Tav Falco is the ultimate rock and roll auteur, having crafted a persona that tossed convention in the dustbin like yesterday’s news, thereby putting the world on notice. Even saying he purveys “rock and roll” is too conventional for this artist, as the songs he’s curated over the years have included tango, country and western, blues, rockabilly, and crime jazz. That alone is indicative of his ambition. He shall never don the straitjacket of the generic.
Memphians of my generation have known this for a long time. Indeed, Falco was an icon of the city’s underground when he lived here, and remains so for many, though he’s moved onto an international stage in this century, living in Europe or Southeast Asia as his muse dictates. One can still imagine him haunting back alleys and botanicas of Memphis like a juke-joint flaneur. For that reason, he’s sometimes taken for granted here. Yet who else in these days of pastiche treads the same ground with such panache?
Case in point: this year’s live album from Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Nashville Sessions: Live at Bridgestone Arena Studios, recorded for Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country channel as he and his band toured the country last year. It’s an album that stays true to his original vision, even as it also reveals his evolution. “Ride the snake until we meet again,” reads the album’s cover. “Ride the snake until the end.”
For starters, it’s an excellent career retrospective, including songs from nearly every epoch of this artist’s growth, even as the album refashions them through Falco’s crack Italian band. The group features well-known ringer and session guitarist Mario Monterosso, who moved to Memphis from Rome years ago, joined by Giuseppe Sangirardi on bass and Walter Brunetti on drums, and here they achieve a kind of alchemy, streamlining the chaos of older versions of the Panther Burns while preserving the unhinged approach that so complements Falco’s unique vocals.
Part of the Panther Burns’ power has always rested in pairing Falco’s raw vocals and rhythm guitar with a true virtuoso. This began with the band’s co-founder, the late Alex Chilton, whose command of music led him to adopt a contrarian attitude, sometimes playing a half-step out of tune with the band with mischievous glee. Later, others like New Orleans’ George Reinecke filled that role. Today it’s Monterosso, whose youthful obsession with rockabilly and all things Memphis led to his connection with Falco, and his role as the group’s musical director.
His jazz inclinations, like Chilton’s, are a perfect foil to Falco’s preference for drama over perfect pitch. If Falco’s vocals are bent on embodying the character of each song rather than singing scales, they still rely on executing the music with a fidelity to the original flavor. Thus, the mystery of “Master of Chaos,” a co-write by Monterosso and Falco, is only heightened by the former’s knowledge of crime jazz’s dark harmonies. Introducing it as “an homage to the French literary and cinematic figure … the genius of crime, Fantômas,” Falco conjures up a shadow play with his words, savoring every syllable, while Monterosso and band march on.
The band transforms classic songs from Falco’s long career with some creative twists. “Cuban Rebel Girl,” which was originally a four-on-the-floor rocker, now takes on a swing that almost suggests striptease. And that suggestion of dishabille highlights a more erotic side of Falco’s imagined femme rebelle.
All in all, the band sound is heavier than you might expect. They hammer down as the guitars’ volume swells, with a focus and drive that sometimes eluded the more ramshackle sounds of Falco’s earlier bands. This, too, is a welcome evolution, inspiring Falco to sing with more authority than ever. If you’ve never experienced the Panther Burns before, this is the perfect entre into Falco’s world, accomplished with all the immediacy of a live performance. Pick up a copy and allow yourself to be transported to the Delta, New Orleans, Argentina, Rome, and back again to Memphis, where it all was born.
Tav Falco’s Panther Burns perform at Lafayette’s Music Room Wednesday, October 4th, 7 p.m. Click here for tickets.
