Indie Rock N Ramble w/Lucia & Glynn
Up Close and On Fire with S and K Ep 17 Durango Dogs and Iron Cowboy

IRON COWBOY

Iron Cowboy do most of their shows in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area as a cover band doing a lot of country and Southern rock covers, but they also have made the effort to record a few CDs of original music. One DJ that heard one of their CDs described them as “a cleverly disguised rock band with a steel guitar” – which to most fans of traditional or outlaw country would come off as a remark not much different from Tom Petty’s famous dismissal of bro-country as “hair metal with cowboy hats”. Iron Cowboy, however, have taken that DJ’s description and accepted it as 100% accurate. Since the release of the album from which we are highlighting cuts tonight, 2011’s Tattoo Of You, the band has expanded their sound a little with the addition of a second vocalist in Cathy Paty, who has graced their most recent releases, including a one-off cover of The Eagles’ “Seven Bridges Road”. The tracks we are highlighting this week from Tattoo Of You don’t have Ms. Paty or the pedal steel, but the idea of a rock band disguised as country still seems to fit – or could they be a country band disguised as rock? You decide as we listen to the following songs from Tattoo Of You: “I’m Thinking ‘Cause I’m Drinkin’”, “Please Believe Me”, and “Dead Man Walkin’”.

DURANGO DOGS

Durango Dogs are a hard rock band from San Francisco, California with an interesting history as to how their debut release, Raw Doggin’ Love, came to be. Band leader, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Eric Durango had taken his then-lineup of the group into the studio in April of 2014 with only three hours of time to cut as many songs as possible, only getting five tracks finished. Eric spent much of that summer adding overdubs to the existing songs, and then mixing and mastering them, only to declare the results nothing more than an expensively produced demo. He went back into the studio a year later with local legend Ed Jones, and together the two recorded ten songs, including new takes on the songs from the original demo, with both gentlemen taking on multiple instrumental duties. After the songs were recorded and mixed, the perfectionist part of Eric Durango’s personality decided that all of the guitar parts needed to be rerecorded from top to bottom – which they did… twice. Surprisingly, the finished album sounds more like a full band slogging it out in the studio in a couple of takes apiece, yet still sounds like a lot of time and energy went into it. Go figure! Representing the Raw Doggin’ Love album are the tracks “Devil Dog”, “Leviathan”, and “Yoga Pants Woman”.