12 July 2000

Reading:  The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav

Listening to:  Robert Earl Keen's Picnic

Article:  "Bedeviled Hams" (feature article on Reckless Kelly!), Houston Press

I picked up the Houston Press hot off the presses tonight, as I often do on Wednesday nights, and noticed the cover article on the Texas Open Beaches Act and current controversy over its enforcement, this being an issue that has been occupying some of Hallmark's time lately.   I'm just skimming through the thing when I see a very familiar photograph, and an excellent article on my favorite band, Reckless Kelly.   This was surprising, because in the year or so I've been following this band in a big way, I've not seen them covered in the Press despite their immense popularity in Houston.

I was most impressed by the fact that the writer, one John Nova Lomax, seems to recognize the integrity of this band.  Yes, they write great music.   Yes, they sing great harmonies.  Yes, they play the hell out of a variety of instruments.  But Lomax sees something more in them:

The band's originals aren't quite there yet, at least lyrically, but the group strives for a sound Nashville gave up on when it sent Faith Hill to Lipstick and Eyeliner Application Seminar 101 and Brooks & Dunn to Dave's Western Wear Emporium: country-rock (Or is it rock-country)? . . .

Like Ned, the band at this point would seemingly rather perish than sacrifice its ideals. Nashville would eagerly snap up this bunch of good-looking twentysomethings -- and sure as shit Music City would also exasperate these guys with nonstop image-doctoring and incessant publicity schooling. . . .

Offstage, the band members seem just as much in sync with each other as they are on, and don't really seem to give a damn what the labels -- those of New York, L.A. or Nashville -- may think. These five performers have reached the crossroads, and unlike Robert Johnson, they probably won't be peddling their souls. Neither to Nashville nor the devil, who may or may not be working for the same parent company. But there is no question that if Reckless Kelly had to make the choice between Downstairs or Tennessee, Old Scratch would have to make room for five more souls. (Houston Press, 13 July 2000).

That's right -- this is a band with integrity.  Like Joe Ely and Robert Earl Keen before them, they aren't willing to betray their values -- their judgment of what is GOOD music -- for/to the herd.  I've noted the integrity of these guys before, most forcefully in my 18 March journal entry, but it's nice to see their virtues recognized by others.  Their passion and loyalty to values comes at a cost, though.  How many bands putting out their third successful cd are still willing to play two shows a night?  How many bands would find it far easier to don some ridiculous looking Garth Brooks-style western shirts, wrangler boot cut jeans and a big ass Stetson, and go about producing the typical Nashville swill (songs three minutes in length with the standard country chords and drawl, and drinking or women, preferably both, as the subject matter) -- and let the money roll in?  The pressure to do so must be enormous on nights like the last show of theirs I saw at the Satellite, where some drunk literally climbed over the backs of people onto the stage, and no bouncer even saw the damn idiot.  Yet they play on, not compromising their sound and refusing to sign on with a Nashville label.

It may seem like I've made much about nothing tonight.   Those who think that just don't understand.  Integrity in any form matters.   It's impressive.  It's how I would like most of the world to be, but it isn't.   When I find it, I damn sure like to celebrate it.

Some nights -- most nights -- their music even lives up to their integrity.