From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article: May, 1982 Date: Monday, October 17, 2005 10:41 PM May, 1982 JOE KING: WANTED FOR COUNTRY MUSIC By Doug Bright Everyone knows that all the country acts that merit any attention at all come out of Nashville or Austin, right? Well, that's what I thought, too, until I recently discovered a local ensemble that just might give the folks down home a good run for their money. The new band of musical outlaws is called Wanted, and it's headed up by a very competent songwriter by the name of Joe King. Joe has been writing songs for about fifteen years, but it's only been in the last two that he's been working toward developing a market. Two years ago he began exploring the possibility of getting his songs published and recorded, and he managed to make a few contacts in Nashville. The one thing his contacts consistently told him, however, was that he needed a record label to establish his credibility, so he started one. Until very recently the energies of his new company were focused on Ronnie Reno, the son of bluegrass superstar Don Reno and an impressive singer and songwriter in his own right. Joe's big break came last October when his friend Shot Jackson, a respected bluegrass Dobroist and studio musician, got him a spot on the Grand Ole Opry. This was all it took to convince him that the time for paying dues was past. It was now high time to put his King-J record label to work for the fulfillment of its original purpose, and a quarter-million-dollar shot in the arm from his father-in-law's auditing firm primed the pump nicely. Joe King's band is composed of some of the best undiscovered country talent in town, and he knows it. The musicians are paid weekly even when they aren't working, a factor that virtually guarantees cohesiveness. So far it's been a busy year for Joe and his group, and the rest of the year promises to be even busier. For the last few months, they've been playing clubs around the Northwest and working on an album at Jim Wolfe's respected Music Source studio. Now the album is out and the band is on tour in Canada, and though I haven't yet heard them live, the new recording indicates that they'll be a hard act indeed to follow. JUST PASSIN' THROUGH is a very interesting and well produced collection of original songs, most of which were written by Joe himself. His songs reflect an active mind constantly observing life, people, and relationships, and expressing its conclusions with eloquent simplicity. A selection called "Old Whiskey, Young Ladies, and One-night Stands" is a reflective, straightforward portrayal of the games people play in bars. "Good For Nashville" targets a similar game that's played in the talent agency offices of Music City. "Why, Danny, Why" is the best song yet written about the far-reaching questions of a child. It might even be said that Joe King fulfills in his own time and idiom the same role that Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and Chuck Berry fulfilled in their heyday, for these are the philosophers of the common people. The songs of drummer Tim Hileman and lead guitarist Tim Harris are also represented on the new album. Though these songs contain a few lines that hit the nail right on the head, they also contain some awkward phrasing and fragmented thoughts that betray a lack of experience. However, the good lines are so good and the ideas of the songs so downright country that one can't help noticing a definite potential, and in time these two budding songwriters may surprise us. From a purely musical point of view, Joe King's new release is no small achievement. The sound of the band is as refreshingly simple and authentic as a good Willie Nelson album. Chip Fossa's steel guitar is quiet and unobtrusive but so penetratingly melodic that it simply demands your attention. Lead guitarist Tim Harris picks clean, uncomplicated, single-voice melody lines that sound a lot like the old Johnny Horton sessions. David Cahn, who has already established himself in Seattle traditional folk circles as something of a prodigy, plays all the rest of the lead instruments with the exception of a fiddle track shared with Shirley Seim on "Just Passin' Through". His approach to fiddle, mandolin, Dobro, and bluegrass banjo is up-front and confident but absolutely tasteful. Joe's rhythm guitar, Tim Hileman's drums, and Ron McDonald's bass round out the band and give the sound a very solid foundation. Shirley is an excellent fiddler who specializes in western swing, but the material presented here doesn't afford her much opportunity to demonstrate it. Consequently, her major contribution to the album is her vocal harmony. Joe's voice, with its quiet sincerity, is backed up nicely with full harmony from the rest of the band. The engineering is an additional asset, and ideas such as the slight echoing of the steel provide an irresistible sparkle. The over-all impression that one gains from this album is that of artists who really believe in what they do and feel no need to sacrifice the integrity of their music to the demands of shallow commercialism. Despite this, though, there's a lot of stuff on this album that should be quite marketable. Two songs in particular, "Old Whiskey" and "Just Passin' Through", have all the makings of a major country hit. It's my prediction that Joe King, with his excellent band and no-nonsense country songs, is a musician that the industry won't be able to ignore long. ----------------------------------------