Beat Farmers

Rhino Handmade's reissue of the Beat Farmers' classic debut album, Tales of the New West, is a cause for celebration in and of itself, but what they've added on this CD edition makes it the band's definitive retrospective as well. All 12 of the album tracks are included here, as is the original album's artwork. Tales of the New West was one of the magic moments in the first alternative roots music movement, along with Los Lobos' How Will the Wolf Survive?, Green on Red's Gas Food Lodging, Rank & File's self-titled album, and the Blasters' American Music. Buddy Blue, Jerry Raney, Rolle Love, and, of course, the late wildman Country Dick Montana are all present and accounted for. Along with wonderful originals such as "Bigger Stones," "Never Goin' Back," "Lost Weekend," "Selfish Heart," and the notorious "Happy Boy" are wonderfully innovative covers of the Velvet Underground's "There She Goes Again" and Bruce Springsteen's "Reason to Believe," all produced by Los Lobos' Steve Berlin (then of the Blasters). In addition, all five cuts from the import-only Glad 'n' Greasy EP are here, along with killer covers of Neil Young's "Powderfinger" and Harry McClintock's "Big Rock Candy Mountain." There are also five cuts from the band's gig-circulated, self-released side, Live at the Spring Valley Inn from 1983, and no less than five previously unissued tracks, including an early studio version of Blue's "Gun Sale at the Church" and a new track by the band's new incarnation (sans Montana, of course), Beat Farmers A.D. This single disc features 28 cuts of wondrously crackling rootsy and punked-up pop sounding fresher today than yesterday; it's pure magic. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide