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Since hoisting the "insurgent country" banner in 1995, Chicago's Bloodshot Records has provided refuge for former punk rockers who embrace Hank Williams Sr. as patron saint and Lefty Frizzell as kindred spirit. Informed by equal measures of attitude, alcohol, and twang, this raucously vibrant birthday collection of previously unreleased material resists the corral of categorical conformity. Instead, highlights range from the Waco Brothers' banjo-driven breakdown of the Who's "Baba O'Riley" to the shimmering, haunted ballad, "Favorite," by Neko Case and Jon Rauhouse. Featured within the 40 tracks on this two-disc extravaganza are label stalwarts such as Alejandro Escovedo (renewing Mick Jagger's "Evening Gown"), Robbie Fulks, and Kelly Hogan, along with guest artists ranging from Graham Parker to Giant Sand. Plainly a labor of love, the set provides a definitive survey of the diversity of music carrying the alternative-country brand. Don McLeese

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Tracks:

Disc 1: 71:21

01. Oh! Chicago (The Yayhoos)
02. Evening Gown (Alejandro Escovedo)
03. Making Love With You (Old 97's)
04. Favorite (Neko Case & Jon Rauhouse)
05. Roses Are Blooming (The Hollisters)
06. Oh Lonesome Me (Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospel)
07. Sunshine (The Meat Purveyors)
08. Money To Burn (Rico Bell)
09. I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling (The Handsome Family)
10. Easy Ridin' Mama (Devil in a Woodpile)
11. Please Take the Devil Out of Me (Caitlin Cary)
12. Why Drunky? (The Blacks)
13. The Least I Could Do (Supersuckers w/Amy Nelson)
14. Going Home (The Roughnecks)
15. It's Too Late (The Riptones)
16. Hell or High Water (Johnny Dowd)
17. Unforgiven (Hazeldine)
18. Turn the Lights Down Low (Moonshine Willy)
19. Blue Diamond Mine (Texas Rubies)
20. Baba O'Riley (The Waco Brothers)


Disc 2: 70:51

01. Bloodshot's Turning 5 (Robbie Fulks)
02. Here Comes My Ball and Chain Again (Cornell Hurd Band)
03. See Willy Fly By (Graham Parker w/ The Waco Brothers)
04. Looks Like I'm Up Shit Creek Again [Tom Waits cover] (Nora O'Connor)
05. Milk and Scissors [Handsome Family cover] (The Sadies)
06. Broken A/C Blues (Duane Jarvis)
07. Wicked Saviour (Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys)
08. Glue (Andre Williams & Sally Timms)
09. Guitar Playin' Woman (Bare Jr)
10. Hard on Things (Giant Sand)
11. Monday Night (Ryan Adams)
12. Ghost on the Highway [Gun Club cover] (Trailer Bride)
13. I'd Like To (Mike Ireland)
14. Kelly Hogan & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts ---- "13 Nights" (Paul Burch cover)
15. Hang Your Head in Shame (Grievous Angels)
16. Last To Know [Alejandro cover] (Chris Mills & Deanna Varagona)
17. Bring the Noise [Public Enemy cover] (The Unholy Trio)
18. Brixton (Chip Taylor & Jon Langford)
19. Train Song (Split Lip Rayfield)
20. Highway to Hell [AC/DC cover, but you knew that] (Red Star Belgrad)
21. Jon Rauhaus W*nking (Jon Rauhaus)




As independent record labels go, five years is a lifetime. Half a decade and over 70 releases after a late-night drunken tirade against the music industry gave it life, Chicago's Bloodshot Records has proven itself to be perhaps the most important Americana-no Depression-alt-country heap.
The label has always prided itself in merging punk and country in the most unholy of matrimonies, and Down to the Promised Land proves the marriage works. Within the two-disc set's 40 tracks are excellent rock tunes from the likes of the Yahoos, the Waco Brothers (doing the Who's "Baba O'Riley"), aggressive cowpunk from the Roughnecks, and Trailer Bride, straight-up honky tonk from the Cornell Hurd Band and Nora O'Connor, and speedgrass from folks like the Meat Purveyors and Split Lip Rayfield. But the biggest moment? Without a doubt the Unholy Trio's low-fi cover of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise," complete with strains of "Dixie" thrown in for good measure. : ~ John Duffy


Down to the Promised Land is a kick in the pants for music fans, a thumb in the eye of naysayers and a great big moonin' the board rooms of the music industry establishment, which has repeatedly rent itself asunder in the last half-decade, while the Bloodshot insurgents firmly planted their battle-frayed flag on territory as diverse as antique country, punk twang, bluegrass with attitude and new old soul. Ladies and gents, Bloodshot Records is five years old.
With this two-disc anniversary collection, Bloodshot revisits the treasure-trove approach launched memorably in its landmark 1994 debut, For a Life of Sin: A Compilation of Insurgent Chicago Country. The following year, the label proved it was not only bad, but nationwide, with a 1995 compilation of artists it found fighting the good fight all over the U.S. Hell-Bent: Insurgent Country Volume 2 introduced Tempe's Grievous Angels, among others, to new fans as far as the aggressive little upstart label could reach. Emboldened by the response to these volleys, Bloodshot took the battle to Nashville itself with its 1996 collection, Nashville: The Other Side of the Alley (a.k.a. Insurgent Country Volume 3), an in-your-face survey of country and rock artists just under the nose, but way under the radar, of the Music City monolith.
Bloodshot's fifth anniversary compilation doubles the dancin'-shoes fun, and whiskey-soaked, self-inflicted pain, of its earlier platters. Besides entries from its current roster (which now boasts country punk blueblood Alejandro Escovedo, as well as longtime label mentor Jon Langford of the Mekons and nouveau media darling Neko Case), the 40 tracks include cuts from artists who have just been passing through, like Elektra's Old 97's, who got their start on the Chi-town indie; Whiskeytown's Ryan Adams, who's set to release a solo record on the label this September; and Robbie Fulks, back in the Bloodshot fold after an ugly stint with Geffen. Party invitations also went to friends old and new -- notably The Handsome Family, achieving some long-overdue success after five releases on Carrot Top; and The Texas Rubies, who haven't been heard from on record since the very first Bloodshot comp.
The result is, of course, a mixed bag, with something for everyone to love or hate. It's blended as painstakingly as the best home brew, though, so its flaws help account for its considerable character, in part because they surface in unexpected places.
Glimmers of brilliance often emerge from the more surprising entries, like The Texas Rubies, who made their mark on the Chicago club scene before Bloodshot's time with such witticisms as a rap take on Guy Clark's "Home Grown Tomatoes" and tongue-in-cheek hillbilly originals like "That Truck," their contribution to A Life of Sin. On Down to the Promised Land, though, the duo delivers an a cappella treatment of Jean Ritchie's "Blue Diamond Mine," with chilling West Virginia hills harmonies delivered with the sharpness of a pick ax.
Rookie Nora O'Connor debuts with a cover of Tom Waits' "Looks Like I'm Up Shit Creek Again" that proves him a better country songwriter than even he likely thought he was. The track is so strong that Bloodshot fearlessly sequenced it after British New Wave icon Graham Parker's rendition of the Waco Brothers' "See Willy Fly By," backed by the raucous Wacos themselves.
Another surprising gem is the solo entry from Whiskeytown's Caitlin Cary. Singing George Jones' "Please Take the Devil Out of Me," she shows a range of tone and emotion that puts her in a league with Case, if not quite within reach of Kelly Hogan on any ordinary day. Hogan's own track, a cover of Paul Burch's "13 Nights," is unfortunately not on par with her own recent release, the wonderful Beneath the Country Underdog.
Covers in this set are played purely for fun, with artists frequently plumbing each other's catalogues, or those of people you'd never expect. The Sadies, for instance, back the Mekons' Sally Timms on a Handsome Family tune, "The Sad Milkman." Sugar Free recording artist Chris Mills and Lambchop's Deanna Varagona work Escovedo's "More Miles than Money"; both the Meat Purveyors and Rex Hobart cover songs by their Kansas raunch-grass labelmates, Split-Lip Rayfield. Hazeldine, on the other hand, delivers a punishingly intense, gender-bent rendering of "Unforgiven," attributed to the obscure Lazy Sunday Dream. The Unholy Trio, a side project of Freakwater bassist Dave Gay, performs Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise" as if for a Saturday-night dance in a Show Low bar.
About half of Down to the Promised Land unveils never-before-released original material, some of it sterling. The Yahoos' "Oh, Chicago" is a chugging rocker in the '70s Little Feat tradition; Tucson's Giant Sand nails the Bloodshot culture in "Hard on Things," with a lyric depicting a regular bull of a guy who can make a china shop out of anything; and Ryan Adams tosses in the slam-dunk single, "Monday," a song with hooks six ways to Sunday.
Never the one to be too optimistic (he's depicted in the liner notes "promoting" his favorite product: Tums), Bloodshot co-founder Rob Miller still considers himself a house painter by trade, but no one's fooled. He and company president Nan Warshaw now have logged five years swimming with the sharks, and although Spago lunches and Omni suites at the South by Southwest Music Conference may still be out of reach, it's clear they've found their vocation in the peculiar blend of punk and twang they call "insurgent country." :~ Linda Ray


Really, five years? (And another one gone, till this treasure-chest came to my hands.) Hard rocking, true to the bone and taking-no-shit country-music of the earthy, sweaty and twangy variety. This ain’t alt.country or some other thinly disguised folk-crap, this is the fuel that makes trucks last that last mile longer. Bloodshot records offers a 2-CD-present for its fifth birthday with (nearly) every important name on the guest list. If there is still any blood left in your heart, you can’t go wrong with this.
Is it really five years already? It wasn’t so long ago that I stumbled over the Waco Brothers (one of the best bands there are for sure) and then over a bunch of compilations digging into a hard-edged version of country that I only knew from some old records I had stolen from my father or at local fleamarkets. Suddenly, there was the spirit of rebellion in the air, of a diffuse, beer-drenched working-men's disgust at the powers-that-be, at the circumstances of life and at the whole general shit around you. Yes, the disclaimer “insurgent country” fit better than anything I could think of. This was music for grown up men and for women who aren’t “ashamed to be women or afraid to be a friend”. (If you can tell me, where the quote is from, I’ll send you a price.) A new / old world opened up for me and at that point of time I wanted to resettle to Chicago more than ever before.
Of course, I stayed. Story of my life, but my regained interest in country-music sparked whole new energies in my personal life. Is it really five years? That seems such a long time. But then, I feel as if some bands on the label were with me forever. I know, that it can’t be, but that just means, that these bands filled out some holes, that were left open and waiting for them. The Waco-Brothers played the part of the cool mentors, experience and revolutionary sparkle rolled in on big honky-taco. The Sadies did the wasted but still lots of fun friend of a friend-part. Neko Case and Sally Timms became these unreachable love interests that tormented you so sweetly in your youth. Andre Williams, of course, is the dirty old man. Robbie Fulks is the dirty young man with the strange sort of humour, and your mother tells you to stay away from them. Theres also the kids who made it to college but still play with you, The Meat Purveyors. The wise, old man, who doesn’t talk a lot but vibrates with the freedom that experiences bring – Alejandro Escovedo. And oh so many more. This CD offers 40 previously unreleased songs and all of them are at least very good. As far as this kind of music is concerned, nobody delivers it better than Bloodshot records. Happy Birthday.
There are also some non-label-artists like The Supersuckers, Johnny Dowd, Giant Sand or Bare Jr. saying hello as well as Old 97’s (who left towards major-success and came back again). The range of songs reaches from straight country-rockers, bluegrass, lonesome songs to groovy chillers and even some fun tracks. The Unholy Trios cover version of “Bring the noise” by Anthrax & Public Enemy is one of the highlights for sure. But you can’t really say that, there is so much on here. The birthday-present is rounded off by a thick booklet full of those who matter most – the artists (and a damn cat) - and a nice double-digipak coverd in the typical paintingstyle of Jon Langford, which became iconografic with insurgent country.
If you haven’t gotten familiar with insurgent country yet, get this record. If you have and you like it, you’d better get it fast. And let’s hope that the promised land isn’t so far out of reach. At least we have the perfect soundtrack for the journey. : ~ monochrom.com