From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article: November, 1981 Date: Saturday, February 12, 2005 10:02 PM The Southerners By Doug Bright September 19, 1981 Friday night at J.J's began with a drawled, Johnny Cash-style "Hello, I'm Grant Curtis", and with that began an evening of country, (or at least country-based), music with the Southerners. The tone was set by an easy Cash-style rockabilly boogie with light but solid brushwork and bass, rudimentary steel and somewhat more captivating guitar solos. I had come to hear good, honest, unfiltered country music, and things were definitely off to a good start. If I had any lingering doubts about the potential of this band, they immediately disappeared with a medley of "You Win Again" and "I Can't Help It" sung by Grant Curtis in a manner which Hank would have been right proud of. Curtis, the leader of the group and "By God I come straight from Alabama"), is by far the most impressive vocalist, and coun- try ballads in the Hank Williams tradition are his strong suit. "Pass Me By" was quite well done, and "It's a Lovely, Lovely World Since I Met You", dedicated to his wife, was worth the whole evening. Unfortunately, however, this fine treatment of traditional country material was not entirely without exception. Hank Thompson's "Wild Side of Life" was played in an out-of-context rock-shuffle style with rather sloppy back-up harmony. "Steel Guitar Rag" was played too fast and gave the unwanted impression of a mediocre country band trying too hard to be flashy when the purpose would have been much better served by taking the tune slow and easy and letting it speak for itself. Steel guitarist Jack Stedman isn't really a soloist, but his subtle presence behind Grant's voice is virtually indispensable. Very early in the evening the calendar was inevitably moved up with the presentation of more contemporary material, much of it sung by other band members and not nearly as well. The 1950's rockabilly was fairly unimpressive except for the solidity of the rhythm section and some nice tasteful guitar licks from John Candelario. Just about everything except Grant's old-time country ballads seemed motivated more by commercialism than artistic sincerity. In short, this is a group that's trying too hard to conform to a prefabricated commercial country band image. It's a philosophy of "Give the people what they want" rather than "Make the people want what you have to give". In spite of it all, though, they can do some nice authentic country that's well worth listening to. ----------------------------------------