Saturday, October 11, 2008

BURIED TREASURES

Years ago, more years than I want to admit, before I was the vast well of musical knowledge that I am now I would go to the record store and just browse through the albums. I was familiar with all the big names, but I would come across albums from people I had never heard of and would sometimes pick up their album and look at it and wonder what it was. This was before the internet (I told you it was a long time ago) so I couldn't check these unknown bands and singers out on the web. Sometimes I might find a suggestion of their sound in a magazine, but that was rare. Rolling Stone and other music mags covered the bigger name artists. But sometimes I would get brave and pick out an album from someone that I had no idea of what their sound was like. I remember hovering over an album from a group called House of Freaks for weeks. I would go back and pick it up and look at it, the name of the group called out to me, but I knew nothing about their sound. Finally I broke down and picked up the album. The album was Tantilla and I was hooked from the first song.
Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott comprised the group lineup of the band. Bryan was the lead singer and played guitar and Johnny played percussion on anything he could use. The group had a much fuller sound than you would expect from just two guys.

"Crack In The Sidewalk"


They combined folk, rock and blues into a southern style of music that has been described at the musical equivalent of Flannery O'Connor. Their music was about was about race, religion and life in the South.



The band formed in Richmond Virginia in the mid 1980s and moved to L.A. with the release of their first album Monkey On A Chain Gang.

"Meet Your Heroes"


The group was never a commercial success but their first album did make a lot of critics' lists. They moved back home after their first album did not do as they hoped to.



Their next album was Tantilla and continued their style of Southern Gothic. For a two man band the music was full of energy. Unfortunately this album did not became a chart success either. Their next album was the ep All My Friends.


"Broken Bones"




After the ep the group recorded Cakewalk in 1991 and had a minor hit with "Rocking Chair." In 1994 they released their last album Invisible Jewel. After the release of this album the group split up



Actually Johnny and Bryan formed a new group called Gutterball with Steve Wynn from the Dream Syndicate. This group released two albums.

On New Years Day of 2006 Bryan Harvey, his wife and two daughters were murdered at their home in Richmond Virginia. The killers were later captured and convicted. Over 1400 people turned up for the memorial service for the former singer.



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2 comments:

Heather said...

Gosh, the internet really has changed the way things work! I think a lot people probably take for granted the whole thing about how there's more people willing to take a chance on listening to your stuff that you didn't have before, because the whole downloading for free thing seems to overshadow that...

Cinnamon Girl said...

Oh wow. I adore Flannery. I Good Man is indeed Hard To Find. I will have to check this out.