The first of the modern tribute albums that I can recall was
a Neil Young tribute. An assortment of
college rock bands doing covers. People
loved it. It was the material that you grew
up on, played by the performers that you listened to at the time. It predated Neil’s grunge revival, & in
many ways primed the pump for that comeback.
He wasn’t tainted by the classic rock baggage that would’ve kept so many
performers from seeming relevant to that same audience.
Since then, that concept of a tribute has been run into the
ground. There’s a tribute to anyone and
everyone, with more popular acts having multiples. And the quality of the participants has
declined as well. Where once it was the
A list, now it seems that just about anyone will be used to fill out a CD.
The current trend is to do a cover version of an entire
album. This is still a fairly recent
trend, so there’s still some potential left in the concept.
Perhaps the oldest version of the tribute album is for a
performer to record a record of a single songwriter’s hits (and misses). How many country acts in the 50s & 60s
recorded an album called “__ sings Hank Williams”? There was a time that I kept a running list. I’ve given up on that long ago.
Shannon McNally’s latest is a throwback to that
tradition. “Small Town Talk” is a look
back at one of the architects of swamp pop, Bobby Charles. He’s most famous for writing hits for Bill
Haley and Fats Domino, but he was a mainstay of the early New Orleans R&B
scene. Along with Dr John, he was one of
the first white musicians to cross the color line & play on R&B hits.
In my mind, McNally occupies a similar space to Bonnie
Raitt. Her husky vocals give the songs a
bit of grit, and her country leanings provide an essential element to round out
the swamp flavor. Backed up by top notch
New Orleans session men, this is one of those albums that seem to exist out of
time. You could easily be convinced that
it had been recorded at any time during the last 40 years. Highly recommended.
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