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| Country Gentleman |
| band: Gallardo, Don |
| Album: Regards To The Season EP |
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Don Gallardo isn't trying to reinvent country. He doesn't have to. He writes a good song. This EP is pleasant to listen to first spin. Sitting here in my chair in Ohio on a cold night, I feel like I found a home in Nashville. I wonder why I spent my life in a small town. I wonder about the trains and the weather, and marvel at that Tennessee skyline. That's a great unfamiliar feeling since I spent most of my life in Los Angeles.
Here's the story according to Don Gallardo:
"I actually grew up listening to tons of Elvis, The Beatles, Elton John as a child. I then fell into classic rock. But I had this job working as a Park Ranger-aid on Mt. Tamalpais north of San Francisco and in the trucks we drove around the AM radio came in the clearest. So the clearest station that came in was a country station. I listened to it for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week until I had to finally go buy a lot of Johnny Cash records, which led me to Hank Williams. To find what country music is all about you have to find the root of the music and there is tons of old country artists to me, that still hold there own today. Waylon, Willie, Hank Sr., Merle!!!!, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny, Roy Acuff, Fred Rose. Today I listen to alot of Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon, The Avett Brothers (really recommended) but still can't help myself listening to everything listed above alot!"
The best definition of country I've ever heard is from Harland Howard: "Country music is three chords and the truth." I haven't counted the chords on this "Reasons for the Season EP," but Don isn't lying. There's not a lot of hocus pocus to this album. These are songs if I heard them in a bar somewhere on a Friday night I might get a little emotional. There's a feeling when I listen to these songs that wherever I am it's home. These songs are mostly about locations and the weather. It's cold outside right now, and there seems to be a little warm fireplace coming out of my stereo speakers.
I love Nashville. This city stole my heart!!! ~ Don Gallardo
Musicians travel a lot, but home is where your heart more than where you get to hang your hat. I hear tell that the most consistent theme of the Beatles songbook is the idea of coming home. The songs on "Regards to the Season" explore that part of the heart from trains, planes, trucks and automobiles with an irresistible charm. These are good songs. 'Nuff said.
Side story about hats: So why don't Don Gallardo wear a cowboy hat? I had to do a little research on this one. The country music cowboy hat was adopted by Hank Williams, who described himself as "a blues player from Alabama." There ain't no cowboys in Alabama. Hank wasn't afraid of being a little silly, and knew his way around a mug of suds. Hank's bass player used to dot his face with fake freckles and black out a tooth or two to please the kids. There ain't no particular place for a cowboy that east of Texas. Don wears a plaid Fedora best I can tell. I applaud that chapeau. Country music is best when it's about a feeling, not a costume or that cultivated twang, half yodel, or whine. Don's happy to be singing a song with a full throat and a big heart. Those cowboy hats are no more necessary than black leather stove pipe pants on a rocker. Hats off to Don. He's a country gentleman at heart.
In defense of country: Don loves the country music he plays. After hearing him play, you might be able to identify the country in your own collection. Sure this music don't fire off all the guns at once and shoot into space, but there's something to be said for being comfortable with two feet on the ground. I've met a few musicians who play their Les Pauls and claim they like everything but country. Those guys are just ignorant city folk. Les Paul is country, among other things, and those boys owe their careers to him for inventing the electric guitar. And I'll bet any competent pedal steel player could take them in a battle of wits.
THE SONGS:
1. ANYTOWN USA got me right where I was.
I discovered sometime back that a belligerent question often gets the best answer. So here's the Q&A:
Billy: Who cares about people from Anytown USA? Shouldn't I get my ass to NY or LA, Nashville or Austin? What's so damn important about small towns?
Don: Well I have lived in LA for 2 and half years before moving to Nashville and that is exactly what they think in LA. Who cares about anyone but themselves, really. I like LA for the Ocean and the friends I met there for whom hold a dear place in my heart but it is whole other monster I am not sure I want to be a part of again. It gets tiring really quickly to hear people talking about themselves so much. I came from a small town in Northern California called Fairfax. That song is about my town and neighborhood and actually came from people I knew that have never left. I go back and visit and maybe one day I will live there again. But when you go back after being gone for 8 years and see the same people doing the same thing you just want to shake them and tell them to get out. Go see the world there's so much out there that is storyline beautiful.
My favorite lines from the song:
"Why am I still here? Wouldn't you agree, it's in your blood, it's in your blood flowin'. You say it's only up to me."
"There goes another day in Anytown USA. The people live and then then fade away in Anytown USA."
2. MEMPHIS TRAIN is a song I looked forward to describing, but when I asked Don if it was a two-step, he did me one better. I'll let the songwriter have the last word on this one: "Memphis Train is not much of a two step but more of a ramblin song. I wrote it after I flew to Baltimore to pick up a friend to move back to CA and drove across the states back to Northern California where I was living at the time. I stopped in Memphis to check it out and go to Graceland. We rode that in town train that takes through the town. That inspired the song. I grew up on Elvis. My mom was a huge Elvis fan. So am I." Alls I can add, there's a girl in Graceland "might be looking for the King." Those trains don't ever have a home. "This train goes on and on and on and on." Next stop is always somewhere else.
3. COLD RAIN on the road in an 18 wheeler with Hank Williams on the stereo. The static calls your name. There's no shoulder on the road and the solid white line fades to gold. Those images are even better in the song. Now that lonely ride through the "cold cold rain" means something to a trucker, but that feeling happens to all of us who don't happen to have a Class A commercial driver's license in our wallets. Life is a long road, and Hank may be your best friend on the radio to "take you from this empty place."
4. TENNESSEE SKYLINE might have been called Nashville Skyline, but Don had the sense not to go there. Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash took that title and made it their own. I think I heard this song on the radio coming out from Los Angeles on that parallel road to Route 66. I probably didn't, but that's the way I remember it the moment I heard this song. "It's a Tennessee night. It's as good as gold." The slide steel is playing that sky dive falling chords once in a while on this song, and the fretted guitar has the tremolo set for swagger. There's a laid back pace fit to notice all the good things in a picture of a town late on a lazy night. You don't have far to go home. "It's a Tennessee night. That's a Tennessee sky. It's as good as gold."
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