LET IT TWANG! CD Review
Sally Timms -- Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos (Bloodshot). As if your cd player were channeling a long-lost barn dance broadcast that's been drifting through the cosmos for fifty-odd years, this cd begins with the crackling static of a weak AM radio signal. An announcer emerges from the noise to introduce Cowboy Sally, and you're immediately seduced by the glowing shiver of "Dreaming Cowboy", the cd's first track. Right away you realize that this ain't no barn dance. It's more like "Trinity Sessions" vintage Cowboy Junkies meets Gene Autry: A collection of dark and spooky campfire songs from a woman who sounds like she's loved and lost one too many times. There's an impressive list of songwriters here, including Robbie Fulks, Jeff Tweedy, Jill Sobule, and... (OH YEAH!) Johnny Cash whose "Cry Cry Cry" is one of the disc's highlights. Cowboy Sally is, of course, Sally Timms, a veteran of the underground music scene and the Mekons, and her big, rich voice is supplemented here by pedal steel, fiddle, banjo...all the fixin's. It doesn't sound a bit like the insurgent hell-razing alt.country we're used to from the folks at Bloodshot -- this relatively hushed music sounds unmoored in time, as if Cowboy Sally is the ghost of all broken hearts, numbed by the emotional fallout, come back to haunt us with her straw hat and guitar. Top Ten of 1999 Award Winner. -TRS
Track listing:
1. Howdy Folks & Gather Round (0:24)
2. Dreaming Cowboy (4:28)
3. The Sad Milkman (3:41)
4. Dark Sun (3:57)
5. In Bristol Town One Bright Day (3:01)
6. Sweetheart Waltz (3:41)
7. Snowbird (1:55)
8. Cry Cry Cry (3:09)
9. When the Roses Bloom Again (4:19)
10. Cancion Para Mi Padre (4:38)
11. Rock Me to Sleep (2:04)
12. Goodnight Cowboy Sally (0:23)
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