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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > June > 30 > Entry
And the world’s greatest group is …
Alabama 3 covers Johnny Cash at SXSW in March
Why isn’t Alabama 3, the British techno/gospel/country/blues tribe who gave us the great “Sopranos” theme song “Woke Up This Morning,” the biggest band in the world? That’s the question yowled by “Hits and Exit Wounds,” a retrospective CD that drops July 8 like a sack full of serpents. Hearing, again, such numbers as “Hypo Full of Love (the 12 Step Plan),” the brilliant cover of John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” and “Ain’t Goin’ To Goa”- all from 1998’s overlooked “Exile On Coldharbour Lane”- as well as newer tracks like “R.E.H.A.B.” and “Up Above My Head”- makes my head spin until it feels like the top will fly off. This music speaks to me with a megaphone. Forced to call themselves A3 in the States because of that godawful country band Alabama, Bama Trey is everything I love about music- the hooks, the groove, the stomp, the darkness, the sway, the rebellion- all rolled into one dopefiend Pentecostal dance band.
No one has ever tied this many different forms of American roots music together and made them sound so new. Part “Wise Blood,” part “My Life In the Bush of Ghosts,” Alabama 3 puts weird and spooky on top of that big rumble of love, which is one reason they’re not huge. That and all the profanity in the name of salvation.
They played SXSW in March, but I didn’t go because I was afraid they wouldn’t measure up to their records. They were billed acoustic and they had a new female singer and I just ended up at something hipper. But then my friend Suzee said it was the best thing she saw at SXSW and I was kicking myself.
Redemption! I just booked a flight to see the full-on band in Chicago at the Cubby Bear on July 4 and the Rothbury festival in Michigan July 5. Yeah, that’s how much.
Comments
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By Ihor Gowda
June 30, 2008 10:43 PM | Link to this
I went to the SXSW show, and it was great! Mick Jones sat in with them… ;-)
By Wolfgang
July 16, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this
they are somewhat nifty…