The Year in Review: The best local albums of 2007

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

Every year, the East Tennessee music scene puts out music that rivals that of any other artist, any other city, any other scene in the nation.

The much-lauded Athens, Ga., scene ... the critically acclaimed Austin, Texas, scene ... North Carolina’s Chapel Hill scene ... Seattle ... the list of regional music hubs goes on and on.

It’s hard, picking just a handful of local albums that make the cut as the “best” local releases put out this year, but we’ll give it the old college try. Here are our selections for the Best Local Albums of 2007 (in no particular order):

1) Cutthroat Shamrock, “The Wake”: I saw these guys open for the Avett Brothers back in September, and if any band comes close to bottling up the lightning that is its live show into a studio package, Cutthroat Shamrock manages to do so on “The Wake.”

2) Angel and the Love Mongers, “The Humanist Queen”: Maybe it’s the work they did with Mitch Easter. Maybe it’s the weariness of trying to write a sophomore record full of love songs like the first. Whatever it is, Angel and the Love Mongers slap the supposed “sophomore slump” theory out the window and into the river on this, their second record. Horns, rock ‘n’ roll guitar, drums, a lot of simmering tension and seething passion ... it’s indie pop and it’s killer.

3) The Tenderhooks, “Vidalia”: From the opening, Ramones-esque swagger of “Kidstuff” to the Americana feel of “Mouthful of Rain” ... from the roller-coaster ride of the title track to the languid pace and cotton candy-sweet vocals of “Quarter of a Century” ... “Vidalia” is one of those albums that even casual fans will pick up and exclaim, “This came from East Tennessee?” The labor of love that went into its making is evident in every note, every lyric, every twist of a song’s narrative, every rising crescendo of electric guitar and every thunderclap of the rhythm section.

4) Crabs Are Scavengers, “Apple Tree Thief”: With shifting time signatures and guitar work that treads lightly as far as solos and hooks go, it’s a pulsing, shimmering mass of rock ‘n’ roll goo best consumed without asking too many questions. Like an exotic dish that tastes a lot more palatable than it looks on the surface, “Apple Tree Thief” goes down smoothly and flavorful, even if you’re left with an indescribable aftertaste that has you scratching your head, wondering what it is, exactly, you just consumed.

5) The Rockwells, “Place and Time”: The pensive “Quarterback” and the wistful “Ten Years Old” may just be two of the best Beatles-esque pop songs to ever be recorded by a Knoxville band. Seriously.

6) Jeff Barbra, “Country Music for Country People”: From the outset, the record makes a statement — “Only Sad, Sad Songs Make Me Happy” is a steel guitar-driven ace-in-the-hole that sets a pace and straddles the fence between two moods — moping and hell-raising — perfectly. From the coal-mining ode “Shine a Little Light On Me” to the Tom T. Hall sing-along “I Like Beer” to the gently introspective “These Hills,” “Country Music for Country People” is about friends and family and standing on the back porch at the end of a hard day, dogs lazing about under your feet, a cold beer in hand and a good woman wrapping her arms around your waist.

7) R.B. Morris, “Empire”: It’s only a five-song EP, but five songs by local poet/playwright/singer-songwriter R.B. Morris are better than 500 by most other artists. From the slow build of Spanish-style guitar on “Buddha (in European Clothes)” to the bluesy shuffle behind spoken-word poetry on “Big Wheel/Vowels” ... from the menacing, growling rock of “Spy” to the album’s high point, “Empire” ... it’ll leave you pleading for more.

8) Hector Qirko, “Wherever You Go”: Is there any stringed instrument that local guitar wizard Hector Qirko can’t play? It would seem not, given the heavy bluegrass overtones of his most recent album. For a guy who’s made a name for himself playing Western swing (in the Lonesome Coyotes) and blues (in his own band), as well as a perennial sideman to the above-mentioned Mr. Morris, this sweet, sweet suit of rootsy material fits him well.

9) The Hotshot Freight Train, “The Devil Pays in Counterfeit”: Capitalizing on the earnestness of their debut EP “We Are The Hotshot Freight Train,” the guys in Christian rock band craft a fine sophomore effort — no frills, no experimentation, no extraneous material ... just straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll.

10) Senryu, various EPs: Wil Wright might just be one of the most prolific songwriters in East Tennessee. His band, Senryu, has cranked out three or four EPs this year and each one of them ups the ante when it comes to indie-rock beauty. Word is that Senryu will call it quits next year, having reached its creative zenith.

Honorable mentions: 1220, “Miss Legendary” EP; Matt Woods’ Plan A, “Caught Up in the Fray”; Quartjar, “Years of a Monkey”; Hudson K, “Safety Line”; The Dirty Guv’nahs, “Don’t Need No Money”; Brendon James Wright and the Wrongs, self-titled; Stewart Pack, “Beached Whale”; The Leningrads, “Sharing the Blame”; Kevin Abernathy Band, “Rock and Roll Fiasco”; Sam Lewis, “One’s a Long Time, Two’s a Fly By”