Jasper James and the Cowtown Boners
Counter-Clockwise (self-released)
By Jeff Prince
Damned
if Texas Music didn’t have another branch. Well, OK, not a branch but a
tiny little sprout from a hidden root tucked away somewhere amid the
snail-trailed compost of country, folk, and rock, so deep that strains
of Pink Floyd, Icky Twerp, Oliver Stone, and Harry Chapin all blend
together to form a musically mongrel tree. Independent recordings don’t
get much better than this -- adventurous, engaging, poetic, and subtly
avant garde. Local picker "Jasper" James Michael Taylor’s newest disc
is a straw-chewing journey from innocence to jaded maturity, something
akin to a stripped-down roots version of The Wall. Taylor is a local
songwriter who picks and sings around town at places such as MacHenry’s
and records c.d.’s on a home computer.
More information: Counter-Clockwise
starts with a surprise, a remake of the Everly Brothers’ "Problems," a
maudlin tale of girl trouble, mean parents, and bad grades. Seems like
a strange choice for an old hippie like Taylor, who spent time in
prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam. But it’s a set-up to a story
about bigger problems in the world and Taylor’s take on them. What
follows is a string of original songs done in varying genres, serving
as a stream-of-consciousness flight. Anyone who appreciates theater of
the mind will have a hoot with this. There’s love, of course, both the
good and bad kinds. And there are horny toads, spookiness, brass
quartets, 9/11 thoughts, environmentalism, dramatic narratives, and the
overall sense of feeling small in a vast universe. Astounding is the
anti-war segment "Choices" done with the help of movie dialogue from
Barbara Sonneborn’s Academy Award-nominated Regret to Inform. Taylor
calls his little studio in his near East Side home’s basement The Good
Oops Studio of Fort Worth. Mistakes in the studio, like those in life,
sometimes turn out OK, even better than what was originally planned --
a good oops, so to speak. For more information, go to
www.txh2o.com/jmt/home.htm. — Jeff Prince
