Allen, Terry - Pedal Steal (special)
SKU
SUG 1078
Really more of 'audio theatre' than a music album, this is obviously for rarified tastes, but it's a good work and we thought some of you might be interested at this price!
"Captivating. Listen to this on a long stretch of highway. Terry Allen writes like he's hearing that final call; intense and involving. Musta been a helluva play to see, but listen to this anyway. You DO have an imagination, dontcha? And don't miss CHIPPY."-Daniel Morris
"Pedal Steal is the latest installment in Sugar Hill's plan to restore all of maverick renaissance man Terry Allen's recordings to print again. It's loosely based on an actual steel guitar player who wandered Texas and New Mexico in the late 60s-early 70s, one of the first to use the instrument for rock and roll. Commissioned as a soundtrack for the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco, Pedal Steal premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival October 22, 1985. The soundtrack and staging of Pedal Steal received the New York Dance Critics' acclaimed "Bessie" award."
"Sure it's short-- but really distinctive. This one twists and twirls together 'western' legends-- Billy the Kid morphs into a story about a tragic pedal steel player (and back again), with pointed satirical and touching evocations of the West. Beauty, humor, tragedy, absurdity, lust and a changing, kinda wild landscape all around. And musically, he touches on stuff from "Sentimental Journey" to Hendrix-feedback, spoken word akin to a 'Texasfied' Firesign Theatre, Willie & Waylon, maybe Tom Russell or Ian Tyson's psychologically complex cowboy songs, and his own work. Can't say the themes aren't also in his other work-- but the concentration and sometimes pointed phrasing here make it worthwhile. Compelling I think."-E.C. Goodstein