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It’s tornado season again in Texas, where each
dawn promises the beauty of an unfurling spring while an ominous
thunderstorm lurks just beyond the horizon. In a state where an accurate
weather forecast is as likely as a virgin Pope, change becomes a constant
companion. It’s from that foregone uncertainty that so much of the
Lone Star legend sprang. Settlers scraped a living from the soil
just minutes ahead of the next blue norther, cattlemen and cowboys forged
a living from heat-fired yet sodden trails, and the city folk prayed for
the day someone would invent an air conditioner. It’s always been
about change in Texas. Changes in the flags. Changes in the
commerce. Changes in the weather. And these days, in what may
be the sole remaining aspect of the state that makes sense, changes in the
music. Happily for us out here on the dark side of the microphones,
The Dust Devils are leading the charge.
Music fans across the state know who the Devils are, or at least who they
were. Whether the introduction came in the early days, or with the first
couple of records, the reaction was consistent: Here’s a band that
gets its roots and knows how to say well everything that it has to say.
That holds true today. But the sound has changed. Grown.
Contracting while expanding, pulsing while soothing, enveloping while
freeing - - that’s what the music of the Dust Devils is doing. The
lineup has largely shifted, roads have been traveled hard, and the weather
has changed.
This record represents something of a coming out party for Barbara Malteze.
Sounds silly to say so if you’ve followed the band, but listen once and
there it is. Malteze has long split vocal duties with partner Kevin
Higgins, who remains the songwriting force behind the music, but with
Change In the Weather, she steps brazenly to the forefront and
reinvents the band’s sound. The title track, which opens the set
list here, eases into a comfortable Red Dirt balladry that evokes memories
of The Great Divide, but there’s an edge to the vocals mouthing the
plaintive lyrics that hints at a coming storm. As with most Texas
weather, it’s not long in arriving. There’s an Alannah Myles
mysticism and menace in “Hurry Sundown,” and “Turn Up the Music” follows
that with a delta romp that somehow fuses a driving blues beat with a
Janis Joplin ferocity begging for the volume to drown out the world.
Malteze has an authentic heavy metal background, and the chops required in
that genre serve her extremely well as this record ramps up. But just when
you’ve realized it’s time to throw a hootenanny and steal the neighbors’
cold beer, “We’re All In This Together” throws a kumbaya sort of curve and
demands a global group hug. It’s a bit more heartfelt (or possibly
just less ubiquitous?) than that Mellencamp song about our country, but
Malteze infuses the vocal with an earnestness that demands an honest
listen.
Higgins makes his vocal debut with “Amazing Sense of Calm,” and as with
previous Dust Devils offerings, he’s an immediately recognizable and
soothing presence that fits like an old baseball glove. This man
remains the songwriter most likely to take on the mantle once worn by
Townes and Guy, and he and Barbara remain the artists least likely to
morph into the tired and egomaniacal mockery that certain Austin denizens
have become. Not even halfway through Change In the Weather,
that much is beautifully clear. When Higgins and Malteze harmonize
through “Home,” it’s an aural mural of love and comfort that explains more
about relationships and what matters than any number of bestselling
authors on Oprah could begin to do. Turns out, truth and passion do
still matter, even in the twenty-first century.
Change In the Weather is a vital and vibrant record.
Shimmeringly beautiful at times, menacingly driving at others, and in
places simply instrumentally evocative of what it portrays (see “Hottest
Day of the Year", and listen to the sounds of a July scorcher out in the
country), this is as real as it gets. Paeans to the backroads and
hidden delights, humorous tales one might expect from J. Frank Dobie, and
odes to friendships that won’t quit and coastal adventures worth their
weight in gold. That’s what you’ll find here. Change In the Weather
is as self-deprecating and authentically Texan a record as you’ll hear
anywhere this year. Lyrics are available online at
www.cosmicdustdevils.com, and you can order up your own copy there as
well. Spring’s upon us, summer’s trailing close, and the soundtrack
is on the shelves. Light a shuck, get you some.
Written by Dave
Pilot, April 2007
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