- Maverick UK
Rich Mahan BLAME BOBBY BARE Snortin Horse Records 009
Impressive album that ticks all the right boxes for me …
A former and founding member of rock- country band Shurman, Rich Mahan’s solo debut is a pure delight from beginning to end. He tells us in the short liner-notes that his father used to play Bobby Bare records at full volume and that helped to inform the music you’ll hear here. He’s not talking about the country-folk Bare records of the 1960s, but the Silverstein and McDill-penned stuff of the 1970s that produced such great hits as Tequila Sheila and The Winner. He even closes this set with McDill’s Put A Little Lovin’ On Me, a minor success for Bare in 1976, but deserving of a top ten placing. At no time does Mahan ape the Bare style; he doesn’t need to. He’s a damn fine songwriter himself, and his vocal style is totally his very own, ranging from humorous when the song demands it, occasionally deadpan, and quite soulful at others.
There is also a nice variety of musical genres as you will hear with Favorite Shirt being pure southern soul employing r&b styled choruses (courtesy of Bekka Bramlett), swaggering slide guitar, soulful Hammond lines and rhythmic rhythm to die for. Money In The Bank moves more into southern rock, again with JD Simo’s slide to the fore and Randy Leago’s piano pounding away in the background. Overserved In Alabam is the kind of song you might expect to hear on a Dr Hook album, the harmonica-driven The Hills Of South Dakota takes us down the trail of Confederate Railroad and Rehab’s For Quitters, with Robby Turner’s Dobro blending with PT Gazell’s harmonica is pure vintage Bare magic—now that’s quite a collection.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the hilarious Tequila Y Mota, with Turner on pedal steel blending in with Arlan Oscar on accordion and Steve Herman adding Mariachi trumpets on this drunken romp. Overall, this is an impressive solo debut from Rich Mahan that, through the childhood memories of Bobby Bare and his own undoubted talents, could very well be his breakthrough.
Alan Cackett
