Cowboy in Flames

A roots-punk must have. Brimming with grim romanticism, and joyous, near ecstatic, drunken stomps. Join the cause as the Wacos strip the fat and greasepaint off country music's carcass and build a pagan temple out of its bones.

Full Description

The second chapter in the saga of Los Hermanos Wacos, Cowboy in Flames is widely regarded as THE perfect marriage of punk, liquor and roots. It's a wicked little skunk tossed into the tent of bloated, corrupt excesses. Making good on their promise (or was that a threat??) of their first record, the Wacos deliver a slab brimming with grim romanticism, and joyous, near ecstatic, drunken stomps. Join the cause as they strip the fat and greasepaint off country music's carcass and build a pagan temple out of its bones.

In addition to anthemic (and we don't bandy that word around lightly) originals like the angry and defiant "See Willy Fly By," the title track, the joyously pagan gospel of "Take Me to the Fires," and every parents/significant others' behavior primer "Do What I Say," there are scalding versions of country classics "White Lightning," "Wreck On The Highway," and "Big River"---rendered here into no country we know.

Still not convinced? How's about the T. Rex infused "Out There A Ways" or the Bo-Diddley beat in "Out in the Light?" Or mebbe the two-wheels-on-the-guardrail romp "Waco Express?" Or the last word on burying the Nashville pretenders, the nursery rhyming, spilling blood on the forgotten bones "Death of Country Music?"

This baby's got more hip shakers on it than Get Your Ya's Ya's Out. We think you'll agree--Cowboy In Flames is a sure tonic to wash the taste of disgust out of a parched nation's throat.

CHOICE CUTS:

Seriously, most of the songs on this record are bonafide classics. Don't make us choose...

Short Description

The red-eyed ghost of the working man keeps the Wacos' aim true. The result is pure-grain protest music.

— Puncture
Cowboy is dark and desperate, like a steam engine churning towards it own wreck.

— Chicago Magazine
The Waco Brothers’ songs seethe with fire and decay, where things go out in a blaze of glory or crumble to dust (that is, when it’s not taking a drunken stumble toward the nearest ditch). Sin and corruption loom large.

— Penny Black Music
The working-class rage that bubbled under the surface of the first album came to a full boil on Cowboy in Flames, and that passion fueled the sweaty, urgent rage of the best cuts, especially "See Willy Fly By," "Take Me to the Fires," and the title cut.

— MSN Entertainment
For all its country trappings, Cowboy in Flames is a fierce rock album. The sloppy exuberance is reminiscent of the Pogues, only much tighter -- in both senses of the word.

— Boston Phoenix
They may be pillaging country's grave, but in the Waco Brothers' hands, such desecration becomes an act of reverence.

— Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune
Possessed by the demon of rock'n'roll, haunted by the ghosts of old country music... to make matters better, the group's originals are so consistently inspired they come across as instant classics.

— Billboard