THE FARMERS – “LOADED” - Reviews
The Beat Farmers came roaring out of San Diego, California in the 1980s to earn a diehard international underground following for its aggressive country-blues-rock. The band carried on until 1995, when singer/drummer/guitarist Country Dick Montana died onstage of a massive heart attack. Recently, founding members Buddy Blue (vocals, electric, acoustic, slide, and steel guitars, banjo, harp), Jerry Raney (vocals, electric, acoustic, and 12-string guitars), and Rolle Love (bass) reunited as the Farmers, rounding out the lineup with drummer Joel “Bongo” Kmak, a Montana friend and occasional fill-in during the Beat Farmers’ heyday.
The group’s reemergence has been well-received. In September 2005, they were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Diego Music Awards, and their new CD, Loaded, was the year’s number-one seller on the milesofmusic.com website, which specializes in Americana, alt-country, roots-rock, folk-rock, folk, bluegrass, and singer-songwriters. The Farmers beat out such Americana heavy-hitters as Ryan Adams, Nickel Creek, John Hiatt, and Sonny Landreth — a feat made more appreciable by the fact that Loaded wasn’t released until October.
Loaded easily ranks among the band’s best work. Overall, it’s a bit gutsier than the Beat Farmers’ earlier efforts, perhaps owing to Raney’s rock influences, and evidenced in the fierce overdriven riffs of “Lost in My Car” and the soaring electric leads of “Beans ’n’ Weenies”. The CD also is very wide-ranging. Among its exciting tracks are the psychedelic “Hard Knot”, with its distinctively Hendrix-y vibe, and the down-home “Shadows of Glory”, with its pitch-perfect slide work.
The highlight of Loaded, though, is “Impressed”, an acoustic strummer in the fertile key of G major, on which the Farmers make their own rootsy sound while giving a nod to the great mid- to late-’60s songs of Bob Dylan. Therein lies the formula of the Farmers’ success: they’re able to harness classic American idioms to create their own organic sound. And nowhere is that sound better represented than on this satisfying new album.
— Marc Harris, Wood & Steel
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THE (BEAT) FARMERS ARE BACK!
The Farmers, “Loaded” (2005, Clarence Records)
This is nothing less than the comeback of the legendary Beat Farmers from San Diego. First let me state this will be definitely be a subjective review, because the Beat Farmers are hands-down my favourite band of all-time, and I surely will never live to become so old that anyone else could dispute that status.
The cover of “Loaded,” the logo and how the four band members hang out, looking macho and cool with their sunglasses and tattoos, reminds me of the Beat Farmers legendary debut album, “Tales Of The New West.” The title of the album is perfectly chosen, because “Loaded” is full of power, energy, enthusiasm, intensity and pure rock & roll -- good, old-fashioned American rock & roll, featuring elements of cheeky honky tonk, country-rock, swamp boogie and ‘60s garage rock.
What’s missing? Country Dick Montana, of course. Nobody could ever replace him, which is why they dropped the “Beat” from the band name, as a sign of reverence for this legendary man.
Taking Montana’s place on the drums is the experienced Joel “Bongo” Kmak, who has played in different San Diego-based groups for 30 years. Singer/guitarists Jerry Raney and Buddy Blue share six songs each on this CD and both remain great musicians, while the bass guitar is unflinchingly played by Rolle Love, as always.
The (Beat) Farmers are back in action again, and a look at their well-made website shows that “Loaded” is no one-off comeback: regional touring and side projects (like the acoustic Buddy & Jerry Experience) prove the band is back to having the same fun as ever. The (Beat) Farmers cult lives on, and for me this is the best music news of the year!
— Glitterhouse.de, Germany (thanks to Tina and George for translation!)
*********************************************AMERICANA AT ITS BEST!
The Farmers are, of course, the re-united Beat Farmers, except for Country Dick Montana, who died onstage in 1995. That incident was the main reason that the Beat Farmers broke up.
The Beat Farmers got started in San Diego in 1983 and had various inspiration sources from Merle Haggard to the Sex Pistols. On the first two records you could hear a kind of blues inspiration, but that disappeared when Buddy Blue left the band after “Van Go” in 1986.
That brings us to the present: Country Dick is gone, but back after nearly twenty years is Buddy Blue, and the sound immediately becomes bluesier again, while the country inspiration and swamp-rock a la Creedence are still present, with a touch of Grateful Dead here and there. In other words, this is American roots music or Americana at its best!
As on the first two Beat Farmers records, Jerry Raney and Buddy Blue share the vocals and Rolle Love plays the bass, where now Joel Kmak, an old friend of Country Dick’s, has taken over the drums and sounds exactly like him.
It’s obvious that the group has made this reunion because of their love of playing rather than trying to cash in on the past. There are many great songs on “Loaded,” very well performed and featuring that same familiar little gleam in the eye. The highlights are the songs “Impressed” and “Uncle Stinky.”
-- Firdaposten.no, Norway (thanks to Bard for translation!)
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THE BEAT FARMERS ARE BACK WITH A NEW NAME AND NEW ALBUM
The Farmers “Loaded” *** 1/2
It’s turning out to be a great year for the revival of a number of alt-country acts. Jay Farrar blew new life into Son Volt, the Knitters are back, and now the Beat Farmers are going for a reincarnation -- but don’t look for a new album from a band by that name. Paying ultimate honour to legendary Beat Farmers leader Country Dick Montana, who died in 1995, the band is now known as “The Farmers,” with this edition featuring Buddy Blue, Joel “Bongo” Kmak, Rolle Love and Jerry Raney. If it’s not the same without Montana, they’ve still made a great comeback CD with “Loaded.” Characterized by the same fire as always, “Loaded” is finely produced by Sven-Erik Seaholm.
The Farmers still belong up there on a pedestal with groups like the Blasters, Los Lobos, Rank & File and the Long Ryders. Fat, muddy rock ‘n’ roll is the main course, with dashes of blues, rockabilly and country. “Lost In My Car,” “Impressed” and “Hard Knot” feature red meat rock guitar playing and moaning, while “Look Into Your Eyes” features bluegrass/alt-country banjo picking. “Sunbeam Lake” packs striking American power, while the soulful “Watching The River,” the tongue-in-cheek country of “What Would Skalman Do” and the very Johnny Cash-influenced “Uncle Stinky” – a guaranteed future fan favorite -- are ideal showcases from singer-songwriter Buddy Blue. Blue and Raney share songwriting and vocals equally, with six tunes apiece. Raney’s influence is more on the rock side, whereas Blue tackles all kinds of musical styles.
If the music world has changed too much for the Farmers to have the same kind of impact as they were known for in the past, the fact is that we’re still glad to have them back – there’s always a place in our hearts for groups as great as the Farmers.
--Rod Picot, Ctrl.Alt.Country, Holland (thanks to Rockin’ Paul for translation!)
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BETTER THAN EVER
The Farmers, “Loaded” (Clarence Records)
Grade: A+
With their being awarded the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Diego Music Awards, one supposes it’s time to declare the Farmers officially old farts.
But before they totter off to live out their remaining days playing canasta and chasing nurses at the retirement home, the rest of us can only hope they have a few more albums like “Loaded” in the can.
Founding members of the legendary San Diego band the Beat Farmers, Buddy Blue, Jerry Raney and Rolle Love had played together in a couple of reunion shows in the years since head Farmer Country Dick Montana (aka Dan McClain) died onstage of a heart attack a decade ago. The reunions went so well, the boys had so much fun -- with Montana’s pal and occasional fill-in Joel Kmak on drums -- that the four men decided to make the reunion permanent.
After a couple years of playing around the county and writing new material, the newly renamed Farmers have issued their first album since Montana’s passing -- and it easily stands alongside the best work they did in the band’s previous incarnation.
Tougher and harder-edged than the Beat Farmers’ original sound, “Loaded” gives fuller voice to Raney’s hard-rock inclinations, while still making plenty of room for Blue’s country, jazz and blues interests. With Kmak beating holy hell out of the traps and Love’s thundering bass propelling everything along like a sonic air blower, the band’s playing has never been better or more interesting.
Some of the songs here would have fit comfortably into the band’s old playlist: Blue’s “Look Into Your Eyes” is a rollicking bit of country-billy, while Raney’s “Lost in My Car” is the sort of countrified hard rock the band has long specialized in. But other tracks clearly carry the influences of where the band’s two songwriters and lead vocalists have traveled in the years before and since they first played together two decades ago. “Hard Knot” is a tight bit of early ‘70s psychedelia from Raney’s pen, while Blue’s “Shadows of Glory” has a strong streak of R&B running through it, not too different from what he was doing with his band the Jacks in the late 1980s.
“Impressed” is almost Dylan-esque in its lyricism and melodic construction -- perhaps Raney’s revenge for being mistaken for Dylan by fans through the years. Then there’s Raney’s “Beans ‘n’ Weenies” -- what is, to the best of your loyal critic’s memory, the first instrumental from the Farmers and perhaps the best guitar work Raney has yet laid down in the studio.
Heck, there’s even a Country Dick song here, even if he’s not here to sing it: Blue’s “Uncle Stinky” stands with other Farmers’ novelties Montana sang, songs such as “Lakeside Trailer Park,” “California Kid,” “Beat Generation” and “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” If Country Dick were here, he’d be drunkenly wailing it in that deep baritone of his.
But the best, most rewarding track on this album is “Watching the River.” No longer young, nor willing to pretend, Blue has instead written a mature rock ‘n’ roll song, a song about growing older, about hopefully finding some wisdom and peace along the way. Wistful and sentimental, but never cloying or cheap, this is Blue’s finest song -- it is the best song the Farmers and/or Beat Farmers have put out. It’s not only a good enough song to stop you in your tracks in the here and now and demand your full attention, it’s got that rare magic that makes you wonder what these guys have coming next.
-- Jim Trageser, North County Times
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THE FARMERS: SDMA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNERS
In the pantheon of San Diego musicians, few cast a bigger shadow than the members of the Farmers. Without question, the local musical landscape would be far different today without the contributions of Jerry Raney (guitar/vocal), Buddy Blue (guitar/vocal) and Rolle Love (bass).
Founding members of the Beat Farmers in 1983 alongside the late Dan “Country Dick Montana” McLain (drums), the groups’ side projects alone have produced enough music to stock a good indie store. Just scratching the surface here, but a Farmer was present in bands ranging from the Roosters in 1964 to Glory in 1971 to the Jacks in 1988. And yet, with all that great music, it’s as Farmers that they’ve made the greatest impact.
The original Beat Farmers were together only for roughly three years. But in that time span, they went from a resident act at the Spring Valley Inn to releasing and touring behind their debut, “Tales of the New West.” The band found a fervent following in Europe, landing a deal in England that resulted in a collectable edition of the first album, as well as the original version of the band’s “Glad & Greasy” EP. Blue stayed through the recording of the follow-up album, “Van Go,” but left before the promotion began in early 1986, next heading the Jacks and then embarking on a solo career, as well as adding production to his résumé. Meanwhile the Beat Farmers continued until McLain’s death in 1995.
The members of the band didn’t regroup until 1998, when they performed a short set at that year’s San Diego Street Scene, with music veteran Joel Kmak on drums. Truth be told, these musicians were never far from their original musical vision, with various combinations of group members performing throughout the ensuing decade with acts including Powerthud, acoustic blues duo Raney Blue and the Flying Putos. That last band found the trio of Raney, Blue and Love together once more, making a name change to the Farmers perhaps inevitable, and certainly welcome. Coincidentally timed with the reunion, fans were thrilled when Rhino Records reissued the band’s debut, with 16 bonus tracks, last spring.
The rebirth of the Farmers sees the band increasing activities on all fronts, with a full live schedule and a new album full of Raney-and-Blue-penned tunes, “Loaded,” out earlier this month. After more than two decades, the band’s influence is immense. They’ve helped countless musicians throughout their careers, and proved that it’s possible to break out of regional success while not having to give up living in San Diego. Whether pioneering roots-rock sounds, blazing a path on the club trail or establishing a fan base in foreign lands, the Farmers are a more-than-worthy recipient of the 2005 Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award.
— Scoop Stevens, San Diego City Beat
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THE BEAT GOES ON
The latest crop of young San Diego punk and alt-rock bands may not realize it, but they owe a considerable debt to the Beat Farmers, the rootsy, often raucous quartet that in the mid-1980s showed that local groups could sign a record deal and tour the country while remaining based here.
“The Beat Farmers were a building block for a lot of bands that came out of San Diego,” said Jeff Gaulton, the talent buyer at the Belly Up Tavern and a longtime fan of the band and its former leader, Country Dick Montana, who died on stage in 1995.
Tim Mays, the co-owner of the Casbah, San Diego’s mecca for live indie-rock shows, credits the band for creating an enduring template.
“At the time it was a pretty big deal that they stayed here, because it demonstrated that you didn’t have to move to Los Angeles or New York to make it happen as a band,” Mays said of the Beat Farmers. “It was so long ago that people forget the significance, because now it’s so easy for a local band to put out a record, hit the road and do well, even without a major label behind them.”
The Farmers, as the band is now known, perform a CD release concert at the Casbah tonight to celebrate the release of its new album, “Loaded.”
On Sept. 12, the band’s legacy will be saluted at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay, where three of the band’s four original members -- bassist Rolle Love and singer-guitarists Jerry Raney and Buddy Blue -- will be honored at the annual San Diego Music Awards (SDMA) with the Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award. Fittingly, the Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award is named after the band’s former drummer, improbably deep-voiced singer, focal point and resident director of mayhem, spilled beer and general debauchery, on and offstage.
A local legend to this day, Montana (real name: Dan McLain) died Nov. 8, 1995, while performing with the Beat Farmers at a club in Whistler, British Columbia. He was 40 and was beloved by fans, whom he fondly referred to from the stage as “maggots” and “cheaters.” He founded the band in 1983.
One of his most popular antics was to grab bottles of beer from concertgoers and spray them with the contents. He also expertly performed while lying on his back, with an open bottle of beer between his cowboy-booted feet, the contents of which he would then empty into his mouth, with varying degrees of accuracy.
Montana’s final tour with the band came in the wake of his undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer in mid-1993. The official cause of death was an acute aneurysm, although Love believes another factor was involved. “I didn’t even know until recently that what got him was a blood clot,” Love said. “Tom Ames, our road manager, told me Dick had a blood clot in his leg and that he knew about it. Dick’s roommate took him to a doctor to get it fixed, but Dick blew off the appointment and went to a secondhand clothing store instead.
“When we played up in these high-altitude places, like Whistler, Dick always had an oxygen tank with him because he was a kick-ass drummer and played really hard. He’d collapse off his drum stool every once in a while at high altitudes, and make a show of it. But when he keeled over this time, I knew he was dead.”
Love and the other members of the band at the time -- Raney and Harris -- quickly decided to put the Beat Farmers to rest. Love was so shaken that he sold all of his musical equipment.
Replacing Montana, still a bigger-than-life presence a decade after his death, was out of the question. But that didn’t stop some opportunists from trying to do just that.
“We were grossed out by the number of people who said they wanted to take Dick’s place,” Raney said. “Literally the day after he died, people were saying: ‘I could do that.’ And we said: No, you couldn’t.’”
The Beat Farmers remained dormant until 1998, when Raney, Love and Harris reunited to perform at the 15th anniversary of Street Scene, with Joel Kmak on drums. A friend of Montana’s since 1971, Kmak began playing with the band after Montana’s 1993 cancer surgery left him too weak to drum on every song.
Kmak also played at other reunion shows and in several of the offshoot bands that followed Montana’s death, including Powerthud, Raney Blue and, most recently, the Flying Putos (whose lineup was identical to that of the Farmers). To hear Blue tell it, regrouping as the Farmers was spurred largely by the negative response to the Flying Putos moniker.
“It was Jeff Gaulton who suggested we change the name to the Farmers,” said Blue, who writes a weekly music column for the Union- Tribune’s Night & Day section.
“That kind of works because there is a connection, with three of the four founding members on board. Dick is gone, and this isn’t a reunion; it’s a full-time band. And we just didn’t want to be saddled with the kind of nostalgic flavor that using the full Beat Farmers’ name would hinder us with.”
The void left by Montana’s absence is impossible to ignore. But “Loaded,” the new dozen-song album by the Farmers, does a good job of honoring and extending the original band’s visceral mix of no-nonsense blues, country and roots-rock.
Released on Blue’s homegrown Clarence Records label, the album was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by local indie-music guru Sven-Erik Seaholm, who also contributes backing vocals, keyboards and guitar on some songs. Other guests include Steve Poltz and former Mojo Nixon cohort Skid Roper.
“The freshness is back,” Love said. “It’s got the same energy and feel we had back then. Obviously, it’s without Dick, but Joel fits in well, drumming-wise.”
The musical style on “Loaded” should sound instantly familiar to veteran fans of the band. But the Farmers’ live shows take on a more fluid dimension that probably wouldn’t have sat well with Montana.
“We’re always laughing at how much Dick would hate it now, because he was a strict, three-minute-song guy and didn’t like a lot of guitar solos,” Blue said. “We’ll just go off into Grateful Deadville sometimes now. And we picture Dick, if he was still here, getting apoplectic behind the drums.”
-- George Varga, The San Diego Union Tribune
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THE FARMERS, “LOADED”
In 1984, Billboard tagged The Beat Farmers “the best American band to come down the pike since Creedence.” More recently, No Depression said they “meshed together with grit and nerve every good style of American music with greater versatility than the Blasters or Rank & File.” Well, after 20 years, founding members Buddy Blue, Jerry Raney and Rolle Love have finally reunited (under the abbreviated name The Farmers) to record a new album of chooglin’ country rock, throbbin’ swamp blues and meltdown psychedelia. The Farmers’ “Loaded” is a big, rockin’ record that covers a lot of musical territory, yet is bound together by their undouse-able spirit. When not exploring the twangier side of life, The Farmers are tilling other musical soil on this collection of songs by both Raney and Blue; the Faces-esque jangle pop of “Impressed” leads into the harder edged, Ventures-inspired “Sunbeam Lake,” which in turn precedes the gospel-tinged “Watchin’ The River.” They haven’t lost their zany edge either -- with songs such as “Lost In My Car,” “Uncle Stinky” and “Beans ‘n’ Weenies,” how could you not believe it?
-- Jeff Weiss, Miles Of Music