Ill-fated by lack of rehearsal opportunities and other issues participants declined to specify, the experience strained relations between Robinson and Ambel. Back in Raleigh, though, the new Backsliders filled out with keyboardist Rob Farris and another Ass Kicker, guitarist Michael Krauss, whose resignation from Two Dollar Pistols had created the opening Steve Howell filled.
Still sold on the songs, and now convinced there was a band, Mammoth committed to put out the record, but apparently felt some things were better left in the family. Ambel’s production verite struck them as raw and unpolished. Their taste was for a fuller sound and for vocals they felt might better showcase the dramatic maturation of Robinson’s roughneck poetry.
Without consulting Ambel, they dispatched Robinson, Anderson, Gupton, Kristiansen and Rice into the studio with veteran North Carolina producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter and re-recorded, from scratch, the leadoff track, “Abe Lincoln”. Robinson also redid three more vocal tracks, including the devastating breakup documentary “Burning Bed”. “It was a good day to sing that day, I guess,” Robinson says, “and Roger put some added harmonies on some stuff, and I’m really diggin’ this record, man. Everybody involved did a stellar job, you know?”
The result, Southern Lines, is not so slick as Throwing Rocks, but has a more fulsome bottom end and bigger guitars than the original “Hicktopia” recording. Still, in the end, it’s the songs that matter most. Gone are the carefree frolic of “Cowboy Boots” and the uber-twang of “Lonesome Teardrops” that marked the debut album. In their place are songs of painful self-awareness and rueful introspection grown of age.
“There was a good long timespan between when some of the songs were written for the first record and when some of the songs were written for the second record. And that wasn’t a particularly great period,” Robinson says, solemnly. “There was a lot of shit goin’ on and some of that gets reflected; not to say it’s a completely narrative take on what the hell’s going on. I draw on memories of places, people and embellish, you know, I start lyin’.”
There are also stories, told from the internal monologue of a character about whom Joe Ely or Robert Earl Keen might sing the narrative: the rock-operatic “Angelita”, with its hints of suicide; the Southern soul rocker “Don’t Ask Me Why”, with the danger quotient of contraband.
The country songs “Never Be Your Darling” (a Howell composition that survived) and “Cross Your Heart” are classics of the genre, the latter a cheatin’ song whose poignancy is underscored by Mary Lee Kortes’ harmony vocals. Also included are Ambel’s “Forever Came Today” and “The Lonely One” — the very first Backsliders original, providing closure of sorts on the band’s early days.
For the fans packed tight to the Liberty Lunch stage at Mammoth’s SXSW ’99 showcase in March, the Backsliders opened with “Angelita”, as if to prove, all in one song, everything they could do. From the song’s guttural rock intro, Robinson’s voice opened to an anguished retrospective on the death of a lover. After a searing guitar solo by Brad Rice — back in the fold, at least for this show — Robinson brought the band down for the song’s more pensive break, then back up for a pounding close. The new lineup was on the spot, and soared above it.
Next came the rollicking sawhorse of the old Backsliders, “Cowboy Boots”. Mid-song, each new player took a solo, and then the band descended into a hilarious jam, which deconstructed to the point that all eyes onstage were fixed on Robinson for what to do next. He brought them all back for a trashy-loud, bootheels-in-the-air chorus, and the crowd was won over for good.
The permanency of this lineup remains to be seen; Robinson is sensitive to its fledgling nature but buoyant about its prospects. “I’m real optimistic now,” he says. “Julie [Raines] and Harry [Simmons] are managing us, and they’re workin’ for us. Terry [Anderson, the new drummer] brings so much to this band, and everybody does, but Terry’s really sharp on arrangements and stuff. There’s always been keyboards on the records; it’s cool to actually have a guy out tourin’ and playin it.
“These guys make me laugh, too! They’re funny as hell! I hope I can keep everybody together this time because I’m really looking forward to making a record with these guys.”
No Depression contributing editor Linda Ray suspects Southern Lines will foster a host of challengers to her claim as the world’s most enthusiastic Backsliders fan, but welcomes the competition.
