Grant Langston - Stand Up Man

3.5 out of 5 stars

Witty Lyrics meet a whole lotta guitars

“I’m not sure if Grant Langston is smugly showing off a custom-built Gretsch on the cover of Stand Up Man or just showing the world what a happy guy he is. Either way, it’s not the most inspiring cover. However, there’s an old phrase about books that applies here and when the album kicks in with the ripping title track, a thick slice of Bakersfield country, I knew I’d misjudged a little.

The amusingly titled Burt Reynolds Movie Brawl shows some neat tempo changes before brushing up alongside a modern Nashville country sound on Shiner Bock and Vicodin, warning of the dangers of mixing booze and pills. Langston’s approach to lyrics is summed up by Not Another Song About California, a song inspired by every other band at a show playing a song about California and there’s no shortage of lyrical wit.

Langston’s clever lyrics are backed up by a combination of honky-tonk, alt.country, and rock-n-roll that weaves between a number of country cliches but with a knowing grin. Stand Up Man is a strong album that throws in a few surprises, but knows how to kick the listener’s backside with some classic country-rock.” SM

“Stand Up Man (MSG Records) - Langston serves up traditional country, but throws in a new twist here and there. It helps that he’s a wonderful songwriter who can tell a story to go along with the honky-tonk guitar served up by he and Larry Marciano.”

It’s THE online source for roots music and they’ve got a nice review…

“There is a tendency dislike what you are supposed to like and run away from those things that you can’t get away from while growing up. For Grant Langston, life in Alabama held one kind of sound that was rammed down his throat, Country Music. The result was he hated it until Grant had an awareness, ‘at least, I thought I hated it until I heard the real deal’. For him, the real deal was artists who had been a thorn in the foot of country music such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Dwight Yoakum.”

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As a local Free Paper FarWest has built a solid reputation covering the Alt Country and Americana Scene in Greater Los Angeles. Here’s their review by Scott Grusin of a show we played at the LA Farmer’s Market.

Grant Langston and The Supermodels: Stand Up Man
Live at the Ranch Party at E.B.’s Beer and Wine Bar, Farmers Market
By Scott Grusin

This Stand Up Man stands out - guess ya can’t sing like this sittin’ down. Grant’s full, generous voice and direct delivery lend a kindly moral authority to his songs’ celebrations of turpitude and degeneracy; the bawdy material presented with such guileless down-to-earth humor and taste as to pass muster with the Market’s family dinner audience. Rambunctious, wild, and dirty enough while convincing everyone it’s just good clean fun; mighty sly but with nary a wink.

These guys pay attention to their sound…Grant slings a fat sweet Gretsch (hooray for single-cutaways) that provides the link-size bed of jangle I’d expect from a couple acoustic guitars. Guitar geeks: check out the “Stand Up Man CD cover for a full-frontal of this gorgeous axe.

Lead Player Larry Marciano’s guitar pick spends a lot of time clenched between his teeth, freeing his nekkid fingers for pullin’, snappin’, and poppin’ the bejeezus outta them poor beleaguered string and yankin’ every last microgram o oscillation outta his hot overdriven Tele; puttin’ a contemporary crunch on that classic biting, punchy, duck-pluckin’ attack that instantly transports me into the back of a pickup truck on a ‘merican dirt road, nursin’ a cold open container, lovin’ life. Then there’s the searing southern-friend bottleneck-work and occasional steel-pedal simulation; straddling blues and country like a Texan on an Appaloosa, each foot firmly planted in its stirrup. Chops for days.

Kudos to Josh Fleeger for a most solid, propulsive foundation and for the deepest, richest, sweetest, warmest bass tone ever i heared outta an electric. Dammit, i was too caught up with PA pack-up to look and inquire regarding his amp and beautiful hollow-body Gibson, steal his secret-formula amp settings, etc. Flatwounds forever?

Drummer Tony Horkins keeps the train-beats chugging, swings the honky-tonks hard and lanky limbed, rocks the straight-ahead chargers, and lends subtly insistent motion to the quieter numbers. A tight and tasty rhythm section, band, performance…

While the CD’s occasional acoustic instruments and production polish soften it slightly compared to the harder edge of their live show, the album still rocks; somehwere between alt and classic, with enough catchy hooks to keep my itchy trigger finger from flippin’ a (dare I say it) radio dial except to crank it up.

You can come down either way you want: set ‘n’ catch your breath or keep you feet fleet (and enlist yer hips) through “Call Your Bluff (Swamp Version)”. This bonus-track’s shuffle groove keeps it from sounding like a redundant ‘remix’. Maybe they couldn’t decide on a favorite version; I can’t either - glad to have them both.
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It would be easy to dismiss Grant Langston as a trad-country parodist if he didn’t write such unfailingly infectious tunes and weren’t such a skilled singer (though his nasal vocals might wake up the kids). His tongue is about to bust through his cheek on much of Stand Up Guy, his fourth album, with a half-joking smirk somewhere in Robbie Fulks territory, but there’s enough round choruses and Telecaster snap on the record to get under your skin or to at least keep poker night humming along. READ MORE

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Fame

Up to this point, the press and critics have been dancing all around nouns and adjectives regarding Grant Langston’s music, but I say it’s progressive country, and I say the hell with the rest of my maundering critical peers ’cause that’s the musical county line where Merle first turns back to head to Austin, and the Eagles then travel to SoCal, leaving Langston to tool down the highway with his rockin’, rollickin’, bootscootin’, salt-of-the-earth tavern troubadoring right behind Dwight and Stevie Earle. READ MORE

A new batch of reviews have recently rolled in -

“Grant Langston is an enigma. He has the sardonic wit of David Sedaris and the musical sensibilities of a combination of Ryan Adams and Waylon Jennings. Surprisingly, it works. Indeed, this Alabama native turned Los Angeles musician has created his own unique blend of rock and irreverant country. Sure, there are hundreds of rockabilly music acts across the United States, but Grant Langston and his band, The Supermodels, are different from all of them.” Read More

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“In an era of alt-country bands with artistic pretensions it’s refreshing to come across an unabashed throwback like Langston. The Alabama native was rejected by Nashville for being too old school — always a good sign. He has found a warmer welcome in California, and has also earned a following in Europe. This spirited new album, his sixth, deserves to spread the word.” Read More

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Amber Waves of Twang

“When I first looked at the CD and saw a song called “Shiner Bock and Vicodin” I thought it had possibilities. Then I listened to the song, which featured a naked guy in a wedding, and knew that Stand Up Man couldn’t miss.” Read More

The Bakersfield is alive and well in the hands of Langston and like the the sounds forefathers – Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam – Langston’s roots are in the South. Alabama is where he took up the trombone in his grammar school band, played piano as a teen and cultivated a distaste for Nashville brand of pop-country he heard on the radio. After making the trek out to the Golden State, where in now resides, Langston discovered Haggard, Yoakam as well as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and deeper well of country music to draw from. Stand Up Man proves he’s an astute disciple of the school of honky-tonk.

http://www.twangnation.com/2009/08/10/music-review-grant-langston-stand-up-man-self-released/

Hi all…we’ve got a couple of new reviews!

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Twangville - “I regularly listen to acts that really want to be Dale Watson, or really wish that they were as rebelliously reckless as they try to be. I also get plenty of albums that showcase lyrics that are supposed to be funny as the winking lead singer plants his tongue ever so firmly into his decidedly unfunny cheek. I say all of that to now say that when I come across a record that displays the rowdy qualities of a roadhouse combined with a cutting sense of humor, I am genuinely impressed…”

http://twangville.com/1363/grant-langston-stand-up-man/

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There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You - “Langston is never a pest humor, honoring the fights in the movies Burt Reynolds (Burt Reynolds Movie Brawl) or commenting on the non-desired effects of beer cocktails / analgesic (Shiner Bock and Vicodin).Fortunately, the guy is just as credible when it is the costume of crooner (Just Pretend You Love Me Tonight).

Les fans des Derailers, de Robbie Fulks ou des Old 97’s première période devraient tous se lever pour ce Stand-Up Man . Derailers fans, Robbie Fulks and Old 97’s first period should all stand up for Stand-Up Man.

Original French Site Here

Translated Site Here

The original is in Italian here.

My Favorite line, “Give a chance to Grant Langston and his Stand Up Man.” I can hear Roberto Begnini saying that.

“For those who feel orphaned at the moment of a new release of Dwight Yoakam, here is another son of California country that arrives with loads of tradition and power.  His Bakersfield sound redefines today’s Americana sensibility with a touch of rockabilly that never fails. His name is Grant Langston; he hails from a small town in Alabama, but many years ago moved to the LA scene that we know is always very lively in roots rock and new country. Stand Up Man is born in this climate with a style that reminds us not only of Yoakam, but a little of every so-called new traditionalist (we can even add Marty Stuart and Buddy Miller) that since the 80’s have brought fuel to the genre: melodic and captivating songs, the main role of the guitar (that beautiful Gretsch that Langston embraces on the cover), and a beautiful voice that tells stories with a grain of irony.

Langston produces in the company of Rich McCulley (another songwriter whom we met on this page) and is mainly backed by Supermodels (Larry Marciano, guitar and dobro, Tony Horkins, drums, Josh Fleeger, bass), a good combo that highlight the freshness of the compositions of the leader.  If the opinion is not too biased, it is therefore not a matter of the instrumental quality of the disc: Stand Up Man is played with great gusto and in its most sparkling moments, (the title track, honky tonk “Burt Reynolds Movie Brawl” and “Call Your Bluff,” “Damn Good Day” runs and puffs as the best Johnny Cash) is undoubtedly a good mood, but I also think that it cannot leave the consolidated platforms of the genre. They are not, however, guilty of excess: Grant Langston, who has been in business ten years and with an already rich discography behind him, is an author who moves with great awareness in the large river of tradition, making him perhaps the most exuberant of other young colleagues.

For those of us who host the deeds of the alternative-country sound regularly on this site, it’s not a surprise to find the same classic county rock of “30 Days” and “I Give Up” (a touch of bluegrass fiddle with Amy Farris and McCulley of the mandolin), textbook Nashville ballads such as “Pretend You Love Me Tonight” and “Broken Clocks,” as well as a strong rock’n'roll road bearing the name “Not Another Song About California,” and it is one of the best hypothetical “individual” Americana heard recently. And then, in fact, in the “alternative” there is really little: it is rather a demonstration of how this music should always be played, a love for the roots, but without being too respectful. If you liked the recent return to the scene of Chuck Mead - to name another family member in the music - give a chance to Grant Langston and his Stand Up Man.”

http://issuu.com/mercadonuevo/docs/070909_bakotopia_revised