JD Faron: This Town

"JD Faron saunters boldly up to the bar at happy hour and stays well past last call.  His debut release is a honky tonk Saturday night's worth of beer-stained, hard-edged twang that'll leave you with one wicked hangover.  Country music fans know there's no 'alternative' for the real thing.  Either is is, or it isn't. JD Faron's "This Town" definitely 'is'."

If you're a regular listener to www.twangcast.com you've more than likely heard a couple of cuts from JD Faron's debut album 'This Town.' Just a few months after he pulled together the album things are beginning to happen fast and furious.

From L.A. to Austin and Back Again

Faron's currently based in Austin, Tx. but it was on the West Coast that he got his honky tonk education. While the L.A. country music scene slowly faded in obscurity, he found renewed vigor and opportunity to follow his dreams and head to Austin while recovering after a serious illness

"I came down with the West Nile Virus. I literally almost died at Cedar Sinai Hospital. During the recovery I said 'You know, you're not getting any younger, and you need to go out and do what you want to do. It just so happen that I get home and three weeks later I get a call from this company that wants me to move me out to Austin, Tx. I was like 'Okay, God. I'm on my way!"

Seizing the opportunities to put his music down on disc in Austin, he's now finding himself going full circle. He had left the West Coast for the greener pastures of Austin, he finds LA the place to be now in terms of the live circuit. "LA is happening! It was dead for a long time." He's discovered that Austin, despite the opportunities it's given him to record his music, is a hard nut to crack for a new artist without inside connections. Getting a chance at the live circuit in Austin is an uphill battle, so these days he finds himself racking up the road miles between Austin and LA in order to be able to play his music live.

Real Country Music

As with most country music musicians Faron has strong opinions on what he's seen happen to the music over the years and has no qualms in sharing his view from an inside perspective. "For me the music died when Shania came out with her song “I’m gonna getcha good”, and then there was Chrome and another one and I just thought myself 'It's gone!' "

As far gone as he believes it is, he also sees hope on the horizon. For those who've long waited for a re-visitation of the days of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens his premonition gives hope. "I think there's going to be a big resurgence of serious country coming back, I would say early seventies kind of style maybe late 60's." It pretty obvious something has to be done in country music. Look how Nashville is taking a beating on all the new music. There having a hard time selling it. The music just doesn’t have any soul. 

Defining what real country music is comes as no easy task for most but Faron takes the challenge on with ease. "Real country. It is a feeling that expresses with words and music the everyday feelings that are deep within the soul of the American man or woman. Country Music is part of what America is. The music actually encapsulates its hopes and dreams and its dark side which actually tells the real story of life, not sugar-coated."

Hardcore real-life country songs can relate to everyone. Even in this technologically driven world in which we live in you still have the working man, the guy who cheats on his wife, good cowboys who still fall in and out of love and bad cowboy like the Enron renegades and so on. It comes all comes down getting in touch with the attitude and emotion of the situation. Country Music can grab you and tell you a story without a whole lot of fluff and production. 

He believes mainstream country music has lost it's relative-ness to its listeners as well as its own past. "I think what happened in the 80's country music started to become hard-core again, in fact that's when I started getting into it again, you saw all these guys like Dwight who unfortunately didn't click on mainstream radio. Which I think really hurt country and western. Country started to become real main-stream in the late 80’s and that’s when it started its nose dive and it kind of went off the radar. Then in the 90’s country seem to become a haven for people who couldn’t make it in the rock world so they migrated to country and became country pop singers.

Compounding things is the all too commonplace saga of political correctness. "A lot of that country/pop is safe, really safe. They are so scared they may offend. That’s why we have such damn vanilla songs. It's very vanilla, you can play it anywhere. Country songs have now been brought down to the level of songs about fishing and safe double entendre. All the life has been drained out of most country music songs.  Even listen to some of these tribute albums that people are doing to the great artist of the past. Hell, if the original artist had done them they way these “tribute” artist are doing them they would have never been hits.

"This Town"

Its obvious he knows what he's talking about and the reality of that knowledge becomes more apparent when referenced to his own music. Building on the success and attention generated by a self produced EP Faron took the bull by the horns along with some great pickers and players and  created a full length album. You're going to hear a heck of a lot of influences in this album, from rockabilly to the western twang that'll have you recalling Marty Robbins. But one thing you're not going to hear is a gussied up, slicked back, perfect 'product, part of the charm of this album is it's spontaneity. "I didn't want to go that far. I wanted to keep it as simple as humanly possible. If there was a note that was missed or the music didn't get up to the right speed, I still liked it. I could have gone in there and corrected it but I didn't want to do that."

He recalls his days as a graphic artist." I remember my teacher telling me now I want you to draw the perfect face, 'each side has to be prefect.' It was absolutely horrible, because it had no character it was too perfect. If you look at all the beautiful faces in the world they all have their own imperfections. That's what I think is wrong with country music, it's too over produced and it sounds horrible."

"I really wanted the CD as traditional as I could, as non-produced as possible. I had people coming up and really wanting to say okay we can produce it, we can do this, we can do that. I said no, I just want to get back to some serious roots and keep it as simple as possible. Get in there and do what I need to do with a good twangy guitar, and let the lyrics do the talking."

The result of his great instincts and his passion is 'This Town.' The album is a fast paced roadhouse rocker that blends the rawness of rockabilly with the twang of hillbilly honky tonk.

More to come...

While the album is traveling in the fast lane gathering momentum, he's getting ready to hang on for the ride of a lifetime. "I am one of those guys who let the wheels fly! I'm just going to to let it happen and then pick up the pieces, what's good, what's bad and just go for it!"

JD Faron is a man who makes his own fate, takes every opportunity that come his way and believes in what he's capable of doing. With that kind of attitude, mark my words, we're going to be hearing a lot more from JD Faron.

Laurie Joulie Take Country Back January 2003