song placement on TV or something like that. That’s really the only way to break into the mainstream now that the major labels are in shambles. Every time someone steals a song from us, they’re keeping us in place, and maybe that’s where they want us because that’s “tragic.” We just have to get lucky now. All these cool people can drop our names all they want. We were born too late. Nowadays you gotta be rap, bubblegum, or some sort of Disney band… Being on our own label actually allows us to make more money. We own everything now so the labels aren’t sticking it to us anymore. One of the good things about the new digital era, you can control things better now if you want to go into your own business.

Triggerman: You’ve got a side project as well, I believe your wife’s involved in it. Called the Dirt Daubers, and it’s kind of taking that to an extreme, you’re just playing straight up, good old mountain music. How did that come about?

The Colonel: I’ve always appreciated the roots of what we do. Sometimes I think the roots of it get lost in the rock n’ roll aspect. It’s just a way of breaking it down and making it a little more obvious. I also just indulging my appreciation for mountain music, string band music, jug band music, hot jazz. I just love that stuff and want to be a part of it. I feel sometimes the sheer volume of the Shack Shakers diminishes it at times. I want to be able to purely touch base with that.

Triggerman: I’ve always been curious about the underground scene that existed on Broadway in Nashville between ’95 and 2005 or whenever. It seems like it has diminished significantly in the last few years. But there was a solid time there was a very rich scene of music down there. So how do you fit in?

The Colonel: BR549 started it all. There was a resurgence in that Lower Broadway scene. Before that it was basically run down old titty bars and saloons. And then it started to become this tourist destination. And it was wild, and it was an interim period where it was pretty lawless down there too. There was chicken wire in The Bluegrass Inn for real. It was free to get it, and it was free to leave, so you had to keep them in their seats playing four hour shows for $30 and free beer. It was thankless but it was like boot camp so the bands that played down there got real good and learned how to work the crowd, they learned how to connect with audiences and keep them entertained. That’s why we’re so clownish, we’re products of that lower Broadway boot camp. Keeping the yokels entertained. It might work against us now because everyone is so very serious in music now.

The first wave on Lower Broadway before The Bluegrass Inn opened up, we played at Wolfy’s across the street. The other side of the street was what was hopping. Across the street The Bluegrass Inn, which would later become the Mecca other than Robert’s. Robert’s and The Bluegrass Inn were the main places you wanted to see real music go down you went there. The Bluegrass Inn was called The Wagon Burner, and it was a singer/songwriter place. So when Joe Buck and Layla bought that place, they turned it into this straight up hillbilly hangout. And that’s when things really got moving. I basically lived in there. Survived on beer and weighed like 100 pounds. I was squatting in a barber shop at one point. It was very very raw, very primitive and feral and lawless. We were all in the same boat and had a great scene there.

At some point we had to get out of the honky tonk scene there to be taken seriously by the press and the people there. We sort of staged a coup. We made a really good record (Cockadoodledon’t) and started playing these showcases outside of Lower Broadway. We stared to infiltrated the more yuppie bars, like upscale LA hipster bars: the people that wouldn’t typically go down to Lower Broadway, they look down their nose at the yokels. We had developed this amazing show though down there, so we took it out of context, and we blew the roof off. It was like training for years and winning the Olympics.

Basically we exploded onto the scene, signed by a manager, signed by a booking agency, and signed by Bloodshot Records in a matter of like a week. We were very hungry and ambitious and pissed in a way. Because these hipster scenes infuriated us in a way and made us wanted to play harder. We were used to playing for folks, and now were were playing for snobs, so you had to work twice as hard to crack that nut. And we always would because ultimately you can’t say no to the beat, you can say no to those riffs and songs.

Audio Interview – Joe Buck

In the last year or two, many new artists and bands have sprung up in the Outlaw/ Underground country movement, many new fans, podcasts, etc. But this all would not be possible if it wasn’t for the hard work of a few musicians, the trunk of the tree from which these new branches have sprung so to speak.

One of these artists is Joe Buck. From sharing a stage and sleeping quarters with BR549 at the beginning of the neo-traditionalist movement, to becoming a venue owner on lower Broadway in Nashville, to being a sideman for JD WIlkes and Hank III, to now being the essence of the crossroads between punk and country, it is not hard to say that this whole movement would have a different flavor if not for Joe Buck.

This is just as much an interview as it is my attempt to document and preserve the few artists that are the very heart of insurgent country. If Music Row had it’s way, these people would disappear from the public consciousness, and the music they have devoted their lives to would be forgotten. It is our job to make sure their legacies are carried on to the next generation.

And Joe Buck is far from just being another musician, he has superlative wisdom and insight, and a unique perspective on life that deserves as much attention and preservation as the music he creates.

Just like my interview with Andy Gibson was, it is long, and is not for the faint of heart, but the hardcore fan. I mixed in some music as well when possible. The interview was conducted on Oct. 22nd, 2009, in Joe Buck’s motorhome, in the parking lot of a venue called Johnny B’s in Medford, OR, before a show also featuring The .357 String Band and The Slow Poisoner.

It’s about an hour long, so come back and give it a listen when you have the time.

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Legendary Shack Shakers “Cockadoodledon’t” & Joe Buck

You might be asking yourself as you saunter up to this album review, “Now why would he be reviewing an album from 2003?” Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers have put out three other albums since Cockadoodledon’t (the band’s only release on Bloodshot Records) and it is hardly old enough to tag it as a “vintage” review.

Well the truth is though I’ve been a fan of the Shack Shakers on the periphery for years, I have never owned one of their albums. And if you’re going to start buying a band’s music, you might as well start near the beginning of their catalog. But I also chose this album because of its significance in the grand scheme of the Nashville underground country scene at the time.

In 2003 there was (and to some extent still is) a large group of musicians and friends hanging around Nashville, all with a similar mindset about music and the current music trends. Some were from bands like BR549 and Hank III’s “Damn Band.” Some were just pickers drifting from project to project. One of them was a goofy looking guy named Joe Buck, who played for change on Broadway in Nashville until he got a small break playing at Robert’s Western World for tips in the early 90′s. Slowly he would work his way up the ladder, and even co-owned “Layla’s Bluegrass Inn” for a stint, before splitting up with the bar’s namesake and forefitting his interest.

Later as many of you may know Joe Buck would go on to play bass for Hank III and eventually settle in as a legendary one man band, but where it all started on a National level for Joe Buck was on the Shack Shaker’s Cockadoodledon’t.

No Joe Buck isn’t just a player on this album, he is virtually the ONLY player on this album. Joe Buck plays ALL the guitar, ALL the bass, ALL the drums, and some banjo, mandolin, and accordion for good measure. There are a few cameos by other players, including Donnie Herron of BR549 and a few others. But for the most part, the songs are all Colonel JD Wilkes (the Shaker’s legendary front man), but the music is all Joe Buck.

In some ways trying to record the Shack Shakers experience and have it in any represent what they do live is like trying to save time in a bottle. But try you must, because the music is just too darn good not to. And with a little recording wit, and a bag of tricks bigger than the bag they can use on stage (incl. live roosters, and a toy-box full of kid instruments), JD Wilkes and Joe Buck infect the speaker cones in a similar way that they do the hips and hind quarters during the live version.

The music is rampant and wild, though surprisingly well-balanced in regard to tempo, and never seemingly wild just for wild’s sake. Well, almost never. Choreographed madness let’s call it. And for such upbeat songs, the music has a lot of country soul.

Joe Buck’s musicianship is not particularly standout in the album, but it is always solid. JD Wilkes would stand out in an insane asylum. The blend of music is all unique to Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers: punk, country, blues, pyschobilly, call it whatever. It is high energy, rowdy music from the country. Get some.

The album includes some old blues covers like “Shake Your Hips” and an almost ska-like, Lux Interior-esque version of “Bullfrog Blues.” There are plenty of high energy boot stompers like “Snakerag Holler, “Clodhopper,” and “Hoptown Jailbreak,” as well as a few well-written originals like “Blood on the Bluegrass.”

This album ain’t gonna drop a tear in your beer, it’s like dropping a white cross when your bouncing between white lines on the highway. It’s for anyone who likes to have a good time to good music. Just make sure to buckle up, it’s a wild ride.

(Another interesting note: former Hank III guitarist Duane Denison is now the guitarist for the Shack Shakers)

Buy or Download Cockadoodledon’t

BR549 & The Beginning of the Neo-Traditionalist Movement

Country music is an interesting thing. More so than in any other genre of music, you can look back at it’s history and almost see a grand design; an underlying purpose to all of it’s ebbs and flows. Country music has created folk heroes and arch villains within it’s ranks of performers and business handlers. At times it has pushed itself suspensefully to the brink of destruction, only to resurrect itself more stronger than it ever was before. Country music has never seemed to achieve balance, but it constantly seems to be striving to. In other words, country music likes drama.

The year was 1992. Country music was coming out of a very nondescript decade that tried to make superstars out of people like Ricky Skaggs and George Strait. Country music was trying to find its way, and maybe it was a little bit too hopeful, a little too desperate to find some one to give the genre a jump start. A young man from Oklahoma named Garth Brooks hit the scene, and country music was never the same.

In 1992, Country’s top album was Garth’s Ropin’ the Wind. In second place was Billy Ray Cyrus’s Some Gave All proving that Brit pop was not the only genre that could create a one hit wonder. 3rd was Garth’s No Fences. 4th was Garth’s The Chase. 5th was, you guessed it, Garth Brooks, with his first self-titled album. For those of you counting a home, Garth had four of the top five albums in country in 1992.

1993 came and Garth still had the #2 and #4 albums of the year. Just two? It’s a wonder he could feed his family. Who was #1? Billy Ray Cyrus. But as Garth was flying suspended from the ceilings of sold out football stadiums and marginalizing country music to make it appeal to the masses, the country neo-traditionalist movement was beginning. Of course it was. Country music would have it no other way.

Sure, groups like The Reverend Horton Heat and Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys had been doing the retro thing since the mid 1980′s, but they were more Rockabilly than country, bred more out of the 50′s influences in 80′s culture than a strict passion for old time hillbilly music.

We could go nine rounds trying to hash out who was “first” with revitalizing the old school country sound, but it is hard to argue with putting Junior Brown on the list, or the greatness of BR549.

For going on two decades, BR549 has been the heartbeat of the Nashville underground neo-traditionalist movement, and has produced artists such as Chuck Mead, Gary Bennett, Donnie Herron, and Chris Scruggs. You may have never seen these artists names on the front of your CD’s, but if your into that old school country sound, likely you have some CD’s with their names inside. As it was mentioned in my audio interview with Andy Gibson, musicians like Don Herron and Chris Scruggs are part of a small Nashville group of friends that are willing and able to help get great music recorded.

For example, Herron and Scruggs appear on all of Bob Wayne’s albums. Don Herron is also now touring and playing with Bob Dylan. Chris Scruggs has since moved on from BR549 and started a solo career, but you still see his name all over the place in association with the underground Nashville scene.

Here is Don Herron playing with Hank III from a few years ago:

If you are in to the old school country sound, you owe it to yourself to check out BR549.

And I hope that in the future, when the small but strong neo-traditionalist movement that tried to counterbalance the rise of pop in country in the 90′s and aught’s is talked about, BR549 is given their due for being an essential element.

BR549 Albums:

BR5-49

Big Backyard Beat Show

This Is BR549

Tangled in the Pines

Dog Days

Coast to Coast Live