Dan Baird - Drunken Hillbilly Legends - Exclusive Interview
Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 |
By Buckshot George
Anyone remember owning the self-titled debut from The Georgia Satellites on cassette back in the 1980s? If not, then you at least heard ‘Keep Your Hands to Yourself‘ a zillion times back then and chances are great that to this day, you’ll hear the song at just about any neighborhood bar that hosts cover bands. Yeah, it was actually a decent song with a cool video that not only played on MTV and FM radio a little too often but even crossed over and aired on CMT (Country Music Television). If that tune or their second minor hit ‘Battleship Chains‘ is all you’ve heard from Dan Baird, then you’ve missed out on a good career in roots rock n roll. The Georgia Satellites went through the sophomore slump with the second album ‘Open All Night‘ but returned with a third album called ‘In the Land of Salvation and Sin‘ that is widely considered their best record although it tanked commercially. After Dan Baird ‘fired himself’ from The Satellites, he made two really nice solo albums, ‘Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired‘ and ‘Buffalo Nickel‘. Both albums have since been remastered and re-issued. These days Dan Baird is a busy indie artist and performer as a solo artist, with The Yayhoos and other projects. Southern rock, country rock, roots rock… Whatever you want to call it, it’s all just good rock n roll played on old guitars. (more…)
For the first installment of DrunkenHillbilly Legends, we had the good fortune of landing an interview with Memphis-based indie artist Andy Tanas. He gave a great eyewitness account of life in the music industry from his early days as a live sound engineer during the southern rock movement of the 1970s, his stint with legendary southern boogie rock act Black Oak Arkansas, his major label gig with Swiss 80s heavy metal band Krokus to the present day as an independent label solo artist and live acoustic performer. Besides sharing his story and giving out good advice to aspiring artists, he even has plenty to say about God, girls and good Memphis barbecue… 
