Years Since Yesterday [CD]

Definitions can be a drag. Just ask The Paladins.

 

This hard rocking San Diego trio has been called a "roots rock" band but these days that term encompasses every two-bit, three-chord suburban garage band from Boston to Bakersfield who ever played Good Golly Miss Molly.

 

The term doesn't even come close to describing a band that covers as much ground as The Paladins do, or features a guitarist as wide ranging as Dave Gonzales, alternately ripping off razor sharp blues leads, riffing soulful rhythm and playing scatting jump lines, and a rhythm section as steady as upright bassist Thomas Yearsley and drummer Scott Campbell.

 

The Paladins play honest American music. Now, everyone from Lyle Lovett to Lockjaw Davis to Lazy Lester can be said to play honest American music. It cuts across traditional genre lines and eliminates the stale question--"is it blues or jazz, country or rockabilly?" This rootsy gutbucket trio grabs eagerly from all these sources to create Paladins Rock.

 

"I really like country, Tom really likes swing and R&B, and Scott's a real blues guy," Gonzales says, "so all this stuff we try to put together. We're not a blues band, not a rockabilly band. We just like all these different sounds and we try to interpret them in our own way."

 

The Paladins' own way of making music has earned them fans from many quarters. They have toured often with Los Lobos and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Texas guitar hotshot Anson Funderburgh and The Fabulous Thunderbirds' Kim Wilson worked on the band's self-titled debut album. The Los Lobos connection continues on Years Since Yesterday, which was produced by Lobos saxman/producers Steve Berlin and engineer Mark Linett.

 

"I wanted to work with them because they have a real highly developed sense of rightness," Berlin says. "They write great songs, they play hard, they won't sell themselves cheap, and they do things their own way."

 

Los Lobos' David Hidalgo adds, "We ask them to open tours for us because we like to hear them play. We'd go and buy tickets if we had to. And Dave's one of my favorite guitar players."

 

The Paladins are in essence a road band. Gonzales and Yearsley started playing together as high school classmates eleven years ago and since Campbell joined forces with them in 1984, The Paladins have been barnstorming the nation. They play over 200 nights and log more than 75,000 road miles a year.

 

"I think it's important to go on the road all the time," Gonzales says. "There are bands that play around but never go anywhere, or they fly. But you get a different feeling if you drive through a cotton field, or drive through a swamp or through the mountains or whatever. I really believe that our music has become a little more authentic because we spent time in those areas.

 

"You know--sometimes I really wish I was in a big tight band, where everyone has their part and plays it just right. But man, I just love the rawness and intensity of a trio," Gonzales says, his heavy eyebrows lifting to reveal an intense gaze. "It's just you and the audience."

 

And the audience usually responds quite well, thank you. Once the band gets the folks into the joint, it's not hard to convert them.

 

"They kick ass," Los Lobos guitarist Cesar Rosas says. "It's really refreshing to know there's a band out there that's really into the music. They're adding to a lost part of the American musical tradition. They're missionaries, and it's more important than ever in the 80's, with all the electronic bullshit and everything, to have a band like them."

 

So pick up this album and give it a spin. If it doesn't get you shaking your hips and banging your longneck on the table, you definitely don't deserve to have a good time. Because this platter rocks.

- Alan Paul
Alan Paul is a regular contributor to PULSE!