{"id":572,"date":"2011-08-08T05:40:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T10:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2026-09-06T09:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T13:21:22","slug":"cd-review-the-long-ryders-native-sons-deluxe-reissue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/08\/cd-review-the-long-ryders-native-sons-deluxe-reissue\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review: The Long Ryders – Native Sons (Deluxe Reissue)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Long Ryders<\/strong> made a hypocrite out of me. Up until the mid 1980s, I adamantly argued that I didn\u2019t like any music that had so much as a twinge of country to it. But then I heard this band from Hollywood, and I was forced to revise my thinking.<\/p>\n

Cast your mind back to the mid-80s. The airwaves \u2013 even the hipper end of the dial — were filled with teased-haired, lipstick-smeared acts, artists who placed as much emphasis on their visual aesthetic as they did on (shudder) the music. College radio was the bright spot in this milieu, and on stations like WRAS (Georgia State University\u2019s high-powered station broadcasting from downtown Atlanta) and WREK (neighboring Georgia Tech\u2019s \u201cdiversified\u201d station), one could hear more interesting, challenging and \u2013 ultimately \u2013 enduring sounds.<\/p>\n

Even within that context, the Long Ryders were something of an anomaly. Springing as they did from the Paisley Underground scene of Los Angeles, the Ryders cast a wider net to harvest their inspiration. Clearly influenced by the \u201cif you can\u2019t say it in three minutes, it ain\u2019t worth saying\u201d aesthetic of sixties pop\/rock, the foursome also appreciated the windswept, proto-Americana style of The Byrds<\/strong>. The Long Ryders\u2019 jangle was heartfelt, and \u2013 to coin a phrase \u2013 modestly anthemic.<\/p>\n

By that I mean that the Long Ryders\u2019 lyrics beckoned and appealed to Everyman, but did so in a way that didn\u2019t call attention to itself; no \u201chey, I\u2019m singing an anthem<\/em> over here, fergodssake\u201d attitude. Highly accessible and hooky melodies with a near-perfect blend of country and rock, the songs of the Long Ryders formed an irresistible body of work. Across three albums and an EP, the group melded a country sound with a rock attitude, creating something that \u2013 in contrast to innumerable watered-down and artistically vapid attempts by other artists (Eagles<\/strong>, I\u2019m looking at you) actually worked.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t discover the group until midway through their relatively brief time together. When 1985\u2019s State of Our Union<\/em> came out, I was hooked. The band\u2019s songs \u2013 written individually or in band-member combinations \u2013 showed an interesting and subtly political (populist) worldview.<\/p>\n

But before that stellar record, the group released their 1983 debut EP 10-5-60<\/em> and their first full-length (1984\u2019s Native Sons<\/em>). Those records showed the group\u2019s approach blossoming fully formed. Nearly thirty years later, it\u2019s been reissued on CD along with Native Sons and a handful of other tracks (demos, sessions and a b-side). Save for a bit of shotgun-snare sound, these form two dozen tracks of timeless rock\u2019n\u2019roll. Lyrically, the group always had a knack for painting a personal picture yet somehow opening it up to the universal; even the titles (example: \u201cNever Got to Meet the Mom\u201d) make it clear that, as J.C. Fogerty<\/strong> might have said, the Long Ryders wrote a song for everyone.<\/p>\n

The highlights on this expanded reissue are far too numerous to mention. The twangy stomper \u201cWreck of the 809\u201d combines London<\/em> Calling<\/em>-era Clash<\/strong> style with an American storytelling approach. Countless groups of the era \u2013 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers<\/strong>, REM<\/strong>, The Bangles<\/strong> — employed shimmering Rickenbackers to craft their sound, but the Long Ryders were the most successful at bringing the punchy rock approach to bear along with the Rics. And John Mackey<\/strong>\u2019s new liner notes \u2013 displaying a love for and understanding of what the band was all about — are among the best I\u2019ve read in ages.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a duff tune in the bunch on this deluxe reissue; even the demo tracks are worthwhile. While the Long Ryders didn\u2019t burn up the charts in the 80s, the music they created has withstood the test of time. To call these songs timeless is not to overstate the case; songs like \u201cAnd She Rides\u201d sound as fresh today as they did back in 1984. Essential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Long Ryders made a hypocrite out of me. Up until the mid 1980s, I adamantly argued that I didn\u2019t like any music that had so much as a twinge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32383,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/32383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}