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AREA - Area Code 615, CD review (Chgo Trib, Feb 25, 2001)

AREA CODE 615 - Area Code 615/Trip in the Country (Koch)

CD review by David Royko, Chicago Tribune, February 25, 2001

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

February 25, 2001

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2001

RECORDINGS


AREA CODE 615

Area Code 615/Trip in the Country (Koch)


If you dial 615, you're calling Nashville. Thirty

years ago, if you were arranging a Nashville recording

session for a superstar and you needed the best in the

business, the seven digits following that area code

most likely belonged to the players on this reissue of

two albums originally released in 1969-70. Area Code

615 was a short-lived aggregate of the best -- and

hippest -- of Music City session pickers, let loose to

create whatever they wanted. A torrent of progressive

instrumental creativity and innovation--barely hinted

at by their hired-hand work -- combined rock,

bluegrass and country. That they managed to interpret

material as far ranging as "Hey Jude" and "Just Like a

Woman" to "Classical Gas" and "Lil' Maggie" without

ever descending into kitsch speaks to the taste and

sensitivity required to be the 9-to-5 chameleons they

were. But their originals, such as "Stone Fox Chase"

and "Devil Weed and Me," suggest that they were often

the most talented composers in the studio even when

they were there to back the stars.

David Royko


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