CALENDAR
* SCORING THE CLUBS Dec. 26, 2003 - Jan. 1, 2004
sunday December
28
.
Patty Booker & Rick Shea at the Bigfoot
Lodge
With their mutual, natural-fact blue-collar
honky-tonk background, California-country duo Patty Booker and Rick Shea rate
as nothing short of dreamy. Each has talent to burn, and each has put in hard
time at some of the lowest taverns ever to pollute the local landscape. Their
recent duet CD, Our Shangri-La, is a model of precisely where it’s at:
Fine material, expert delivery and first-rate musicianship all converge on a
set of alternately upbeat and embittered tales. Hammered together with the rough-hewn
grace of authentic country expression, the disc manages to honor tradition even
as it reaches out for previously unknown artistic territory — no mean
feat. On the surface, the pair make it look so easy, but this type of crafty,
manicured communication requires mastery of a byzantine course of subtle devices
and shadowy nuance; in the fallow orchard of contemporary country, Booker and
Shea’s harvest is almost shocking in its low-key effectiveness. Also at
the Cinema Bar, Mon.. (Jonny Whiteside)
Jan - Feb 04
"Country
duet albums are few and far between these days. To my ears, however, two
of the best recent examples of this dying subgenre came out in 1999. John Prine's
"In Spite Of Ourselves" (on which Prine is teamed with Iris Dement, Patty Loveless,
Melba Montgomery,and others), and a self-titled disc from the Two Dollar Pistols
with Tift Merritt (featuring Merritt and Pistols' frontman John Howie). Unlike
those, however, which center on the ghosts of duets past, Californians Rick
Shea and Patty Booker rely mainly on their own compositions; one or the other
of them wrote eight of the thirteen songs on Our Shangri-LA.
The fact that the originals are first rate
makes the disc all the more striking. Shea and Booker, who appeared separately
on 1992's A Town South Of Bakersfield, Volume 3, provide an updated and simmering
version of classic West Coast honky tonk. The Booker-penned "I Know What's
Wrong (But I Just Can't Get It Right)" and "You", two hard country songs, supercharged
by steel guitarist Gary Brandin, might go to number one if Tim and Faith sang
them.
Shea, a member of Dave Alvin's Guilty Men, has
whole lot of Hag in his voice and writing; the country legend would likely approve
of Shea's "I'm No Good Without You" and "The House That We Once Lived In".
In fact, two Haggard hits are effectively covered: "You Take Me For Granted"
(written by Leona Williams) and "The Bull And The Beaver" (co-written by Williams
and Haggard).
The so-so title track takes its' cue from
the George Jones / Tammy Wynette classic "We're Not The Jet Set" in its' approach,
but it's not nearly as memorable. For the most part, however, Our Shangri-LA
is an auspicious team effort."
-----Andy Turner
Jan 29th - Feb 4th 04
Tough
& Tender
Rick Shea & Patty
Booker
Our Shangri-LA
Tres Pescadores Records
Talk about chemistry: Our Shangri-LA establishes
just how beautifully local scenesters Rick Shea and Patty Booker work and sound
together. Produced by the San Berdu-raised, Covina-based Shea (a longtime member
of Dave Alvin’s Guilty Men), this impeccable 13-song collection of traditional
West Coast honky-tonk duets (most of them originals) recalls the hard country
call-and-response pairings of Rose & Buck, Merle & Bonnie, and George
& Tammy. Costa Mesa singer/songwriter Booker is a descendant of Okies who
brings to the material a tough bite, tender vulnerability and sexual tension.
Shea complements her beautifully with his deep-voiced, more nuanced phrasing
and delivery. Alternately upbeat and bitter, these story-songs naturally focus
on the up-and-down affairs of the heart, where jealousy and betrayal (Shea and
Booker’s "Baby That Ain’t True"), deep romantic yearning
(Shea’s "I’m No Good Without You") and relative domestic
bliss (Booker and Jann Browne’s "Our Shangri-LA") add spice
to everyday life. And true to the heartbreak that is country music, Shea’s
vivid, gut-wrenching "The House That We Once Lived In" closes the
album with a physically decaying home working as a metaphor for a weary, withering
marriage. The timeless, rich music sparkles throughout, particularly the haunting
steel-guitar and dobro playing of Gary Brandin, Shea’s twangy guitar licks,
and Eddie Baytos’ folksy, rootsy accordion/washboard flourishes. But what’s
most remarkable about Our Shangri-LA is how it honors country’s time-honored
roots without being a slave to them. Now how unusual is that?
by John Roos
June - July 2004 #112
Rick Shea and Patty Booker Our Shangri-LA
(Tres Pescadores TPCD-4 2003)
Rick
Shea, Dave Alvin's Guilty Men guitarist, never garnered too much attention for
his own recordings until he teamed up with Brantley Kearns a few years ago to
put out a classic traditional country album. His follow-up for the same label,
while still country, is a very different album. Taking on Patty Booker as a
partner (both of them are alumni of Town South of Bakersfield) the two of them
have come up with an old-fashioned call-and-response type of country duet album,
the kind that went out of style a few decades ago. Our Shangri-LA
has become quite a favorite among Americana deejays. Among the songs not written
by Shea and Booker are Leona Williams and Merle Haggard's “You Take Me for Granted”
and “The Bull and the Beaver” and Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's “Summer
Wine” hit. Pat McLaughlin's “Fewer Things All the Time” is another highlight.
File under “gritty blue collar honky-tonk.”
Paul-Emile Comeau-Nova Scotia.
RICK SHEA &
PATTY BOOKER
Our Shangri-LA
(Tres Pescadores)
The pairings are legendary in the world of classic country music. George and Tammy, Porter and Dolly, Conway and Loretta - and now you can add Rick and Patty. Deeply rooted in the Bakersfield tradition, Rick Shea and Patty Booker have recorded an album of hard country duets that's nothing short of a masterpiece. Whether performing their true-to-form originals or digging into the songbooks of Lee Hazelwood and Merle Haggard, they sing and play every note of every song with an authenticity that makes you yearn for the old days and glad you lasted long enough to hear this one at the same time.
Shea's become best known for his work with Dave Alvin's Guilty Men, but
his roots are in the Inland Empire circuit of truck stops and roadhouses that
gave us Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Patty Booker is the offspring of the Okie
migration, and grew up to work the country clubs of Southern California beside
performers like Billy Mize and Joe Maphis. In each case, they came up in an
environment that demanded performers who could deliver straight country music,
straight from the heart, and that's what they provide here.
If the names that led off this review don't
mean anything to you, you've missed out on something special, and this disc
can help you catch up. If those names are as familiar as I hope they are, you'll
be glad to know that the music can still sound as good as it ever did, and there's
still a country duo able to prove it.
© 2003 - Shaun Dale
tuesday nov,
4 2003
Rick
Shea and Patty Booker
Our Shangri-LA
(Tres Pescadores)
Duet singing has fueled country music since its beginnings, both in family
acts like the Delmores and Louvins, and superstar pairings like Dolly &
Porter and Conway & Loretta. Nashville's recent duets have tended more toward
marketing events than career paths, leaving those outside the mainstream to
carry the torch. Shea and Booker, veterans of Southern California's honky-tonk
scene, fan the flames of the country duet with a strong dose of the Golden State's
recalcitrant twang.
This pair of singer-songwriters first met
as disc-mates on 1992's "A Town South of Bakersfield, Vol. 3." Then, as now,
they charted a course through Bakersfield, with Shea's tenure in Dave Alvin's
Guilty Men adding a helping of roots-rock energy. Booker's voice is reminiscent
of Rosie Flores, but together with Shea, especially on tunes like "The Bull
and The Beaver," they recreate the high-low magic of The Kendalls.
Beyond a few covers, such as the trail-dusted
"Summer Wine," the duo's own arrangements and songs form the album's impressive
core. The spare "You Take Me for Granted" would break the heart of Merle Haggard's
original protagonist, and Shea's "Just a Matter of Time" crackles with the magnetism
of Johnny & June. Shea's production keeps the voices front-and-center without
short-changing the fine instrumentalists who set up the album's mood. Special
mention must be given to steel player Gary Brandin, whose haunting runs, bell-like
peels and weeping bends are nearly a third voice within the duets. This is an
exquisite album that impresses upon first play and reveals more charms with
every spin.
- Eli Messinger
november 2003
RICK SHEA & PATTY BOOKER
Our Shangri LA
(Tres Pescadores)
Even in the traditionalist sector, country singers seem to think that singing the same song with somebody else is a duet, but it isn't. It's just two people singing at the same time. Up until Bill and Audrey I thought this bedrock staple of classic country music was pretty much a lost art, but its nice to know that Looking Back To See wasn't a fluke, and that Americans, or anyway Californians, can play this game as well as Australians. Shea, currently Dave Alvin's Guilty Men guitarist, and Booker, both alumni of the Town South of Bakesrsfield project, originally got together singing A House Divided on Shea's 1991 cassette debut, later reissued as On Shaky Ground, and now present a full album of 13 duets. Unlike Auld & Chambers who harked back to the two part harmonies of the Louvin Brothers or Carl & Pearl Butler (as did Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris), Shea and Booker, whose heroes are, respectively, Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynne, draw their inspiration from the intimate conversational question and answer, call and response style of the 70s and 80s mixed couples - among the few covers are Lee Hazlewoods & Nancy Sinatra's Summer Wine and Leona Williams & Haggards You Take Me For Granted and The Bull And The Beaver. Proven singers and songwriters, Shea with three fine albums, Booker with I Don't Need All That (highlighted by her magnificently defiant hard country reading of Hell Yes I Cheated), they go together like, well like Leona & Merle, Rose Maddox & Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart & Jan Howard, alternating mutual heartache with sly humor.
John Conquest
Our Shangri LA Rick Shea and Patty Booker
Heres some mighty fine west coast country from two solo artists teaming up for the first time on record.
Each has a classic country voice. Shea sounds a bit like Lefty Frizzell, while Booker sounds like a less fragile Tammy Wynette.
The material, much of it original, is top-notch. Theres a good choice of covers, too, including Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's old hit "Summer Wine" and two songs by Haggard's ex-wife, Leona Williams, "The Bull and the Beaver" (co-written by Merle) and "You Take Me for Granted" which is my current favorite on the album,(www.trespescadores.com)
Steve Terrell
pasadenaweekly
News and Entertainment
10/23/03
Downhome
Shangri-La
Rick Shea & Patty Booker
duet in the studio and on the stage
By Bliss
Best known in some quarters as the multi-instrumental anchor of Dave Alvin's Guilty Men band, Covina's Rick Shea has established a critically praised reputation on his own with three solo albums and last year's “Trouble and Me” collaboration with fiddler Brantley Kearns. After years of playing truck stops and honky-tonks around LA, Orange County and San Bernardino, he's earned sufficient chops and artistic creds to mentor up-and-coming artists like singer-songwriter Phil Tagliere. Now he's adding to his body of work with the realization of a longtime dream: an album of duets with pal Patty Booker, the newly released “Our Shangri-La” (Tres Pescadores).
It's a project the two have been talking about for years, and it's already fueling their careers with fresh momentum. As good as they are independently, the music they're making together is more emotionally dynamic, with an edge that's inspiring more excitement on the LA music scene than either has experienced in some time.
Since last spring they've been working up a repertoire of songs (mostly original, plus a few heartfelt nods to Merle Haggard) at various clubs around LA, including Bean Town and an ongoing residency at Culver City's Cinema Bar. It's rock-hard, non-cheesy, unapologetic California country all the way: biting Telecaster twang, frank lyrics, and rhythms that alternately shuffle, waltz and rock. If Shea's expressive guitar work and brandy-smooth vocals give the music legs, then it's Booker's gutsy singing that forms its fierce heart. She couldn't not sound country even if she wanted to; her phrasing and tone alternately recall Loretta Lynn and rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson. She's a solid rhythm guitarist, but as Bob Gothar's assumed those duties over the past several months it's been a kick to watch her learn to play bass onstage like some can-do rockrgrl.
Emblematic of their live sets are fun uptempo numbers like “Just a Matter of Time” and the saucy “Our Shangri-La” (co-written by Booker and Orange County country stalwart Jann Browne), with its celebration of mortgages, shabby-chic flea-market finds and home videos. But it's the ballads that best showcase their fire-and-smoke harmonies, like Booker's “You” and Shea's poignant “The House That We Once Lived In,” which he only recently started playing in public; employing a dusty, weed-ridden house as metaphor for a disintegrating marriage, it's fast become a highlight of their performances.
Booker and Kearns join Shea at the Fret House (309 N. Citrus Ave, Covina)
8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25; $15. Info: (626) 339-7020.
| Posted on Sun, Dec. 28, 2003 |  |
|
Best albums of the year
By Mark Whittington Mercury News My year-end list includes my ``favorites,'' determined by the albums that stayed in play in my cluttered world. It does not pretend to be a list of the year's ``best.'' Warning: My tastes are all over the map. My picks, in no particular order: John Williams , ``El Diablo Suelto'' Sony Classical -- Ry Cooder and Manuel Galbán , ``Mambo Sinuendo'' Nonesuch/Perro Verde -- Mike Marshall and Chris Thile , ``Into the Cauldron'' Sugar Hill -- John Hammond , ``Ready for Love'' Back Porch -- Tab Benoit , ``Sea Saint Sessions'' Telarc -- Tom Russell , ``Modern Art'' Hightone Records -- Rick Shea and Patty Booker "Our Shangri-LA'' (Tres Pescadores Records) Great weepers and honky-tonk duets in the California tradition of Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens or Buck Owens and Rose Maddox. How good is this album? I lent it to a friend who won't give it back. Bonus: Shea's twangy guitar. Gillian Welch , ``Soul Journey'' Acony -- Howard Tate , ``Rediscovered'' Private Music -- Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio , ``In Full Swing'' Odyssey -- |
||
Hi, this is the best of 2003 as voted
on by the 127 DJs who report to
Freeform American Roots.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
#1 Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez: The Trouble With Humans
(Trainwreck/Lone Star)
2 Rick Shea & Patty Booker:
Our Shangri-LA (Tres Pescadores)
3 Ray Wylie Hubbard: Growl (Philo)
4 Dwight Yoakam: Population Me (Audium)
5 John Lilly: Last Chance To Dance ((self
6 Calexico: Feast of Wire (Quarterstick)
7 Rodney Crowell: Fate's Right Hand (DMZ)
8 Wayne Hancock: Swing Time (Bloodshot)
9 Paul Burch: Fool For Love (Bloodshot)
10 Cornell Hurd Band: Live At Jovita's (Behemoth)
11 Drive By Truckers: Decoration Day (New West)
12 Marti Brom: Wise To You (Goofin')
13 Bobby Flores: Just For The Record (Yellow Rose)
14 Greg Trooper: Floating (Sugar Hill)
15 Ronny Elliott: Hep (Blue Heart)
Friday Jan 16th 2004
These 11 albums were the class of 2003
Paul Andersen Music Notes
1. 50 Cent "Get Rich or Die" Interscope.
2. White Stripes "Elephant" V2
3. Steely Dan "Everything Must Go" Reprise
4. Nicholas Payton "Sonic Trance" Warner Bros.
5. Anthony Hamilton "Comin From Where I'm From" Arista
6. Airto Moreira "Life After That" Narada
7. Tie: Chrstian McBride "Vertical Vision" Warner Bros.
and Dave Holland Quintet "Extended Play: Live at Birdland" ECM
8. Rick Shea and Patty Booker "Our Shangri LA" Tres Pescadores
Country music has long been a haven for great male-female duos -Tammy and George, Dolly and Porter - and following in that lineage is the first great duo of the new millennium. Shea and Booker sound like they've been working together for decades, with and easy feel and a great set of tunes, the majority of which are originals. Organic and natural, this is a duo to watch.
9. The Yardbirds "Birdland" Favored Nation
10.Anny Celsi "Little Black Dress and Other Stories" Ragazza Music