Dan Bairds all!

I've been listening to the Stones a lot lately...

...and one of the many pleasures in doing so is hearing that sort of lurching shambolic swagger they often employ in their more rocky up tempo numbers. I once read an article which explained that it was all about the band following Keith's guitar, so that the drums were just very, very slightly behind the rhythm guitar. As Ron Wood explains: 

In other bands they follow the drummer; the Stones follow Keith, and they always have.

Not that other bands haven't achieved this effect. I've heard it in tracks from the Faces, Mott the Hoople and the Georgia Satellites. It almost has the effect of making the music seem about to topple over into rhythmic chaos, although it never does,

All of which is a contrived way to introduce the subject of today's screed - Dan Baird.

Er...who?

Well, he was vocalist and guitarist with the Georgia Satellites, who'd worked hard over a decade to earn a reputation as a very successful no-frills rock band, although their recording career always lagged behind their live shows in terms of popularity and impact. Baird left in 1990 to go solo after becoming disenchanted with the band:

I developed a very shitty attitude about the band. So, one morning I woke up and fired myself. We were together for 10 years and we weren't able to inspire each other anymore. It's like any relationship that starts getting too old. There was just certain things that started getting lackadaisical.

He eventually went on to release what I think is one of the finest debut solo albums by anyone ever - 1992's "Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired". Recorded with guitars, bass and drums, and an occasional piano, it's a fine collection of what you might call "good time rock" and you'd be delighted if you walked into a bar on a music night and the band sounded like this. 

Baird is the very antithesis of a hard living rocker - a teetotaler and an avid gym rat - but has a real knack of taking tried and tested basic rock ingredients and invigorating them with a fresh and often humorous recipe all of his own. "Songs" does this in spades but it's all so enthusiastic and heartfelt that I don't care when certain musical motifs and devices sound a tad familiar. Shit - he's so damn' likeable and keen to please that I could forgive him anything!

In many ways, the last track - "Dixie Beauxderaunt - pretty much typifies Baird's take on rock. It has very Faces-like guitars that mesh beautifully and the lyrics are very much part of the total package. Dixie's an underage (under drinking age!) teenage rebel who gets roped in to take part in a wet t-shirt contest. Dan's sly and knowing lyrics tell a story very much like Chuck Berry might. 

Well Tina looked at Dixie, said one of us can win that prize
Well Tina didn't win 'cause she danced to Twisted Sister
But when Dixie told the DJ "Gimme Three Steps mister"
All the gentlemen in the audience began to rise

 

The album is a rarity - it doesn't contain a single duff track - although some of the lyrics might be deemed by some to be a little politically incorrect, albeit with the benefit of thirty years' hindsight. Sure, the album wears its influences very obviously on its sleeve, but Baird and the rest of the band attack the songs with such energy and humour that their momentum just steamrollers aside any cliches you might have noticed. 

Above all, it's FUN!

 

Whilst "Love Songs" was reasonably successful, the follow up album, "Buffalo Nickel", was a flop. However, this didn't deter Baird, whose CV has always revealed a really strong work ethic, and after a period playing with the Yayhoos, Bobby Keys and others, he eventually formed Dan Baird & Homemade Sin, recruiting Jason and the Scorchers' killer lead guitarist Warner E Hodges. Even while gigging extensively for a dozen years and releasing a dozen albums with Homemade Sin, Baird still found time to form Bluefields with Hodges, and four albums were recorded.

 

A few years ago, Baird was diagnosed with a form of hereditary leukemia but, unlike many musicians, he had adequate health insurance, was successfully treated and is now in remission. He briefly returned to touring with Homemade Sin, but has now retired from gigging, although he's still recording, going to the gym, and even has a new band - the Chefs - with Stan Lynch from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.

 

Most people are probably aware of the Georgia Satellites, but they only accounted for a quarter of Baird's four decade - and counting - career. The remaining thirty years are well worth investigating and "Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired" is a great place to start.

 

Find out how to get this album in the comments below.