Beat Farmers

The Beat Farmers wear their influences on their sleeve – and anywhere else they can
think to hang them. Tales of the New West is an exhaustive sampler of American roots
music through the decades – homage is paid, in print and in the grooves, to everyone from
Creedence Clearwater Revival to Lefty Frizzell to Screamin' Jay Hawkins. But the group
takes pains to point out, in their Beat Farmers 1985 Almanac, which is enclosed... More >

Like so many roots bands, they write good songs and cover better ones--even in a nonpurist movement, Velvets-to-Springsteen-to-Spoonful is a broad-minded parlay. And like so many roots bands, their singers aren't sharp enough to bring it together--can't understand the difference between having fun, making fun, and being funny before mixing them up, can't at least be soulful instead of something vaguer, like "genuine." (Grade: B)