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“The most important thing about the Waco Brothers,” singer/guitarist Jon Langford informs me, “is they take country music very seriously.”
That may sound strange coming from a man who spent over 20 years playing with the Mekons, a first-generation English punk band. It may seem stranger still when you consider that his bandmates have played with KMFDM, Wreck, Graham Parker and the Rumour, and Jesus Jones.
The Wacos started back in the mid-90’s as an excuse for some friends to get together and play country tunes for beer money. It makes sense, though, when you listen to Langford explain, “A lot of bands tend to think of it as a joke. They think it’s funny to stick a cowboy hat on and yell ‘yee-ha’.”
“I like country music because it does similar things to what punk rock does,” continues Langford. “The chord structure is really very simple. It’s not really self-conscious about trying to break new ground. It relies on a bank of tunes and a bank of traditions that can be recycled. Also, lyrically, it deals with everyday life, but in a poetic sort of way. I think punk rock did that as well.”
Over the course of four albums for Chicago’s insurgent country label, Bloodshot Records, the Waco Brothers have simultaneously excavated the roots of country music and kicked down the doors of modern Nashville.
Their 1995 debut, To The Last Dead Cowboy, hit the scene like a bull in a china shop. The Wacos gleefully danced on country music’s grave, while at the same time channeling the spirit of Luke the Drifter. Tunes like ‘Plenty Tough, Union Made’ speak to the music’s populist roots while simultaneously attacking the flag-waving neo-conservatism of Music Row.
Cowboy in Flames (1997) continued mixing political commentaries like ‘See Willie Fly By’ with sentimental weepers like ‘Dollar Dress’, Do You Think About Me (1997) proved to be a big surprise. This odds-and-sods collection, mainly consisting of songs that didn’t make the first two Waco Brothers discs, proved to be stronger than most people’s major efforts. The R&B-flavored title tune and an incendiary reading of Neil Young’s ‘Revolution Blues’ alone make this disc worth owning.
A note on Do You Think About Me said, “Waco Brothers - End of Phase One.” The band was getting too successful to carry on as just a side project. Chicago’s “#1 Wasted Swing Band” had some growing up to do.
When WacoWorld arrived in 1999, you could see the difference before you even put the disc in the player. Jon Langford’s twisted cowboy paintings had been replaced by a slick graphic playing off the old sci-fi western, “Westworld”. Like the film, about a Wild West theme park with animatronic gunslingers, WacoWorld has a cold, polished steel sheen. The reckless abandon of phase one is buried under studio gloss, to the point that the songs almost suffocate. Almost. ‘Day of the Dead’ and ‘Red Brick Wall’ manage to fight their way out of the studio straitjacket to show the band’s true colors.
Recordings only tell part of the Waco Brothers’ story. The band started as an excuse for idle musicians to get out and play for fun, and the Waco Brothers remain primarily a live band. Reports from the front lines are that any additional studio finesse goes out the window on stage. The Wacos still come across as “Johnny Clash” live. This is a band who need to play for the people!
“What’s good about Chicago,” Langford says of his adopted hometown, “is there are a lot of clubs that are run by enthusiasts who are willing to put on things that are not straight industry showcase sorts of things. Your favorite band can be the band you see Friday night at your local bar. Stadium rock and MTV really just passed me by. I would much rather go to Shuba’s and see some band sweating.”
“Everyone talks about the information superhighway and the world wide web,” Langford continues. “I’m online now, and I can go to the alternative country chat room and talk to people about alternative country music or I can go to a bar and watch a band play and talk to people. I think that’s better. Qualitatively, that’s how I choose to live my life.”
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