This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty
Linen #131 (August/September 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by
subscription,
and at the Dirty Linen
webstore.
by Dan Willging
Even though they're in one of the proclaimed Meccas of the Diaspora Cajun-zydeco scene, the Twin City Playboys do things a little differently on their loose concept album of sorts. Before he emigrated to the Twin Cities, Galveston, Texas' native son Kevin Anthony was weaned on honky-tonk country, George Jones, Jim Reeves, and Patsy Cline, as well as a steady diet of Cajun-country artists like Vin Bruce, Jimmy C. Newman, Rufus Thibodeaux, and Doug Kershaw. Close to Cajun country to the east, Tex-Mex to the southwest, and country everywhere else in between, Anthony's roots represent a crossroads of his Gulf Coast upbringing. While a number of tracks on the group's debut Texas Memories honor such iconic figures as Ernest Tubb ("Waltz Across Texas") and Ray Price ("Crazy Arms"), there also are a number of Cajun standards ("Jolie Blon," "Lacassine Special"). Though admittedly not perfect, nearly all tunes follow a comfortable, jam session-like, mid-tempo pace, with Anthony supplying pleasant, conviction-filled vocals that have a modest glow of their own. Just as Cajuns exhibit a cultural sense of family through their recordings, there's one here, too. The cover shot of Anthony's then-teenage, smiling, guitar-playing grandmother and the opening song, "Violet Two Step," cites her as an inspiration that led to a lifelong vocation of music.
Other recordings reviewed in this issue:
This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty
Linen #131 (August/September 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by
subscription,
and at the Dirty Linen
webstore.
![[cover #131]](images/dirty_linen/cover131t.jpg)
Copyright ©2007 Dirty Linen, Ltd, Baltimore, MD