the Moonhangers and Walter Daniels with Chili Cold Blood

The Moonhangers

Home Grown (BCR)

Walter Daniels with Chili Cold Blood

Trashcan Parade (BCR)

Chili Cold Blood ladles Bloodchili Music – two Fritos packets' worth. The local trio's publishing company copyrights a dozen originals as its shit-kicking country alt.ego, the Moonhangers. Consider the group's Waylon Wednesdays at the Hole in the Wall a tip of Home Grown's hand. Ethan Shaw's pedal steel and Doug Strahan's guitars – Matt Puryear on drums – translates vocally, trading off track-by-track, into Strahan's more leavened tenor and Shaw's deeper Sun Records, and when they duet on "Homegrown," it ain't nuthin but good. Standouts "For Bein' in Love" ("... you sure don't ever call"), Willie-esque lament "Tumble Down Whiskey," and boot-scootin' instrumental "Bouncin' Buds" rustle up acoustics with the call of the steel, not a clunker in the bunch. Blood Chili Records plays Fat Possum on Walter Daniels' Trashcan Parade, six of the disc's nine tracks graffitied by the Red River harp-cat. Daniels' trash-can vocals and rusty lid honk meets Chili Cold Blood's stone cold blues drang and whittles out snappies like "Mystery Beer" and the Punkaroos' "Police Record, Boy." DIY constrains most production budgets, which no doubt accounts for Trashcan's sonic mulch, the harp-off between Daniels and Ted Roddy on "Groovy Gravy" begging for a forefront mix like Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. Lyrics to the Lubitsch/Wilder punk of "Ninotchka" sputter unintelligible, while the title track, unwavering in its solid steel, would've breached the levee through a boost in sonic density. Ditto for closing instrumental "Skanky," like its predecessor co-written with Chili Cold Blood. Chow down.

(Moonhangers)

(Daniels & CCB)