\t\t\t\tFirst thought: Really? I\u2019ve NEVER reviewed this album?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to let you know up front; this is a desert island disc for me. A required part of my collection. A CD I\u2019ve now replaced twice.<\/p>\n
The Rainmakers, a group of fresh-faced lads out of Kansas, were so far ahead of their time they were almost behind the times. They were alt-country before the name existed; the only band similar that predates them was the Jayhawks, and that\u2019s by about six months. As to why they never were big\u2026 the music industry rewards mediocrity and imbeciles. That said\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
Tornado<\/i> was their second album, and it kicks off with lead singer Bob Walkenhorst\u2019s sly, Luciferian lyric:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThis is the lion\u2019s den,
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I hope you knew that before you came in\u2026
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0This is where the angels and the devils fight,
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0And they\u2019re choosing up sides tonight\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
And at that point, ladies, gents, and others, we are OFF.<\/p>\n
The Rainmakers sound like old-fashioned country, but their lyrical content is straight-up snark, commentary, and wry observance. They hit religion (\u201cWages Of Sin\u201d), love (\u201cNo Romance\u201d), and crazy homeless people who live in the woods (\u201cThe Lakeview Man\u201d). Every single track is a gem, and every single track hits the target straight on. Lead guitarist Steve Phillips is a model of restraint, but when the song calls for some wild licks he is in there swinging with the best of them. Production is tight, clean, and simple. In short, this is a great album.<\/p>\n
If you like alt-country, Americana, country-rock, or clever lyrical content, you owe yourself to check out Tornado<\/i>. It\u2019s an underappreciated American original.\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10750],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-46385","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-rainmakers","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46385"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}