Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Tuesday Tuneage
Wet Willie - "Keep On Smilin'"
1974

A glance at Wet Willie's Greatest Hits album cover confirms the stereotypes you imagine for a seventies Southern rock band:

Fat guy with hat and facial hair? Check.
Guy with overalls or suspenders? Check.
Guy with plaid or flannel shirt? Check.
Guy with rapidly-receding hairline? Check.
And one guy who looks glad to be along for the ride and one skinny guy with a beard who pulls of the Legitimate Rocker look.

Not to mention that song titles like "Grits Ain't Groceries", "Red Hot Chicken", and "Dixie Rock" point towards yet another Southern rock band piling up cliches and guitar solos. But to listen to the tunes …  As John Milward wrote in The Rolling Stone Record Guide (orginal red edition):

"Most other Southern bands seasoned their blues rock with country influences, but Wet Willie fueled its with hard-biting R&B."

Lead singer Jimmy Hall was a solid soul-influenced singer, and Wet Willie's only hit, "Keep On Smilin'", is one of the lost classics of seventies blue-eyed soul, gospel-tinged and triumphant. (It charted #10 but doesn't get oldies radio play? What gives?) On a down day you can do no worse than to track this one and heed Johnny's reminder to stay gold.