CD Review: GRAMPA McCoy MOEBAKKEN – The Good Ol’ Songs

GRAMPA McCoy MOEBAKKEN

The Good Ol’ Songs

Hello Mary Lou – I Can’t Help It If I’m Sill
In Love With You – Busted – Dream – Before The Next Teardrop Falls –
Jailhouse Rock – Over The Rainbow – Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right –
Old Rivers – Dreamin’ – Wasted Days and Wasted Nights – Roll Over
Beethoven – Secret Love – All I Ever Need Is You

 

Grampa Moebakken is probably more 50’s rock and roll than
he is ‘country’ but still he has a couple of great country songs on this
nicely produced down-home CD.  Dick is the bass player for Sherwin
Linton, so he’s spent a lot of time ‘traveling’ to the many on the road
gigs that Sherwin and his wife Pam perform.  Sherwin is one of the best
known regional performers we have in the upper Midwest, making his home
in Minnesota, like Grampa Moebakken does.  Every performance any
entertainer does is a different experience, and I’m sure that happens
with both Sherwin and Dick.  They did a recent show at the Oak Tree Opry
in Anita, Iowa, and it turned out to be one of our better shows of the
season.  Great performers and great music.  Sherwin also showcased his
bass player, and Dick Moebakken is as good on stage as he is on
recordings.  Although Sherwin didn’t help Dick on this recording, it’s
still a good down-home recording, and fun to listen to.  Participating
musicians is Ar Stevens on electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards,
drums, harmonica.  Phil Harper is on pedal steel, Dick Ruffin on fiddle
and tuba, Terry Nord on keyboards for a couple of tunes, John Voight on
bass and rhythm guitar, and Dick himself on lead vocals, and bass.  All
the way through the ‘production’ is high throughout, even though the
music ventures from top country to top pop, and even a little top rock. 
Nice ‘mix’ of styles, and  certainly a nice accomplishment for one of
our regional performers. Hear some exceptional lead guitar picking on
“Dream” as well as some fine vocalizing.  The two Freddy Fender songs
“Before The Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”
actually become Moebakken’s very own stylized songs.  Absolutely well
done. A whole different ‘take’ on Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s
All Right.” Well done and ‘fits’ the genre really well.  Two Walter
Brennan songs are extremely well done, “Busted” and “Old Rivers.” 
Brings back a lot of warm memories from the old days of country music. 
All of it was recorded at Arffytune Studios I Coon Rapids, Minnesota, a
subsidiary of Minneapolis.  Ar Stevens did the producing and engineering
and did a nice job well done.

RECORD REVIEW BY BOB EVERHART, President National Traditional Country Music Association  www.music-savers.com for Country Music News International

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