Max Stalling “Sell Out”

Did you know that you can play dominoes on the internet now?  Talk about something that takes you back, I played dominoes with my grandma as a kid.  (I was the kid, grandma was much older)  Sometimes we would play shuffleboard at the park, but we always ended the day with a home cooked meal complete with her world famous fried potatoes.  As Cage would say, the special ingredient is love.  Now days, I play dominoes on the internet against username_8966589 and I can almost smell the potatoes frying in the kitchen.  Speaking of things that take you back, have you heard Max Stalling’s “6X9 Speakers” on his new live CD, Sell Out?  This song chronicles your teenage years when you hung out with your buddies and that biggest dream you had was getting new speakers for the ’79 Olds Cutlass. (Or whatever it was you drove in high school)  He name-drops several bands from the high school to increase the nostalgia.  This is one of two new songs on this CD, but it’s good to here some of his old songs in a live setting.  (Especially if you live in Kansas, since he doesn’t get north of the Red River very much)

One highlight (among literally thousands of highlights) includes Sparks.  One of my favorite refrains from any song is in this one: Do sparks ever dream of being stars/And if they do, do they know they’re fools.  Now that’s some good writing there, I don’t care who you are.  Max’s strength as a songwriter comes out when he’s singing about old cowboys.  Everyone’s favorite “Pila Song” is on this CD, a song “about a man who’s had a run of bad luck.”  His words, not mine.  His genius is that he can paint a picture for the listener.  In his songs, you can see in your mind, the cowboy stuck in a watering hole, the cowboy walking on the street in “Sparks,” (And look at the kids. ten steps behind him/Whispering things they think he can't hear/But if you could see his eyes, you'd know he damned well hears) and you can visualize the girl by the lake in “Girl by the Lake.”  The lyrics of “I-35” instantly take you on trip from Dallas to all points south:

Gutentoug, New Braunsvels, how are you today

Hola, ol' San Antone, please stand out a' my way

There's a storm in my rear-view, and a city on my nose

There's a piece of mind in the straight-away, and

There’s comfort in the curves

As mentioned, there are two new songs on this CD, but if you only look at the jacket, you may think I forgot how to count.  But there’s a ghost track.  It comes up my CD player as track 19.  This song is about a guy who spends his Sundays getting drunk in old Mexico.  That is, until a sweet young thing takes him home and straightens him out.  Seems this girls parents had a similar situation when they met.  I’m also a fan of “Ain’t Falling in Love With You Tonight.”  This song is an anthem to anyone who had someone they didn’t want to fall in love with, but always ended up being with.  I think most of us have been there at some time or the other.

If you think real Country and Western music is dead, you are sorely mistaken.  Max plays and writes music the way it should be played.  He can turn complex stories into simple lyrics with a good tune behind the words.  Max doesn’t have a bad song, whether he’s singing about a Mexican bass line, an over the hill cowboy or lost love, his songs should be enjoyed by anyone that loves music.

So what have we learned today, if you like country and/or western music, you should own one of Max’s CD’s, I still miss grandmas fried potatoes and Max Stalling needs to play more venues in the north country so I can finally see him live.