Dick Prall Band – Somewhere About Here
Just gotta say it was enormously gratifying when The Boss fessed-up in a recent USA Today interview that he’d been groovin’ to The Raspberries’ Greatest Hits when he wrote a bunch of those pop tunes that made The River such a breath of fresh air in 1980. You could almost sense the cloistered Boss-heads recoiling at the very thought of Their Hero dipping down there when they were so sure he was plugged into The Holy Aorta Of Unadulterated God-Tones.
Well, my dears, roots is roots is roots, and some of ’em are kinda, er…funny. The Dick Prall Band is a case in point. A bona fide Midwestern roots band that evokes the post-Beatles and Byrds legacy carved out by such beloved, thousands-selling power-pop legends as Big Star, Dwight Twilley, the Shoes and Teenage Fanclub, the Prall Band fervently, passionately believes this is the path righteous music should take. And, at least for the time being (forgive me, Lawd!), screw Jimmie Rodgers, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.
Buoyed by ringing guitars, killer vocals and the sheer joy of pop, Somewhere About Here is a track-by-track monster that welds memorable, Beatlesque constructions to clear-water country-rock underpinnings without ever betraying the seam. I think it’s a tiny, humble gem that holds its own with the above-mentioned treasures. (The Rasperries’ Greatest Hits, by the way, kicks ass on Born In The U.S.A. 24-7. As does this.)