VARIOUS ARTISTS
No Song, No Supper: Sugar Hill Singer-Songwriters Dish It Up (Sugar Hill)
Reviewed by Eric Steiner

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Mississippi novelist Larry Brown's picked some of his favorites from the Sugar Hill catalogue on No Song, No Supper, and as a writer who has "struggled for years to learn how to write fiction that would buy some groceries," he's developed a keen appreciation of the storyteller's art. These 14 cuts run the gamut of the Sugar Hill experience, from James McMurty's "Fast as I Can," The Gourds' "Ants on the Melon," to Robert Earl Keen's "I'll Go on Downtown." No Song, No Supper is a true storyteller's CD, and when I discovered Peter Rowan on "Before the Streets Were Paved" (from Peter Rowan: Dust Bowl Children) and Guy Clark on "Let Him Roll" (from Guy Clark: Keepers, A Live Recording), I knew that the trails blazed by Woody Guthrie, Steve Goodman, and Harry Chapin were well- tended by artists that put pen to paper today. If you're hankering for story songs that hit not only your head but your heart, see what Sugar Hill's Singer- Songwriters are dishing up on No Song, No Supper. If Larry Brown's next novel, The Rabbit Factory, tells tales like these songs do, he'll be buying a lot of groceries after it’s published next September.

Track List:

Daddy Raised a Boy/Scott Miller and the Commonwealth * Waitin' Around to Die/Townes Van Zandt * Ants on the Melon/The Gourds * Guy Clark/Let Him Roll * I Got A Longing to Hear Hank Sing the Blues/Jimmy Murphy * Teach Me About Love/Walter Hyatt * Cortez Sail/Terry Allen * You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive/Darrell Scott * Sweet Loving Daddy/Jesse Winchester * I'll Go On Downtown/Robert Earl Keen * The Rock of My Soul/Rodney Crowell/Fast As I Can/James McMurtry * Before the Streets Were Paved/Peter Rowan * Nellie Kane/Tim O'Brien with Hot Rize

© 2003 - Eric Steiner