Nashville Rock Post 1978 Part 2

I called up good friend and once local Middle Tennesse resident Dr. DD Blank and asked him to come up with a list of 20 great Nashville music artists of the last 27 years. I was to do the same. I would then combine the lists with commentary from both of us. Here is part two of the survey of Nashville Rock post 1978.

DD: The Shazam - Hands down the best band out of the city in perhaps a decade. They’ve been hailed by the British music press as one of the top 50 bands around. They may even be the best band in the country. Their power pop incorporates so many great influences that they never sound stale. The records are near perfect. Brad Jones deserves production Grammy’s for Godspeed The Shazam and Tomorrow The World alone. Don’t miss them before they are super-famous.

Wally: The Shazam! - Same band, I just like adding the exclamation point. Hans Rotenberry has a voice as sweet as Alex Chilton’s, Mick Wilson is the heir to Entwhistle, and Scott Ballew is Keith Moon and Dennis Wilson’s love child on drums. Together they are the finest Nashville band of the present. Beloved in England, it’s only a matter of time before they strike gold in their homeland. Little Steven from some backup group called the E-Street Band loves them. Check out their Not Lame releases and run, don’t walk to see them before they get so big they can only play arenas. Forebears are the Who, the Beatles, the Move, Cheap Trick, and ELO. Peers? None, although Jet seems to be working a similar territory all the way to super stardom in the pop narcotic.

BEST YEARS are NOW!!!

DD: No Art - I remember Riverdale High drama class hipster, Tim Davis, who had cool older brothers, telling me in about 1982 that No Art was the best band in Nashville and that he was trying to get them to play a dance at our school, or was that a party at his house. Who remembers anymore? I will always remember their song “English Boys.” They were a great new wave band when even new wave was considered cool.

Wally: No Art - That “English Boys” tune is on the Praxis record Never In Nashville. It features snotty vocals with a great line about “English Boys having suss”. It sounds quaint but still sort of charming after all these years.

BEST YEARS: early 80’s

DD: 69 Tribe - I remember first hearing of them in the fanzine N(ashville) I(ntelligence) R(eport). Then 91 Rock started playing “Bikers”. I never got a copy until I found one at Orpheus Records in Georgetown years later. I was jumping for joy.

Article Author: Wally Bangs

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