CRACKER
''BERKELEY TO BAKERSFIELD, DISC ONE''
DECEMBER 9 2014
70:02
DISC ONE (30:42)
1 Torches and Pitchforks 02:08
2 March of the Billionaires 03:35
3 Beautiful 03:01
4 El Comandante 03:04
5 El Cerrito 05:02
6 Reaction 02:36
7 You Got Yourself Into This 03:11
8 Life in the Big City 03:50
9 Waited My Whole Life 04:09
1 to 8 Davey Faragher, Johnny Hickman, David Lowery, Michael Urbano
9 Scooter Carusoe, Greg Lisher, David Lowery
DISC TWO (39:20)
1 California Country Boy 03:08
2 Almond Grove 04:33
3 King of Bakersfield 04:52
4 Tonight I Cross the Border 04:15
5 Get On Down the Road 04:54
6 I'm Sorry Baby 04:40
7 The San Bernardino Boy 02:57
8 When You Come Down 04:01
9 Where Have Those Days Gone 05:54
2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 David Lowery
1 David Lowery, Trent Summar
6 Johnny Hickman, Chris Leroy
Bryan Howard/Guitar (Bass)
Davey Faragher/Bass, Vocals (Background)
Marc Gilley/Saxophone
Marc Golde/Keyboards
Johnny Hickman/Guitar, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
David Lowery/Banjo, Guitar, Vocals
Sal Maida/Guitar (Bass)
Luke Moeller/Fiddle
Thayer Sarrano/Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Matt "Pistol" Stoessel/Pedal Steel
Michael Urbano/Drums, Percussion
Jeremy Wheatley/Drums
By AllMusic
REVIEW
by Mark Deming (AllMusic)
Though he was born in Texas, at heart David Lowery has long been a true Californian, and his musings on life in the Golden State have often dotted his albums with Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Camper Van Beethoven even recorded a pair of concept albums about California, 2013's La Costa Perdida (about the northern part of the state) and 2014's El Camino Real (focusing on Southern California), and apparently Lowery had enough ideas about the West Coast left over for Cracker to try something quite similar. Released in 2014, Berkeley to Bakersfield is a two-disc set that offers a pair of distinct perspectives on this band's musical approach and the mythos of California life. Part one, Berkeley, finds Cracker rocking decisively with a set of lean, guitar-driven rock & roll tunes set mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where various forms of bohemia struggle (and not cheerfully) to coexist with the city's new status as a high-tech boomtown. The second act, Bakersfield, predictably enough finds Lowery and company bringing in a handful of guest musicians and playing loose-limbed country tunes, full of bittersweet celebrations of life in the inland valleys along with a strong dose of Don't Tread on Me defiance. The Bakersfield tunes are the purest country music Cracker have released to date, with a rich dose of twangy soul that doesn't negate the frequent seriousness of the lyrics as Lowery's high-attitude vocals blend with Matt "Pistol" Stoessel's pedal steel and Luke Moeller's fiddle. And the rock tunes sound sharp and muscular, with guitarist Johnny Hickman, bassist Davey Faragher, and drummer Michael Urbano bringing lots of spark and plenty of color to the proceedings. Brian Wilson may have invented the rock & roll ideal of California, but David Lowery is doing more than his share to chronicle the way life is lived in his adopted home state in the 21st century, and Berkeley to Bakersfield is one of Cracker's most ambitious and satisfying sets in quite some time, as good as anything they've given us since Kerosene Hat in 1993.
BIOGRAPHY
by Greg Prato (AllMusic)
During Cracker's heyday in the 1990s, the Virginia-based band molded elements of alternative pop/rock and country into several irreverent, buzzworthy anthems. Singer/guitarist David Lowery made no attempt to mask his affinity for traditional roots music, but his own background was far from traditional, as he spent the '80s fronting the quirky alternative outfit Camper Van Beethoven. Shortly after Camper Van Beethoven embarked on a long hiatus in 1990, Lowery began demoing new material with guitarist Johnny Hickman and bassist Davey Faragher. The three musicians named the project Cracker (although several of those early demos would later surface under the title David Lowery Demo Mixes) and set up their headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. By 1991, the band had signed a recording contract with Virgin Records and enlisted the help of several drummers (Jim Keltner, Rick Jaeger, and Phil Jones), all of whom helped shape the sound of Cracker's debut album.
Cracker released their self-titled debut in 1992. Filled with guitar-driven rock songs and gravelly vocals, the album established Cracker's presence in the rock arena, and "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" became a number one modern rock single. A year later, the sophomore effort Kerosene Hat spawned another popular MTV/radio hit with "Low," which charted in the U.K. and also cracked the pop charts in America. The album went platinum as a result. By the time Golden Age arrived in 1996, however, the band's hitmaking lineup had begun to splinter. Bassist Faragher was replaced by Bob Rupe, while the drum spot was occupied by a trio of players: Charlie Quintana, Eddie Bayers, and Johnny Hott.
Golden Age spun off another hit with "I Hate My Generation," and the band toured in support of its release. After returning home from the road, Lowery began focusing on his Richmond-based recording studio, Sound of Music, where he produced such artists as Joan Osborne, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, Fighting Gravity, and Sparklehorse. He also co-produced the Counting Crows along with former Camper Van Beethoven producer Dennis Herring. Lowery's work wasn't limited to the music world, however, as he co-starred in director Eric Drilling's independent film River Red (also composing the film's score) and appeared in another film, director Matt Leutwyler's This Space Between Us.
By the end of the decade, Cracker seemed to have settled on a somewhat permanent lineup comprised of drummer Frank Funaro, keyboardist/accordion player Kenny Margolis, and the preexisting core of Lowery, Hickman, and Rupe. This version of the band issued 1998's Gentleman's Blues, a more reflective album that saw the musicians paying homage to Southern rock and blues. Camper Van Beethoven unexpectedly re-formed shortly thereafter, and Lowery began splitting his time between both bands, whose other members frequently joined whichever group was on the road.
Cracker (along with select musicians from CVB) issued a live album, 2001's Traveling Apothecary Show & Revue, and Cracker followed its release with Forever (2002) and a rowdy set of country covers called Countrysides in 2003. The latter album also marked Cracker's first effort as an independent band, as they had recently left the Virgin roster. Three years later, Cracker returned (this time via the U.K.-based indie label Cooking Vinyl) with Greenland, which featured help from guest artists David Immerglück and Mark Linkous. Another concert release, Live in Berlin, December 2006, arrived in 2008, and the studio effort Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, which cracked Billboard's Top 200 chart, followed one year later. That same year the band went on a tour of Iraq, playing for U.S. troops while working on the "Yalla Yalla" video, which was produced by compiling YouTube videos of American soldiers stationed overseas. Public radio network NPR profiled the tour on their weekly series The Show. A year later, the band played a series of sold-out shows with Camper Van Beethoven dubbed the 2010 Traveling Apothecary Tour.
In 2014, the core Cracker trio of Lowery, Hickman, and Faragher returned to the recording studio, joined by drummer Michael Urbano and keyboardist Thayer Sarrano. By the year's end, the group had released an ambitious two-disc set, Berkeley to Bakersfield, with the "Berkeley" disc devoted to Cracker's trademark brand of alternative rock and the "Bakersfield" chapter finding the band once again digging into their country influences with the help of a handful of guest musicians.
OFFICIAL SITE
''BERKELEY TO BAKERSFIELD, DISC ONE''
DECEMBER 9 2014
70:02
DISC ONE (30:42)
1 Torches and Pitchforks 02:08
2 March of the Billionaires 03:35
3 Beautiful 03:01
4 El Comandante 03:04
5 El Cerrito 05:02
6 Reaction 02:36
7 You Got Yourself Into This 03:11
8 Life in the Big City 03:50
9 Waited My Whole Life 04:09
1 to 8 Davey Faragher, Johnny Hickman, David Lowery, Michael Urbano
9 Scooter Carusoe, Greg Lisher, David Lowery
DISC TWO (39:20)
1 California Country Boy 03:08
2 Almond Grove 04:33
3 King of Bakersfield 04:52
4 Tonight I Cross the Border 04:15
5 Get On Down the Road 04:54
6 I'm Sorry Baby 04:40
7 The San Bernardino Boy 02:57
8 When You Come Down 04:01
9 Where Have Those Days Gone 05:54
2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 David Lowery
1 David Lowery, Trent Summar
6 Johnny Hickman, Chris Leroy
Bryan Howard/Guitar (Bass)
Davey Faragher/Bass, Vocals (Background)
Marc Gilley/Saxophone
Marc Golde/Keyboards
Johnny Hickman/Guitar, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
David Lowery/Banjo, Guitar, Vocals
Sal Maida/Guitar (Bass)
Luke Moeller/Fiddle
Thayer Sarrano/Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Matt "Pistol" Stoessel/Pedal Steel
Michael Urbano/Drums, Percussion
Jeremy Wheatley/Drums
By AllMusic
REVIEW
by Mark Deming (AllMusic)
Though he was born in Texas, at heart David Lowery has long been a true Californian, and his musings on life in the Golden State have often dotted his albums with Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Camper Van Beethoven even recorded a pair of concept albums about California, 2013's La Costa Perdida (about the northern part of the state) and 2014's El Camino Real (focusing on Southern California), and apparently Lowery had enough ideas about the West Coast left over for Cracker to try something quite similar. Released in 2014, Berkeley to Bakersfield is a two-disc set that offers a pair of distinct perspectives on this band's musical approach and the mythos of California life. Part one, Berkeley, finds Cracker rocking decisively with a set of lean, guitar-driven rock & roll tunes set mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where various forms of bohemia struggle (and not cheerfully) to coexist with the city's new status as a high-tech boomtown. The second act, Bakersfield, predictably enough finds Lowery and company bringing in a handful of guest musicians and playing loose-limbed country tunes, full of bittersweet celebrations of life in the inland valleys along with a strong dose of Don't Tread on Me defiance. The Bakersfield tunes are the purest country music Cracker have released to date, with a rich dose of twangy soul that doesn't negate the frequent seriousness of the lyrics as Lowery's high-attitude vocals blend with Matt "Pistol" Stoessel's pedal steel and Luke Moeller's fiddle. And the rock tunes sound sharp and muscular, with guitarist Johnny Hickman, bassist Davey Faragher, and drummer Michael Urbano bringing lots of spark and plenty of color to the proceedings. Brian Wilson may have invented the rock & roll ideal of California, but David Lowery is doing more than his share to chronicle the way life is lived in his adopted home state in the 21st century, and Berkeley to Bakersfield is one of Cracker's most ambitious and satisfying sets in quite some time, as good as anything they've given us since Kerosene Hat in 1993.
BIOGRAPHY
by Greg Prato (AllMusic)
During Cracker's heyday in the 1990s, the Virginia-based band molded elements of alternative pop/rock and country into several irreverent, buzzworthy anthems. Singer/guitarist David Lowery made no attempt to mask his affinity for traditional roots music, but his own background was far from traditional, as he spent the '80s fronting the quirky alternative outfit Camper Van Beethoven. Shortly after Camper Van Beethoven embarked on a long hiatus in 1990, Lowery began demoing new material with guitarist Johnny Hickman and bassist Davey Faragher. The three musicians named the project Cracker (although several of those early demos would later surface under the title David Lowery Demo Mixes) and set up their headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. By 1991, the band had signed a recording contract with Virgin Records and enlisted the help of several drummers (Jim Keltner, Rick Jaeger, and Phil Jones), all of whom helped shape the sound of Cracker's debut album.
Cracker released their self-titled debut in 1992. Filled with guitar-driven rock songs and gravelly vocals, the album established Cracker's presence in the rock arena, and "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" became a number one modern rock single. A year later, the sophomore effort Kerosene Hat spawned another popular MTV/radio hit with "Low," which charted in the U.K. and also cracked the pop charts in America. The album went platinum as a result. By the time Golden Age arrived in 1996, however, the band's hitmaking lineup had begun to splinter. Bassist Faragher was replaced by Bob Rupe, while the drum spot was occupied by a trio of players: Charlie Quintana, Eddie Bayers, and Johnny Hott.
Golden Age spun off another hit with "I Hate My Generation," and the band toured in support of its release. After returning home from the road, Lowery began focusing on his Richmond-based recording studio, Sound of Music, where he produced such artists as Joan Osborne, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, Fighting Gravity, and Sparklehorse. He also co-produced the Counting Crows along with former Camper Van Beethoven producer Dennis Herring. Lowery's work wasn't limited to the music world, however, as he co-starred in director Eric Drilling's independent film River Red (also composing the film's score) and appeared in another film, director Matt Leutwyler's This Space Between Us.
By the end of the decade, Cracker seemed to have settled on a somewhat permanent lineup comprised of drummer Frank Funaro, keyboardist/accordion player Kenny Margolis, and the preexisting core of Lowery, Hickman, and Rupe. This version of the band issued 1998's Gentleman's Blues, a more reflective album that saw the musicians paying homage to Southern rock and blues. Camper Van Beethoven unexpectedly re-formed shortly thereafter, and Lowery began splitting his time between both bands, whose other members frequently joined whichever group was on the road.
Cracker (along with select musicians from CVB) issued a live album, 2001's Traveling Apothecary Show & Revue, and Cracker followed its release with Forever (2002) and a rowdy set of country covers called Countrysides in 2003. The latter album also marked Cracker's first effort as an independent band, as they had recently left the Virgin roster. Three years later, Cracker returned (this time via the U.K.-based indie label Cooking Vinyl) with Greenland, which featured help from guest artists David Immerglück and Mark Linkous. Another concert release, Live in Berlin, December 2006, arrived in 2008, and the studio effort Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, which cracked Billboard's Top 200 chart, followed one year later. That same year the band went on a tour of Iraq, playing for U.S. troops while working on the "Yalla Yalla" video, which was produced by compiling YouTube videos of American soldiers stationed overseas. Public radio network NPR profiled the tour on their weekly series The Show. A year later, the band played a series of sold-out shows with Camper Van Beethoven dubbed the 2010 Traveling Apothecary Tour.
In 2014, the core Cracker trio of Lowery, Hickman, and Faragher returned to the recording studio, joined by drummer Michael Urbano and keyboardist Thayer Sarrano. By the year's end, the group had released an ambitious two-disc set, Berkeley to Bakersfield, with the "Berkeley" disc devoted to Cracker's trademark brand of alternative rock and the "Bakersfield" chapter finding the band once again digging into their country influences with the help of a handful of guest musicians.
OFFICIAL SITE
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