Too Country And Proud Of It!

The Trailer Park Honeys have taken on a new name and have a brand new album out: Now they're Lisa and Her Kin and they're spending "Two Weeks in Texas." But the new name doesn't mean any changes in their sound, their style, or their good ol' down home white trash attitude.  This gal and her fellas still know how to party honky-tonk style, and no mistake.        

Lisa's big, beautiful voice belts out the real stuff without holding back a second.  This beer hall Aretha just knows how to lay it down.  There's no schmaltz, no slicked-up pablum, none of that gooey fake junk you hear on the radio here.  This is what HOT country should sound like. There's power in every track.        

One of the great things on this disc is a firecracker-hot, smokin' cover of Waylon Jennings' "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," nicely readjusted for this "Only Mama," enhanced tenfold with some powerful guitar pickin' and a great drum beat keepin' time. That and River of Regret are the only covers; Lisa wrote (or co-wrote) all the rest of these honky-tonk-cool songs.  Nifty sounds continue with "Preachin' To The Choir," a Saturday night gospel song; there's some fun wordplay in "Sleepin' His Way To The Middle." To demonstrate there's more here than just a beer hall dance band, the lovely "Rodeo Jewel" is just a plain, good old country song, sweet as molasses; ditto weeper "Ladies Nite."  Hard drivin' rockabilly plays strong in "Sugar Pop," a retro tune that is a really awesome showcase for Lisa's powerful vocals.        

Helping Lisa out here are her regular "Honeys," with Lisa herself on guitar and vocals, John Dorn playing them drums, L.W. McGrath on the bass and backing vocals, and Ian Miller on lead and rhythm guitar; in addition, they're joined up with Texas musicians Chris Miller (steel and guitar), Eamon McLoughlin (fiddle and mandolin), the inestimable Earle Poole Ball (piano), Micah Hulscher (piano), the amazing Ricky Davis (pedal steel), and the backup vocals of Rachel Browning and John Twist.        

The release of "Two Weeks in Texas" has taken the ol' Honeys on a brand-new path to bigger things, as they have been picked up by Burnside Distribution, who are getting this CD out to the public.  Soon they'll be headed back to Texas for shows at the Austin favorite venue, Ginny's Little Longhorn, and then on to Europe (where, sadly, American country music celebrates wider popularity than it does here in its native country).  That is really good news for music lovers.        

This is a masterful, passionate, and truly superb disc, and a great debut for the new name.  It's a shame corporate radio won't stand up and take notice of this strong-singin' woman, whose incredible emotion and delivery are far too real and down-to-earth for most folks used to sugar-sloppy "country."  But as with some others who are likewise being ignored by the radio, this gal belts out a song with 100% of her heart and soul, and she's not worried about openly showing the dirty underbelly of her world, the sadness, the shame, the pain, because this is a voice that knows joy is always a lot greater when you've known sorrow.

Kathy Coleman Take Country Back January 2003