The Kentucky Headhunters
Live/Agora Ballroom — Cleveland, Ohio — May 13, 1990
Mercury
By Al Kaufman
With all these terms out, such as "outlaw country," "renegade country," or the tamer "Americana," to describe country artists too original to be played on the ultra conservative (in format as well as politics) country radio stations, it's easy to forget that the long-haired hippies that make up The Kentucky Headhunters have been sticking the middle finger to Nashville for 20 years.
In honor of the 20th anniversary of their multi-platinum debut, Pickin' On Nashville, the Headhunters are releasing a slew of authorized bootlegs from that tour, the first of which is the Agora Ballroom show. The show includes nine of the 10 songs from their debut, plus some blistering covers, such as the opener, Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues." They also do right by Doug Sahm's "She's About a Mover" and Don Gibson's "Oh, Lonesome Me" (which appeared on the Pickin' CD). Their version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" packs exactly 23.6 times the energy than Clapton put into it (with a much better drum solo), and Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" proves to be the perfect upbeat closer.
During this tour the Headhunters had achieved a popularity that they were never able to attain again. Much to their surprise, they had won a slew of Grammy and CMA awards for Pickin' On Nashville, and album that rocked a lot harder than it twanged. They crowd was electric, and, something that is not always the case with live CDs, that energy pours through without compromising the sound quality. Even when they have the audience sing on "Walk Softly On this Heart of Mine," a Bill Monroe cover and single from the Pickin' CD, it sounds good, as if they taught the crowd how to harmonize before they started rolling the tapes.
For those who like their country with a little more attitude than the pre-packaged kind that gets served up on the radio today, this CD is the perfect primer.
