Published on May 11, 1999
The first time I ever heard the music of the BoDeans was in
college in 1989. The college I went to had its own TV station, and
one girl who produced some of the shows used snippets of songs from
the then-current release from Kurt Neumann, Sammy Llanas and crew,
Home, as the intro and outro music.
Since I was then considering a double-major in Radio/TV
broadcasting and journalism, I spent a lot of time by the TV
station, and thus heard the music a lot. (I soon dropped the
Radio/TV major because I didn’t like working on the TV side – that,
and one of the faculty members was a complete asshole.) But the
more I heard this music, the more I was intrigued by it – to the
point where I eventually bought my own copy of
Home.
While Neumann and Llanas weren’t big names when this record came
out, and this album didn’t send their stock rising through the
roofs, it does show how well they had refined their craft, and how
close they were to being ready for the big time. (Sadly, they never
have achieved superstardom; had it not been for placement of one
song on
Party Of Five, they still would be one of rock’s best-kept
secrets.)
The two songs that always will stick out in my mind are the
opening track, “When The Love Is Good”, and “Hand In Hand”. Both
solid rockers powered by an opening guitar riff, Neumann and Llanas
each add their own charm to these songs with their vocals
(Neumann’s are the smoother vocal leads, as on “When The Love Is
Good”; Llanas is the huskier lead as on “Hand In Hand”). There’s a
reason these tracks have stuck with me for 10 years – they’re damn
good songs.
These, however, are not the strongest cuts on
Home. You’ve got your roots-rockers that are dance-inspiring
like “Good Work”, and you’ve got the songs that pull at your
heart-strings (though I don’t know if this was intentional) like
“Beautiful Rain” and “No One”.
But the highlight of this album is what closes the album – the
laid-back, acoustic performance of “Beaujolais,” a song that almost
makes you feel like you’re spending an evening in Creole country.
The gentle, quiet attack that the BoDeans take on this track make
it the perfect way to bring down the electric energy they charged
up for the album, and brings the listener back to a level of
tranquility. I don’t know if they could have chosen a better track
to close with had they tried.
There are a few tracks that just don’t capture my attention like
the bulk of
Home – “You Don’t Get Much,” a track I know once had
single-potential to the label, is one I just can’t get into no
matter how hard I try. Others, like “Worlds Away” and “Red River,”
are good tracks, but are nothing spectacular. Still, these minor
points don’t take away from the overall power of this album.
Home is an album you might not know much about from a band
you may not know much about. But if you want to discover more about
the BoDeans than “Closer To Free,” then
Home is a great place to start.