Medleyville

TEN REASONS WHY BUDDY HOLLY STILL MATTERS

Precisely 50 years since the music supposedly died (Feb. 3, 1959), here are 10 reasons why Buddy Holly remains essential:

1. THE "CHIRPING" CRICKETS
Holly, alongside rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan, bassist Joe B. Mauldin and drummer Jerry Allison, formed the immaculately suited, fully self-contained singing/songwriting template upon which some of the greatest pop-rock bands since, from those Beatles most obviously on down, were inextricably linked at the hip.

2. BUDDY'S BUDDY
When no less than Elvis Presley first blew into Lubbock, Texas, on tour in 1955, homeboy Holly was not only right there in the front row cheering him on, but afterward appointed himself the Hillbilly Cat's exclusive host, guide and confidant for the ensuing 16 hours. Duly inspired, Holly immediately revamped his burgeoning Crickets from an alt-bluegrass combo into Lubbock's very own Elvis, Scotty (Moore) and Bill (Black -- so successfully so, in fact, that several months later, when Presley triumphantly returned to town, Holly had graduated from mere tour guide status to that of official onstage opening act.

3. LEARNING THE GAME
After somehow failing to impress the usually infallible Owen Bradley with "That'll Be the Day" at a 1956 demo session, Holly determinedly drove the thousand miles from Nashville, Tenn., to the Clovis, N. M., studios of Norman Petty. Over the next 18 months, they turned the simple two-track facility into an audio workshop/lab from which came not only the look and attitude, but the very sounds of the 1960s to come.

4. LISTEN TO ME
It may have lasted only 25 days, but when Holly and his Crickets toured the United Kingdom in spring 1958, those watching closely and taking serious notes for future use were, amongst thousands of others, John Lennon and Paul McCartney (whose first-ever recording was a near note-perfect "That'll Be the Day"), Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (the former already proud owner of the "Chirping" Crickets album), Graham Nash and Allan Clarke (who soon grew their two-man Everly Brothers act into the full, named-in-guess-who's-honor Hollies) and pioneering British record producer Joe Meek (who subsequently became so obsessed over Holly that he killed himself and his landlady on the eighth anniversary of Holly's death).

5. NOT FADE AWAY
It did indeed take a Holly composition to first put The Rolling Stonessecurely into the American hit parade with, at the very height of Beatlemania, Lennon/McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man" unceremoniously relegated to the single’s B-side!

And speaking of whom …

6. WORDS OF LOVE
Holly wrote the best song on the Beatles VI album and, come to think of it, maybe even on Beatles for Sale.

7. FOOL'S PARADISE
Holly's wealth of songs have proven so adaptable, durable and downright sturdy as to withstand covers from the likes of Rush, the Grateful Dead, The Knack and even Linda Ronstadt -- not to mention "It's So Easy" (-Off oven cleaner) and “Oh Boy” becoming "Oh, Buick!" television jingles at the behest of Holly's supposedly sympathetic publishing magnate, Sir Paul McCartney.

8. MAYBE BABY
Years before he was to become the serial tragic clown of VH1 reality programming, that perennially short-pant-legged dust storm known as Gary Busey deservedly nabbed an Oscar nomination for his title role in 1978's The Buddy Holly Story. While its script may have taken inexcusable Hollywood shortcuts in recounting our hero’s life and music, at least Busey, alongside co-stars Don Stroud and Charles Martin Smith, became pretty damn garage-worthy Crickets all over the film’s soundtrack, performing close to live whenever possible before the cameras.

9. CRYING, WAITING, HOPING
Weeks before his last-ever tour, Holly sang several song sketches into a tape recorder in his Greenwich Village apartment for what turned out to be posterity. With covers of Ray Charles and Bing Crosby, plus Holly’s own final compositions, these exquisite guitar-and-voice-only recordings are far more than simply "unplugged." They are sublime, heartbreaking and totally unique -- as with most things Holly.

10. STANDING IN THE DOORWAY
"And I just want to say that when I was 16 or 17 years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory, and I was three feet away from him. And he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was -- I don't know how or why -- but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."
— Bob Dylan, during his 1998 Grammy Awards acceptance speech for Album of the Year honors (Time Out of Mind).

-- Musician/writer Gary Pig Gold is the co-founder of the To M’Lou Music label.

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Medleyville.us staffers Chris M. Junior, George Henn and Mike Madden attempt to wrap their heads around the latest studio album by this rootsy yet unconventional quintet from Austin, Texas.

Chris M. Junior: Although hard to classify with mainstream music references, The Gourds are easy to like. The touch of NRBQ-style humor and solid Band-like foundation have served these guys well through the years. This time around, there’s more of a country flavor, both in terms of content ("Country Love," "Country Gal") and style ("Valentine").

George Henn: Why stop there with the classic rock touchstones? At times, I hear a Rolling Stones-like boogie, gruff vocals and phrasing a la Bruce Springsteen, even traces of Los Lobos' laid-back, Tex-Mex flavor. I'm not knocking their influences; clearly these guys are credible players with even better taste. But with all the varied sounds and styles smeared all over Haymaker! it is hard to tell just who The Gourds themselves really are.

Mike Madden:That melding of influences and sounds is a great trait that this band exploits to the hilt. On "All the Way to Jericho," the barrage of instruments gives that song a solid live feel, and that seems to be the intent on the whole album. Haymaker! sounds like musicians bouncing ideas around the studio and sticking to the first takes if they have the right spirit.

Junior: Sure, there's a melting-pot element going on, but I don't think The Gourds, collectively or individually, lack distinct characteristics. Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell can be expected to write the more straightforward narratives, while Jimmy Smith is good for a few head-scratchers (gotta love the random Roky Erickson reference in "Hey Thurman.") And the humor can come from anyone at anytime: Russell's "Shreveport" is loaded with funny images, and arguably the best is the reference to the song's trucker protagonist jamming along with Rush's "Limelight."

Henn: Funny that you should mention head-scratchers because while I really like the sound and the vibe of this album, a handful of these tunes are full of non-sequiturs and lyrics that are at best incoherent and at worst nonsensical. "Fossil Contender," for example, appears to be loosely based on the idea of digging up human remains, and it features confounding couplets like "Way after their time underground/Back of my head smells like a kick drum." But before the listener can spend much time pondering such obsurdity, the next track might be a gem along the lines of "Tex-Mex Mile," full of honky-tonk swing, or the down-home groove of "Country Gal." Granted, this disc is my first real exposure to The Gourds -- aside from their superb, genre-bending take on Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" from several years ago -- but lyrically and sonically, they seem like a handful of bands rolled into one, for better or for worse.

Madden: Honestly, the unpredictability of this album, not only lyrically but also in terms of sounds and tempos, is what may make it all the more appealing to me. Let's face it: If all the songs had similar intros and all the lyrics were about beer, broads and boats, it would sound like everything else in mainstream country music. The most interesting music doesn't always have to be the catchiest stuff. Sometimes it's the "huh?" moments that make the lasting impressions.

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Aaron Zimmer is in a New York state of mind

When Aaron Zimmer felt that relocating to the big city was best for his music career, his new start coincided with the start of a new year.

On New Year's Day 2004, Zimmer left Lincoln, Neb., in his tour bus. After a brief stop in Nashville, Tenn., to drop off the bus at a consignment lot, he rented a U-Haul and drove to Manhattan's East Village, arriving Jan. 3, 2004.

He's been in New York ever since, and Zimmer vividly remembers his early struggles.

"In the beginning, I paid rent late, a lot," the pop/rock singer recalls. "I took any job I could find. I worked in a little ice cream shop, sold guitars, waited tables – anything I could do.

"I remember feeling really frustrated that I worked all of the time but never had any extra money to put into my music. They say that on average it takes about six months to acclimate to New York City life. For me, I think it was about a year. I stayed in, ate lots of ramen and brown rice and focused on finding a job that was going to allow me to put more energy into my music."

Eventually, Zimmer landed work doing freelance Web/graphic design. And after meeting producer Christian Cassan sometime in 2005, he began work in Brooklyn, N.Y., on his second full-length album, Live Wires, due in stores Jan. 20.

"I had heard some stuff he was producing through a mutual friend, and his mixes were just out this world," Zimmer says of Cassan.

Together, they tracked almost every instrument on Live Wires. Zimmer says recording the song "Save Myself" proved to be a challenge.

"I think we started that song over from scratch twice," he says. "We tried tons of things – made it slow, then made it fast. Made it soft, then loud – and nothing seemed to work.

"We almost canned the song altogether. You can hear a lot of experimentation, particularly at the end. We figured since we didn't really know what we had in that song, that we could try anything."

Appropriately enough, Zimmer will celebrate the release of Live Wires in New York with a show at the Annex on Jan. 17. Once the album is released and there's reaction at radio, his plan is to "pile in a van and hit the road."

-- By Chris M. Junior

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DiNizio covers Holly classics on new solo album

Throughout his career, Pat DiNizio has tipped his cap to Buddy Holly by performing the late rock 'n' roll legend's material, writing a song named after Holly's widow and even wearing oversized Holly-style specs.

DiNizio takes his appreciation for Holly to another level with Pat DiNizio/Buddy Holly, due Jan. 27 on Koch Records. The latest solo album by the Smithereens leader features his renditions of 11 songs from the Holly catalog.

"I wanted to do an album that was respectful and almost reverential of the material, yet was not a re-creation or a simulation of the original -- it sounds like me," DiNizio says. "There's no doubt who it is when you hear it.

"It's really my album, but it's Buddy’s album, too."

Toward the end of his career, Holly used string arrangements on some of his recordings, and DiNizio does the same on his new album. Charles Calello, whose credits include The Four Seasons, Glen Campbell and Eric Carmen, wrote and arranged the strings featured on DiNizio's takes of such Holly songs as "Words of Love," "Listen to Me" and "Peggy Sue."

DiNizio has a busy 2009 ahead of him. In addition to a full-fledged solo "living room" tour, he will be performing and recording with The Smithereens. He also is due to appear at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2 as part of the 50 Winters Later celebration honoring Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

-- By Chris M. Junior

Select Smithereens performances (schedule subject to change):

* Jan . 9: World Cafe Live – Philadelphia

* Jan. 10: Rams Head On Stage – Annapolis, Md.

* Jan. 16: State Theatre – Falls Church, Va.

* Jan. 17: B.B. King Blues Club & Grill – New York

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