Sally Timms Singles |
Sally Timms EPs |
(1987 on T.I.M.)Reviews
Musicians:
1. Waco Brothers with Jessica Biley, fiddle
2. The Handsome Family
3. Brendan Croker & Jon Langford guitars, Steve
Goulding drums
4. The Baron bass, Harry steel drum, Jonboy ac. guitars
5. Brendan Croker & Jon Langford guitars, Tim Tylor bass, Steve Goulding
drums
Review:
from New
Jersey Online:
Sally Timms has to be the most unlikely country singer this side of, um,
her pal Jon Langford, I guess.
Both are longtime members of The Mekons, one of the original punk bands
that came out of England in the late '70s (along with the Clash, Buzzcocks,
etc.). But a funny thing happened to Timms, Langford and the rest of the
Mekons during a mid-'80s trip to Chicago.
They discovered country music. It wasn't the Eagles-influenced, radio-ready
country rock that's been dominating Nashville for the past two decades.
Instead, it was the raw honky-tonk of Hank Williams and Merle Haggard, as
personified by the Sundowners, a legendary Chicago roadhouse band.
Things were never the same for the Mekons, who began morphing their sound
to include country influences -- which really wasn't that far spiritually
from their British beer hall-inspired punk -- and made the underrated late
'80s greats Fear and Whiskey and The Mekons Rock 'n' Roll.
Today, Timms and Langford are both working solo country projects. Langford's
a leader of the Waco Brothers, who just released their second album of "Cash-meets-Clash"
hardcore country.
Timms, meanwhile, this month released her second solo record in the past
three years. This one's called Cowboy Sally, and it features Langford --
along with fellow Mekon Steve Goulding, as well as Brendan Croker and Chicago
cult heroes The Handsome Family -- backing her on four country classics
and one Handsome Family original that doesn't sound out of place next to
the others.
Timms isn't your typical country songbird. She's got an upper-class Brit
accent and can sound very proper, with her perfect enunciation. But she
clearly believes in the music, and the emotion comes through on a quietly
twangy version of John Anderson's "Seminole Wind," and much-played classics
like "Tennessee Waltz."
She turns it into a sweetly attractive romp, sounding like a frontier schoolmarm
who loses her reserve and conjures up some passion with bittersweet memories.
Singing the Handsome Family's "Drunk by Noon" -- the only new song on the
album and one of the best -- she could be a Tennessee Williams character,
a faded southern beauty who hides in a bottle but still hasn't lost all
of her class.
Her singing is very feminine, yet the spirit behind it is always robust
and passionate. That makes for a seriously sexy listen. My only regret about
this album is that it's really an EP. The five songs come and go way too
soon