Lubbock, Texas's hometown heroes! Not everyone in the The Maines Brothers Band is a Maines family sibling, but those that are include steel player Lloyd Maines, father of Dixie Chicks superstar lead singer Natalie Maines, and three of her uncles, all Lubbock locals who'd all been playing since they were kids, and who have a funky, low-rent vibe that's kind of fun to hear in a mainstream country album. Still, their rough-cut vocals and dips into boogie-rock and Texas bar-band party music (as well as plenty of true twang) weren't exactly a recipe for success in the glossy '80s Nashville scene. They grazed the back end of the Top 100, and pushed even harder on their next album, but the effort to get all Alabama/Bellamy Brothers-ed up wasn't quite going to work for these Lone Star twangsters... After their major-label fling, they kept playing together and recording indie albums, but Lloyd concentrated more and more on playing steel on other people's albums and became one of the best and most sought-after producers in the burgeoning indie-Americana scene. Oh, and probably cheering Natalie on, as well.
The Maines Brothers Band "...And Friends" (Texas Soul Records, 1978) (LP)
The Maines Brothers Band "Route 1, Acuff" (Texas Soul Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Don Caldwell, Lloyd Maines & Sylvester Rice)
The Maines Brothers Band "Hub City Moan" (Texas Soul Records, 1981) (LP)
The Maines Brothers Band "Panhandle Dancer" (Texas Soul Records, 1982) (LP)
The Maines Brothers Band "High Rollin' " (Mercury Records, 1984) (LP)
(Produced by Jerry Kennedy & Rick Peoples)
An uneven but earnest album from this long-lived regional band from the Texas Panhandle... One highlight here is their version of Terry Allen's "Amarillo Highway," a song that had been in their repertoire for years... Always a winner!
The Maines Brothers Band "The Boys Are Back In Town" (Mercury Records, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by Jerry Kennedy & Rick Peoples)
In all honesty, this is a pretty awful record... Hearing these rugged, roughnecked, Lone Star good ol' boys try and squeeze themselves into the '80s pop-country format is pretty painful. They seem to be shooting for a sort of Hank Jr. rowdy sound, but it just sounds forced and desperate, and besides their vocals aren't very good, at least not in a Top 40 framework. A couple of tracks are okay from a true-twang perspective, but mostly this is a big misfire. Some nice pedal steel by Lloyd Maines and some groovy Doug Kershaw-ish fiddling, but that's not enough to redeem this one... This just wasn't working for them.
The Maines Brothers Band "Red, Hot And Blue" (Texas Soul Records, 1987) (LP)
The Maines Brothers Band "Windstorm" (Texas Soul Records, 1990) (LP)
Don Caldwell "...Plays Love Songs" (Texas Soul Records, 1979-?) (LP)
(Produced by Bill Gammill, Lloyd Maines & Syl Rice)
Perhaps better known as a music producer than as a sideman or solo artist, saxophone player Don Caldwell started his own studio in Lubbock, Texas, way back in 1971, recording countless local and regional artists over the years, including nationally-known acts and Americana icons like Terry Allen and Joe Ely. Caldwell captured Texas twang at its height, and is best known for his long association with The Maines Brothers, an extended-family act that included steel player Lloyd Maines, who also became a prominent record producer. They helped get Lloyd's kid Natalie into show business, and recorded several Maines Brothers albums on the Texas Soul label. While Caldwell had deep country roots, his own solo set is more of a jazz kinda thing, heavily populated with standards such as "Blue Velvet," "Feelings," "Girl From Ipanema," and "Summertime," with a little bit of twang in at the edges. Caldwell also had a civic-minded side: in 1993 he purchased the Cactus Theater in his hometown of Lubbock, and worked to make it a hub for performing arts. After the studio closed, Caldwell's personal archives were donated to the University of Texas which also hosts an excellent biographical profile on its website.
