Various Artists, Americana Motel (Bay Gumbo Music, 2001)
The Washington, D.C., area has had a lively roots music scene going back at least to the early Seventies when Mike Auldridge and the Seldom Scene were making bluegrass music there. There have been a few D.C. acts since then that have risen to cult status, like the late guitar hero Danny Gatton, and others that came darn close to it, like Jennifer Cutting's Fairport-influenced New St George. And there are a whole bunch of them still active, including a few that may be on the verge of making it big -- and they got together to record this compilation, mostly paying tribute to one another by singing each other's songs.
Americana Motel boasts a few fairly well known names, including Auldridge and John Starling, as well as The Kennedys and Tele-wrangler Bill Kirchen.
Starling, Auldridge and Jim Gaudreau sing and play the sea-chanty-like "My Sally," which was penned by Eric Brace of the D.C. group Last Train Home. The Kennedys do a nice turn on the Buddy Holly B-side "Tell Me How," and Bill and Louise Kirchen duet on an old Tennessee Ernie Ford-Kay Starr side, "I'll Never Be Free." Kirchen's guitar shows up on other tracks as well. It could get confusing to try follow who does what to whose song. Several of the tracks are by one off groupings of members of other bands, so it's best not to try.
A better way to approach the disc is as an overview of the various branches of American roots music. There's the bluegrass-inflected "My Sally," the loping rock 'n' roll of Nina Simone's "Real Real" by The Grandsons, swinging rockabilly of "Buddy Love" by Jumpin' Jupiter, Fifties country-pop of the Delmore Brothers' "Field Hand Man" by The Fieldhands, and the country-soul of "Been Awhile" by Last Train Home.
Karl Straub's rendition of "Blue Train" and Little Pink's "Cathode Ray Blue" both edge into various realms of pop. The Hula Monsters' "Things I'm Not" is a bizarre blend of acoustic and electric, Hawaiian luau and California surf punk. Ruth Logsdon's group Ruthie and the Wranglers play a sweet waltz time swamp pop number, "Why Must You Leave Me" by Sun Records artist Vernon Taylor, and Logsdon teams up with the delightful Lisa Moscatiello for the rousing Dusty Springfield soul song, "The Middle of Nowhere."
Speaking of sweet country soul, The Rhodes Tavern Troubadours do a pretty good job on J.D. Loudermilk's "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." Then, just as you're ready to cry in your beer, comes the final track, Karl Straub's hilarious "Don't Take Advice," by just about everybody. It's got the best sing-along chorus of any song I've heard this year, including lines like "Don't give a baby a Zippo lighter/don't tease monkeys, run with scissors or cut down a redwood tree," then caps it off with the punch line, "don't take advice/from a songwriter."
Americana Motel has some of the weaknesses of nearly all compilations and tribute discs, including a sense that they may be trying to cover too much territory. And not all of the performers are of the same caliber, which tends to drag down the overall impact a little. But within its own narrowly defined goals of showcasing the work of one city's alternative country musicians, it succeeds quite well. While the Americana Motel -- a real place, by the way -- may not ever be a household word like the Watergate, this recording could be a watermark on the way to household name status for some of these performers. If not, it won't be for lack of trying.
