Music
Press
"The band is unashamed and unafraid to perform the music they admire, as well as create original work that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Emmylou, Townes Van Zandt, and Gram Parsons."
- Laura Hensley
"They are fresh and inspired with lyrics beyond their young years! Their new disc is one of my favorites. I've had it in my CD player ever since I mastered their record."
- Fred Remmert
"This may just be the best band to hit the Texas music scene in years. When you hear them, you'll understand why.Jamie Griffin may be the state's premier female vocalist."
- J. Ross Martin
"The only thing that stands between this band and stardom is airplay. Jamie Griffin's vocal seem effortless and carry you through time and space with a warm sense of compassion and emotion...Brian Beken plays fiddle as if it were a part of him at birth."
- Larry Winters
Texas Platters
BY JIM CALIGIURI
The Gougers
A Long Day for the Weathervane
Formerly the Sidehill Gougers, this local quartet lost part of their name, but it's blossomed, unexpectedly, into a band. The Gougers' third effort following an EP and LP, A Long Day for the Weathervane spins with a newfound depth and electricity flowing through their alt.country. A lot of the credit belongs to producer Keith Gattis and some A-list local sidemen, including Brad Rice, Bukka Allen, Taras Prodaniuk, Ken Coomer, and Brian Standefer. Bandleaders and vocalists Shane Walker and Jamie Wilson, who wrote the songs, deserve the lion's share of kudos, however, recalling Gram and Emmylou or Ryan Adams on tunes as free and easy as "Dedend" and as achingly gorgeous as "Riding in a Lincoln Continental With Sylvia Plath." - Austin Chronicle
Written by Don Zelazny
The Gougers, formerly known as The Sidehill Gougers, are yet another good band from Austin. Main songwriters Shane Walker and Jamie Wilson met in College Station, Texas while both were attending Texas A&M. He (Walker) heard her (Wilson) singing harmony in a bar and things started happening. Besides Shane Walker on vocals, guitar and harmonica and Jamie Wilson on vocals and acoustic guitar, the band also includes Cody Foote on bass and John Ross Silva on drums. Silva, who mastered A Long Day for the Weathervane and has engineering credits with Dixie Chicks and Shawn Colvin, has been a friend of the bands since its inception and brought in country rocker Keith Gattis who oversaw production of the new CD and plays baritone and electric guitar on it. The band states that with the name change comes a fuller, more electric sound and is joined on the CD by many other players as well, adding accordion, cello, organ, fiddle, and additional guitar, bass and percussion. If the band plans on utilizing all of these instruments in their live shows, they're gonna need a bigger bus!
The tunes tend to alternate between highlighting either Shane's vocals, or Jamie's vocals; the switching between male and female vocals adds nicely to the diversity of the music on the disc. Both singers have very nice voices, but instead of always singing harmony together the music highlights one or the other in the different songs, which I liked a great deal. Lyrically the music offers much more than the usual as well, the songwriters obviously priding themselves on the lyrics of their tunes as well as the music. A Long Day for the Weathervane opens with the bluesy feel of “Manheim Station,” a take on life from the vantage point of an old filling station. The singer notes, "I have seen the rain come down and I have braved the cold. And I've watched the world pass by me from the side of the road. I've seen the old folks come to waste their days in groves like old oak trees. And Jack, I swear to Kerouac that won't happen to me." The next tune “Rosalie” is a slower number featuring Jamie's voice and highlighted by the fiddle and cello. My favorite song on the disc is the up-tempo tune “Everybody Knows,” featuring an understated organ accompaniment. Jamie also shines on the soft tune “Michael.” It sounds like Michael foolishly left Jamie behind, as she sings "Michael when the fireflies are dancing and the flowers come and go without a sound, Do you know I'm hoping you will answer me even when I look and you are not around." Again, I hope they have room on their tour bus for Brian Standefer and his cello, because this song would definitely lose something without his playing. Other highlights on the album are “Old Crown Scarecrow” and “Sleeping Pills.” If the lyrics and liner notes were actually large enough to read I probably would not have any complaints about the CD. Fortunately, you don't need to read the liner notes to enjoy The Gougers and this excellent CD! - Americanaroots.com
Discography
A Long Day for the Weathervane (independent release, 2007)
Runaway Scrape (independent release, 2003)
Texas Unplugged Vol. 2 (Palo Duro, 2005)
Gone To Seed (Bluff Creek Records, 2005)
Photos
Bio
The Gougers used to have a big, fancy bio. It cost $200 and had big words like "analogous" and "suffused" in it. It also had "sidehill." They decided that was lame and so they deleted it.
One day at Zapato's Cantina in College Station, TX, Shane heard Jamie sing and asked her to come play in a band with him. She said "yes" and so they went back to Shane's house and listened to some records. They jammed out to Gram and Emmylou one day. Then Gillian and Dave the next. They tried to pretty much copy what they heard because it made them feel like highlanders feel when they are near other immortals.
One day they hired this kid, Brian, to play fiddle. He played fiddle as good as Jamie sang and as good as Shane quoted dead philosophers. But he turned out to be a lame quitter and went to the Jug Band to make more money and get more women. He was immature.
So then they met Cody. They hired him because his dad played in the NFL and they thought that was cool. Later he taught Shane about Rock n Roll. He said, "The best bands don't ever get signed."
Then Shane's mom co-signed and they bought a van. They met the Dedringers who drew nasty pictures in the dirt on the side of it. But Wrecks liked them so they were allowed to stay. They were good, too, and it was funny to watch Jonny gurm Townes's son. And their girl jeans were hilarious!
One day the invisible gouger said that they needed a drummer. He told them that if they put the feathers of a Mexican fighting rooster in a Crown Royal bag and buried it while saying some shit in Spanish, then a drummer would appear in three business days. And that's how they got Silva. They solidified the closing of the circle with a tattoo ceremony about heartache and the loss of god. That woulda been it. But Lance shows up and says, "You're doing this all wrong." The rest has been a work in progress.
And so, kids, this is the story of the Gougers. We ooze positivity.
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