RC Banks





RC Banks
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Loud House Records' first project is RC Banks' Conway's Corner. Recorded at Arlyn Studios in November 2000; the CD was produced by Booka, Andre Zweers, and Judy Kircshner. Andre did the pro-tools on Santana's recent Grammy award winning album, Super Natural. Judy is the chief audio engineer of George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. Conway's Corner is R.C.'s fourth album. He most recently finished playing with and recording on Ronnie Lane's latest CD, Ronnie Lane, Live in Austin on Side Burn Records. R.C. is a well known songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Joe Ely, Linda Ronstadt, Charlie and Will Sexton, and others. Artists featured on the CD include: RC Banks, on guitar, accordion, Hammond B-3, and harmonica; Mike Robberson, bass; Woody Price, steel guitar; Jim Starboard, drums; Booka Michel, percussion; Dee Lewellen and Bevis Griffin, backing vocals.
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Average Rating : 4.8              Total Reviews: 5


RC Banks  03/28/2002            
William Michael Smith/Rockzillaworld/
R. C. Banks hails from Lubbock, lives now in Austin, and makes music that sounds like it could have come from South Louisiana or the Mississippi Delta. While he is a white man from the southwest, he possesses a black voice that wouldn't be out of place in a Southside Chicago blues club, at a crawfish festival in Opelousas, or at Artz Rib House in Austin. His fourth album, Conway's Corner, is thick and funky and greasy. It isn't Lean Cuisine, friends, it is a smorgasbord of pickled pigs feet and hard boiled eggs, of collard greens, black eyed peas, blood sausage and Tabasco sauce. If you're on a diet or have a heart condition, forget about it. But if you're ready for a down-home, poor-folks, southern musical banquet, dig in.While half of Conway's Corner rises from roadhouses set back from numberless narrow roads along the bayous and through the swamps of the Gulf Coast, Banks' "Lonesome Texas" epitomizes the Texas blues thing. The sound is a raunchy roadhouse shuffle perfect for clubs in some vaguely defined no-man's area on the Texas-Louisiana border. With its raw, mean guitar, this is appropriate background music for a knife fight.Conway's Corner has plenty of good material that fits comfortably like old shoes, but my favorite cut is "Pecan Trees." Given their lifestyles, musicians encounter (some may say deservedly) their share of domestic turmoil and career resistance. The musician in "Pecan Trees" can't understand why his family seems to be against him since "I got 3 gigs all lined up/From June until July/After that I can't say/I'm takin' it on the fly."Contact William Michael Smith at: [email protected]
RC Banks  03/28/2002            
Eric Black/The Groove/ 6/5/2001
RC BANKS CONWAY'S CORNER There must be something in the water in Lubbock, Texas, for it has produced an amazing amount of musical legends, like Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Terry Allen and even Buddy Holly. Now we have RC Banks, a true original. Conway's Corner is Banks' fourth album and his first for the new Austin label Loud House Records. RC Banks handles the vocals and plays guitar, harmonica, accordion and the hammond organ. He's accompanied by Jim Starboard-drums, Mike Robberson-bass, Woody Price-guitars and steel guitar, Dee Lewellen and Bevis Griffin-background vocals, and Booka Michel-percussion. Booka also produced the album and is the founder of Loud House Records. On Conway's Corner, RC Banks encompasses a number of musical genres including blues, roots rock, cajun and he can slip the odd ballad in as well. Conway's Corner features thirteen original songs from the soulful pen of Banks. The album kicks into gear with the catchy Texas shuffle I Got Love, then it's straight into a bluesy track called Courthouse with a meaty slide playing in the background. The mood changes with Walking On Air, a twangy country number before he slips on the accordion to give you a taste of cajun music on Jenny Jones. Every track on this CD is an absolute gem and one of my many favorites is the slow blues of More Than The World To Me that really tugs on the old heartstrings. I don't know if I should call this a blues album or an americana album, or maybe I should just stick to Texas Music! Look! Whether you're into blues or whatever DON'T miss out on getting yourself a copy of RC Banks' Conway's Corner. This is definitely one of the best albums I've heard this year. Eric Black Blue Country 101FM THE GROOVE Queensland, Australia
RC Banks  03/28/2002            
Jay Trachtenburg/Austin Chronicle/May 25,2001
There’s a certain gritty soulfulness that imbues the music of R.C. Banks and brings to mind the old adage coined in the George Jones song title “Ragged but Right.” Banks is one of the countless musical émigrés who left the windswept high plains of Lubbock not long after the Ely/Hancock/Gilmore exodus, and brought with him to Austin a rough ‘n’ tumble roadhouse swagger that he sometimes counters with a disarming sensitive side. A veteran of innumerable bands ranging from Ponty Bone’s Squeezetones and Zydeco Ranch to the Texas Sheiks and the New Cotton Kings, Banks is no stranger to the Texas roots amalgam as he clearly demonstrates on his fourth album, Conway’s Corner. If you’ve come for a seamless, polished sheen, look elsewhere. Banks makes no bones about his down and dirty intentions right from the get-go with the raucous one-two punch of “I Got Love” and “Courthouse” to open the album. He ably blends swamp blues, Cajun, waltzes, country laments, Texas shuffles, and juke joint stomps into a potent concoction that doesn’t dally with superficial niceties. You have to smile, however, by the way he cops with not-so-subtle adroitness from the likes of Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” Guitar Slim, and most tastefully, a note-perfect Jimi Hendrix lick. Other than closing out with an uncharacteristically cheerful ode from back home on “South Plains Panhandle Fair,” Banks has let loose with a no-frills celebration of the good times, hard knocks, and a broken hearts of Texas Saturday night. Jay Trachtenburg Austin Chronicle May 25, 2001
RC Banks  03/28/2002            
Keith Glass/Rhythms
June, 2001 R.C. Banks Conway’s Corner The heading on this page says ‘country’ but in truth I rarely review albums these days that fit neatly into that compartment. Case in point: journeyman Austin guitarist/singer/accordion player R.C. Banks. In the tradition of Doug Sahm he has all bases covered, blues/soul/conjunto/rock’n’roll/Cajun as well as the other ‘c’ word. Originally coming to attention as part of Ponty Bone’s Squeezetones, Banks follows the same muse, and the sound brings to mind smoky bars, neon lights and all that other good stuff. The opener I Got Love is your classic blues shuffle, Courthouse a homage to Dylan’s Maggie’s Farm, Walkin’ On Air Jimmie Rodgers style country/blues as distilled through The Stones, Jenny Jones a Tex/Mex waltz with the US daytime talk show as a focal point, and on it goes, Banks mixing it up with some tasty additions of Hammond, steel guitar and soulful backing vocals. Producer Booka Michel adds some percussion and keeps it real and immediate – just like you were there in that bar or Great Scott’s BBQ as the title to another song goes. Keith Glass ‘Country CDS’ RHYTHMS New South Wales, Australia
RC Banks  03/28/2002            
Michael Corcoran/Austin American Statesman
There are two kinds of pot roast-one that’s just meat and one that’s sizzling in all sorts of chopped up ingredients like carrots, kale, onions, bell peppers and celery, plus a few bones of mysterious origin for a flavorful twist. R.C. Banks is, musically, the second kind. The Austin music veteran throws all sorts of nasty licks, like sweaty harmonica blasts and accordion notes that are almost drunk in their yearning, over his Waitsian observations on the new “Conway’s Corner.” Structurally and lyrically, blues ballad “More Than the World To Me” is a musical figure eight, but there’s so much invention between the notes that it sounds like nothing you’ve heard before. “If you know what love is, then you know what’s right,” Banks growls on “Now’s the Time,” sounding very much like he knows what’s right. On “Pecan Trees,” he sings about a girl who passes the tip jar without being asked and it sounds much more romantic than if he described her eyes as precious stones. Do Banks a favor. No, do yourself a favor and buy this, one of the most invigorating CDs to pull up a chair and twist one off in a long time. Michael Corcoran Austin American-Statesman July 12, 2001
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