Rank & File - Sundown
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Artist: Rank & FileEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-05-10
Music Label: Collector's Choice
Soundtracks:
- Amanda Ruth
- (Glad I'm) Not in Love
- Rank and File
- The Conductor Wore Black
- Sundown
- I Went Walking
- Lucky Day
- I Don't Go Out Much Anymore
- Coyote
Free Music Notes for Sundown
Free Music Review: Everybody's Trying Hard to Be Profound - Sundown's Too Cool to Be Forgotten Attitude
Hit: 5 Stars
With nine songs clocking in at a whirl wind 31:15, Rank and File's 1982 debut record "Sundown" is hands down a great 1980's roots rock record in the same league as "Truth Decay", "How Will the Wolf Survive?" and "The Blasters", and it is undeniably one of the seminal precursors to the alt.country movement of the early 1990's. Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, the Waco Brothers, The Sadies and many others all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the original cow-punks, Rank and File. Every review here is dead on accurate about how good this record is. I could gush more superlatives about what a great country & roots rock record "Sundown" is, how it speaks to the plight of the downtrodden outsider, and about how tight and inspired a sound that brothers Chip and Tony Kinman, Slim Evans and a budding Alejandro Escovedo wrung out of their combo of guitars, bass and drums, but that has been done by music critics more famous than me. Superlative gushers include Robert Christgau who rated Sundown A- in his Consumer Guide column, the Los Angeles Times which hailed "Sundown" as "one of the strongest American debut records in a decade", and Jimmy Guterman who ranked "Sundown" at number 47 in the list of 100 records that he wrote about in his terrifically informative 1992 book, "The Best Rock `n' Roll Records of All Time". Believe them all, as "Sundown" is that good.
That "Sundown" was so long out of print is one of those unexplainable record company business decisions and just a doggone shame. Fortunately, for us, the nice folks at Collector's Choice Records (a subsidiary of Rhino) re-issued "Sundown" in 2005 without any bonus tracks...just with some interesting new liner notes by Chip Kinman and with improved sound (much better sounding than my old non-chromium dioxide cassette which disintegrated a long time ago). Chip Kinman's new notes are enlightening as he describes the process of connecting with his fellow band mates in a pre-internet era, and of getting the musical inspiration they needed to do it themselves as they listened to Merle Haggard sing while standing outside of New York City's Lone Star Cafe...too poor themselves to buy tickets to the show. I'm guessing that Chip and his fellow band mates eventually made some money in the music business perhaps not as Rank and File in the early 1980's, but that scene described by Kinman is a metaphor for what Rank and File's music was and is...outside mainstream country but deeply rooted in country's core traditions of simple honest playing and singing. In a larger sense it's also a metaphor for what alt.country stands for but I can now hear myself shuffling off into the fog of St. Mark's Place.... That `No Depression' magazine did not include this record in their list of Top 20 re-issues of 2005 is puzzling, but "Sundown" has proven the test of time and now it can be heard again in all of it's country-punk glory by hopefully a larger audience. For heaven's sake stop reading this semi-pretentious review and get this record you lover of Americana...and rock on! A rightly deserved five stars!
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