Brian Waldschlager





BRIAN WALDSCHLAGER
Brian Waldschlager writes Southern alt-rock songs filled with twangy guitars, except that his taste and vocals veer toward rockabilly, and he's more goodtime humorist than late-night philosopher. So when Waldschlager means mostly to have fun - "Take A Ride," "Down There," "Right Now" - he succeeds. The more thoughtful "Touch of a Dove," with backing vocals by Dolly Parton, is a marked success, and his clowning homage to another Knoxville obscurity, Todd Steed's "You Must Be From Nashville," is a fitting end to his beginning.

Grant Alden - No Depression Magazine

Listen to Waldschlager's new video, "Down There" through Windows Media Player.

BIOGRAPHY
A stunning vocalist originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, Brian Waldschlager is equally comfortable with a thunderous big-beat, a swaggering shit-kicker, a rockabilly rave-up or a harmony-driven, hill-country ballad. His recently-released, self-titled debut roots-rock album, Waldschlager, evidences his diverse musical influences and tastes.

Waldschlager got into music during his sophomore year of high school when it became clear that his budding basketball career was going nowhere. Jilted by the jock world, he careened into the arms of rock & roll, never looking back. The Clash, The Ramones, Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop jolted him out of the "hair-band" mainstream, and following the usual litany of cover bands, he made his first tentative forays out of Knoxville.

It was there that Waldschlager started fronting bands with older players and writers that picked up on his charisma and natural talent. After four years of some college and flogging the local music scene, in 1987 he found his way to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), living for a while in a big old band house which was frequented by the likes of The Replacements and Husker Du – and whose many residents included Babes in Toyland and Courtney Love.

"That’s where I started getting an idea of what kind of music I wanted to do," recalls Waldschlager. "I wrote a lot of stuff when I was in Minneapolis, a lot of it born of homesickness and more reflective of where I was from.” It was during this time that he came to his musical senses — those of a storyteller of the South.

"I started to really appreciate Southern roots music," recalls Waldschlager, "and specifically Tennessee music – everything from Appalachia’s Roy Acuff and the Crazy Tennesseans to Memphis’ Alex Chilton and Big Star. That diversity has been a real force behind what I do."

Returning to Knoxville, Waldschlager put together “the Dirtclods”, who soon became a popular regional act that regularly performed between 1992 and 1995. Garnering a great deal of label attention along with being voted Knoxville’s Best Rock Band Waldschlager, as lead singer of “the Dirtclods”, was recognized as “Knoxville’s Best Male Vocalist” over a two-year period.

With the help of Grammy award-winning songwriter, Lucinda Williams, in the mid-1990’s Waldschlager hooked up with veteran Nashville producer and rock guitarist Richie Owens and electric/acoustic guitarist Bob Ocker, as the band “Shinola”, which was later renamed “5 Bucks”. The trio also appeared on Dolly Parton’s 1998 record Hungry Again.

Much of the material on Waldschlager was originally performed by “Shinola”. Owens worked with Waldschlager to refine and produce the performances that appear on the Waldschlager album on the Kleartone label.

The album has a sound that drives southern traditions out on the open road for a joyride. It includes a wide variety of songs including touching ballads, straight-ahead rock and a song of determination leading to inspiration. In addition, the renowned Parton provides harmonies to Waldschlager’s song, “Touch of a Dove,” a song about new love on the Waldschlager album.

Owens, whose rock credentials include production of two Dolly Parton albums, platinum with the Georgia Satellites, and R.E.M., heads a list of Nashville critics impressed by Waldschlager’s efforts. “Waldschlager’s a regional story teller, just like Bruce Springsteen bears the heart and soul of blue collar New Jersey,” says Owens. “His roots-rock creativity was inspired by the Bohemian atmosphere surrounding the Knoxville [art/music/literary] scene.”

Robert Lougue of Nashville’s (now defunct) music publication Tag, described Waldschlager’s music by saying, “[h]is songs echo performers like Eddie Cochran, Tom Petty, and Dave Edmunds, but they are distinguished by a voice that rings with the earnest beauty of a choirboy at one moment and the woozy menace of a drunken hillbilly at the next.” He praised Waldschlager as “a solid songwriter, an eccentric traditionalist and eloquent storyteller.”

Besides Owens, Parton, and Lucinda Williams, Waldschlager has had exposure to country notables such as Walter Egan (who is famous for, among other hits, the 1978 pop hit “Magnet and Steel”), and Buddy Cage who replaced Jerry Garcia in New Riders of the Purple Sage when the late rock icon returned to the Grateful Dead. Waldschlager has recently performed and recorded with Egan and Cage as the alt-country band, “The Brooklyn Cowboys” and can be heard on their most recent album, Dodging Bullets.”

With his self-titled album released on Kleartone records, Waldschlager is not resting on his laurels. He has already written material for his next album and working with producer Mike Webb (Pinmonkey, Allison Moorer, Stacey Earle, and Brooklyn Cowboys) Waldschlager has laid down the tracks on a number of songs that, according to one lucky preview listener “are going to put the ‘Southern’ back in rock.” Look for the sequel to Waldschlager, scheduled for release in Summer ‘03