Brothers Fred and Richard Young, and cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney, originally recorded in the 1960s and 1970s as Itchy Brother. They almost got a deal with Led Zeppelin's label, Swan Song Records, but it was scuttled when Led drummer John Bonham died. After working various gigs, Martin and the Youngs reunited in 1985, choosing the Phelpses to complete the lineup after Kenney declined. They signed to Mercury Records and released their debut album Pickin' on Nashville. Originally recorded as a demo, the album had a very raw, unpolished sound that only bolstered its gritty Southern rock influences.
Its first single, an "up to eleven" cover of Bill Monroe's "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine" almost sounds like something Me First and the Gimme Gimmes would do as a joke in the present day — but in 1989, it was a fresh, new band doing its best to convince the masses that Southern rock and country aren't so different after all. Though it wasn't a big hit, it did pave the way for the rowdy "Dumas Walker" (a song about a local liquor store owner/marbles player) and an equally rowdy take on Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me," which in August 1990 became the band's only Top 10 hit. Despite the modest chart showings, Pickin' on Nashville sold double-platinum; it also netted the quintet one ACM award, two CMA awards, and even a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.
The Headhunters were in the same musical climate that I mentioned in my Ray Kennedy article — the "class of '89" acts such as Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Clint Black were shaking up the entire genre with a more traditional bent. Positioned almost completely in contrast to the rising trend, the Headhunters were a double-edged sword: "different" enough to stand out and garner a fan base (including myself, even at age 3), but maybe just a little too "out there" to get a big hit. Indeed, the power chord-heavy "Walk Softly" was far more rockin' than Garth would get in his prime, and far more amped than the likes of Alan Jackson. The cannon-fire drums and searing guitar work were much more rock than Alabama had ever been, and unlike them, there was no fiddle to swing it back onto the country side. Even so, Doug and Ricky Lee's twangy phrasings, not to mention their frequent throwback cover choices, left the country underpinnings intact.
The Headhunters did get a gold album the second time around with 1991's Electric Barnyard, but the singles fared poorly.Though neo-trad was fully entrenched at this point, the hot new bands showed another side: Pirates of the Mississippi was doing a more polished, radio-friendly variant of what the Headhunters were doing (down to covering a classic — Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues" in this case) and not meeting any more success, while Confederate Railroad seemed to find a happy place in between the two, getting a few decent-sized hits if not name recognition. Furthermore, Travis Tritt was starting to rock it up a little more, and of course, there was that Billy Ray Cyrus guy with his larger-than-life "Achy Breaky Heart." Perhaps if the Headhunters had come out in 1992 instead of 1989, they would have been a little more openly welcomed, after all.
After Electric Barnyard, the Phelps brothers split off to form Brother Phelps. While that duo's smooth inaugural single "Let Go" actually out-peaked any Headhunters song, the Phelpses only notched one more Top 40 hit over the course of their two Asylum albums before parting ways. In the meantime, scratchy-voiced Mark Orr carried the Headhunters' lead vocals (with Kenney returning as bassist) for one studio album, a guest spot on a Johnnie Johnson disc, and a few leftovers for a Greatest Hits package to finish out the band's tenure at Mercury.
Doug later returned as lead vocalist, just before BNA tried to make a bid for radio by de-fanging them on 1997's Stompin' Grounds. The commercialism didn't work, and neither did a cover of Marty Robbins' "Singin' the Blues," so it was back to that Southern rock wheelhouse for 2000's Songs from the Grass String Ranch on Audium. Ever since, the Headhunters have continued to play Southern rock and country the same way that they did in 1989: four old pros (Doug reclaimed his role as bassist after Kenney left in the late 2000s) doing it their way with loads of skill and energy. While Southern rock influences do creep into mainstream country now and then, they manifest themselves more so on the noise factor; to this day, few others have seemed to capture the artistry of that genre, or draw the parallels between it and country, in the way the Headhunters did. Rock on.
0 Comments