Brian Waldschlager – Down There

Even getting the name right has been hard for Knoxville expat Brian Waldschlager. Originally his Nashville band was called Shinola, but as labels came to be interested, it was clear the shoe polish company wouldn’t relinquish its trademark. So they became Five Bucks.

Along the way, and just after he’d signed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose, Dolly Parton borrowed his band. Since he was the lead singer, and his writing partner was her cousin, Richie Owens, who co-produced Parton’s ensuing 1998 disc Hungry Again, this left him more or less out of work for most of a year. Parton did agree to sing harmonies on “Touch Of A Dove”, which happily appears on his record.

Except it wasn’t originally to be his record. Down There was cut three years ago, at least, when Shinola were new and the songs were new and their future seemed bright. The band having since disintegrated, Waldschlager wishing to move on, and a couple friends from the late Nevers (whose sparkling album Sire never released) having just formed a label, Down There becomes his debut.

And some of these songs really do deserve a more public airing. Like his friends the V-Roys, Waldschlager writes Southern alt-rock songs filled with twangy guitars, except that his taste, and vocals, veer toward rockabilly. And he’s more good-time humorist than late-night philosopher.

So when Waldschlager means mostly to have fun — “Take A Ride”, “Down There”, “Right Now” — he succeeds. “Touch Of A Dove” is a marked success, and his homage to another Knoxville obscurity, Todd Steed’s “You Must Be From Nashville”, is a fitting end to his beginning.

Available at present only in a limited edition (400) run with a gorgeous letterpress jacket. Which may make it the most obscure Dolly Parton collectible of recent history.