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