Scud Mountain Boys: The Early Year

Fans of country music, and the recent insurgent-country phenomenon in particular, save their most effusive praise and homage for old-school '40s and '50s stalwarts like Hank Williams Sr., Patsy Cline, and the Louvin Brothers. But there were other vital eras of country music, not the least of which is the lyrical, tear-jerking Glen Campbell era of 1976 or so. This is the country music of Scud Mountain Boys' first two albums: The formerly vinyl-only Pine Box and its follow-up Dance The Night Away comprise this quietly stunning two-CD set. The honesty and faith the band brings to its cover of Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" shows it off as the brilliant, lovely piece of songwriting it is. But perhaps that's an easy one: This band also covers "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," Cher's misbegotten honky-tonker, with the same energy. And the members of Scud Mountain Boys make it work. More important, and just as impressive, is the intensity and desperation they put into and wring out of their own songs: "Silo" and "Freight of Fire" are as desolately beautiful as anything Campbell or any of his contemporaries ever wrote. The band has been compared to The Eagles and Cowboy Junkies, but it is, in a word, better. Buy this collection, and Scud Mountain Boys' equally excellent newer album Massachusetts, and see why.