September 29, 2011
Scott Foley
Special tx to Greg, who so ably took the mic this week and allowed me to hang with my book friends at this year's gathering of the regional independent bookselling thingy (MPIBA). Of course, in the wake of my absence there is typically a dangerous backup of unheard music pushing at the levees of next week's Episode. It's what I'd call an absurdity of new stuff.
Though I won't be posting a playlist this week, I felt moved to post a quick something about the new retrospective being released by the V-Roys. This criminally underrated quartet gave us both Scott Miller and Mic Harrison (and sorta John Paul Keith, too), and while their output was limited to two studio and one live album (96, 98 and 00), they deserve to be considered as among our seminal alt.country bands (tho they really didn't care for that moniker). Out of Knoxville, TN, they sounded like nobody else ... except maybe the Old 97s, who beat them into the studio by a couple years. Like the 97s, the V-Roys demonstrated a sharp appreciation for perfect pop hooks, paired with just the right amount of twang and bang. They were also one of the best dressed bands from our kind of music, and were produced and released by Ray Kennedy and Steve Earle. Sooner Or Later brings together a selection of representative tracks from their released albums, as well as a couple fine apocryphal bits. The band's site promises a one-off Knoxville reunion show on New Year's Eve of this year, exactly 12 years after the final V-Roys show.
Next week's Episode will feature a tune from that collection, as well as new trax from Joe Henry, Ryan Adams, CO's own Lizzie Huffman and more. Oh yes, there's always more ...
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