Cowboy Mouth – Mouthin Off…LIVE! France ’92 / Word Of Mouth / It Means Escape
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Posted On July 1, 2000
Being referred to as the world’s greatest bar band has some advantages. In the case of New Orleans-based Cowboy Mouth, a reputation for incendiary live shows netted a deal with MCA. Their story started years before that, however, with this trio of self-released albums, reissued with extra bonus tracks.
Composed of erstwhile players from other bands (Fred LeBlanc from Dash Rip Rock, John Thomas Griffith from Red Rockers, Rob Savoy from the Bluerunners, and Paul Sanchez), Cowboy Mouth hit the road early and often. The material on their live debut includes typically raucous versions of classics such as “You Are My Sunshine” and “Down By The Riverside” combined with “Son Of An Engineer” and “Light It On Fire”, originals that remain staples. Bonus cuts include a robust romp through Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)”. For non-fans, this may still be the best place to start listening.
Word Of Mouth was the band’s first studio effort and presents more polished (but not necessarily better) versions of several songs from the live debut, as well as the first appearance of the band’s biggest hit, “Jenny Says”, a song LeBlanc originally recorded with Dash Rip Rock on their Ace Of Clubs album.
Some have problems with the forced showmanship of Cowboy Mouth’s live set, punctuated by LeBlanc exhorting the crowd with similar rote exclamations every night. That sameness tends to creep in on their albums, too, and the third in this batch, It Means Escape, suffers the most even though it consists of all-new material. Bright spots include the barroom anthem “Hey Bartender”, but too much of the disc is taken up with tepid roots-rockers such as “How Do You Tell Someone?” and “Angel With A Broken Wing”.
