I want to keep the Flashback needle buried deep in 1994’s groove a bit longer yet before I skip elsewhere with my selections.
I want to linger in 1994 because so many compelling albums were recorded that year by artists who deserved more of Nashville’s attention and promotional money than they received. The albums are by no stretch excellent nor essential, but they are special recording because the artists represented an increasingly rare independent spirit willing to chance the Music City rapids; they dared to dance the tide and buck the going trends dominating the country music charts at the time.
Is there a better example of that than Steve Kolander’s eponymous debut for the short-lived River North Nashville label?
In the liner notes, Kolander writes, “My gratitude wouldn’t be complete without thanking a few of my mentors: Hank Williams, Sr., Hank Thompson, Buddy Holly, Willie Nelson, The Beatles, Roy Orbison, and, of course, Elvis.” The album’s retro design looks like it was lifted directly from the pages of a menu from Wimpy’s Diner, a Canadian chain of restaurants based upon 50’s and 60’s themes. It is all neon, automotive tail-fins, chrome, and art deco designs. In the album’s photos, Kolander postures, sneers, and struts in a Nudie suit custom made for him by The Rhinestone Rembrandt Manuel Cuevas. This rockabilly persona is something other artists from the nineties periodically tried on for size from Marty Stuart to Mark Collie to Stacy Dean Campbell. In the November issue of New Country magazine, Chris Dickinson observed, “Steve Kolander resembles a cross between Chris Isaak and Harry Connick Jr.”
In reference to his mentors and idols, Kolander wrote, “Because of your ability to risk ridicule and failure to perform your own unique style of music, you have given me the courage to try the same.”
It is precisely Kolander’s courage that is so compelling with this collection. He is cool because of how deeply uncool and out of time he is. He risked becoming another Sha Na Na with his style but there is nothing of parody, novelty, or insincerity about his sound. In her review of Kolander’s album, Dickinson said, “There’s a lost of understatement in the production, which favors tasteful combinations of jazzy piano, wafting fiddle and dreamy washes of pedal steel in service to songs that combine country, adult pop, and blues. Kolander’s sophisticated without sounding slick.” Steve Kolander’s music sounds distinctly different than, say, what George Strait or Clint Black were doing at the top of the charts.
Kolander wrote or co-wrote all the songs on his Joe Thomas-produced debut. Thomas was running the Nashville division of River North Records and would soon become infamous for his production work with The Beach Boys’, Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, an album of country music covers of Beach Boys songs by some of Nashville’s biggest stars. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the 1996 album as an “unmitigated disaster and an outright embarrassment for all involved.”
Thankfully, Thomas work here on Kolander’s debut avoided those later missteps.
The best track is “Drowning Man.” It is a gorgeous and pleading song about the many betrayals a man has made while chasing wealth. The narrator is alone and realizes he is nothing more than a faded photograph to his kids living in a house that is no home to either him or them. The performance is shockingly good and the production is mournful and moody. He mines a similar emotional vein in “Taken For Granted,” a concise song about the consequences of a man’s arrogance and ego.
Given the shared musical influences, it is no surprise “Maria” sounds deliciously like a lost Mavericks track.
The most memorable song on the album is “Scoot Over, Move Closer.” It is a suggestive and inviting song, swelling with vocal yips and dips. Kolander is at his vocal best on this one. It is a sexy song. Dickinson said, “Kolander doesn’t have hit-the-rafters lung-power, but instead ably croons through these evocative, intelligent arrangements.”
Kolander took “Listen to Your Woman” to #63 on the Billboard charts in 1994 and “Black Dresses” to #70 the following year. Another worthy artist who didn’t, and couldn’t, break through in Nashville.
I don’t recall seeing any Kolander videos on CMT, and I certainly didn’t hear his music on KEEY K102 FM in the Twin Cities. Nonetheless, I recall being fairly enamoured with the album when I purchased it after reading the New Country review while in university, and I have stuck with it all these years later. Kolander released an equally enjoyable second album on River North Nashville in 1996 titled Pieces of a Puzzle. His final album Light to Dark was independently released in 2007.
I wish I could share some more biographical information about him, but all the info my initial research turned up was that he was an advertising executive prior to becoming a recording artist.
Quality and sincere artistic expression like this deserved to be rewarded in ways better than Kolander received while briefly running with the big hillbilly cats in 90’s Nashville.
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