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Some Acres of Suede Reviews.....enjoy!
Acres Of Suede - A Review
by Ken Drew

Webb Wilder: Acres Of Suede (WM 1033) Watermelon Records release date 5/21/96

Webb Wilder is the last of the full grown men. Webb Wilder is an electrifying artist. Webb Wilder is not only a man but a band. Actually, Webb Wilder and his band, the Nashvegans, recorded a new album called "Acres Of Suede". With long time producer R.S. "Bobby" Field AKA The Ionizer (John Mayall, Sonny Landreth) at the helm, Webb Wilder has once again boldly gone where no man has gone before. While combining the best of two kinds of music, Rock and Roll, fans will rejoice when they listen to this masterpiece.

The Nashvegans, led by George Bradfute "The Tone Chaperone" and Les James Lester (drums), along with a host of guests like David Grissom (guitar), Rick "Casper" Rawls (guitar), Scott Baggett (guitars, bass, organ), K.K. Falkner (background vocals), Steve Conn (keyboards), Joe Pisapia (background vocals), and R.S. Field (guitars, organ, vocals), lay down some serious music that allows us to hear the full, unadulterated sounds of Webb Wilder.

In today's world, a sense of humor is a must. In today's music, a sense of humor should be required. Webb uses his comedic charm on the track "The Ole' Elephant Man" as well as reading his "Tips For Teens Manifesto" which was originally longer than the Unabomber's Manifesto yet had to be condensed for inclusion on the new album.

The ultimate combination of roots rock, blues, and even alternative music are visited on this album as Webb covers some new ground with the addition of keyboards and female backing vocals to add to the unique sound Webb has carved out over the past ten years. Although the last record, "Town and Country" - a collection of cover songs, had some relatively unknown songs on it that Webb made sound like they were originally written by him, "Acres Of Suede" is completely new, original material. The lone exception is the Dave Grissom track "Loud Music".

Personally, I enjoyed the entire album. Especially, "Carrying The News To Mary", "No Great Shakes", the a fore mentioned "Loud Music", and "Fall In Place". A song that both the Ioizer and Webb played way back at the start of their collaboration, "Rocket To Nowhere", finally is committed to the digital media with this effort. "Scattered, Covered, and Smothered" is difficult to describe. I like to say it is Webb's version of a B-52's song- it is another amazing song. Webb told me that The Ionizer and he had been working on that song for years and finally finished it.

The tour that never ends will continue and you can bet that Webb Wilder will be near your town sometime in the future. Do yourself a favor and get out of the rut that radio has put you in. Reall people are out there and they are playing real music. You just need to find them. Webb Wilder is not only real but excellent as well. Check it out- you will not be disappointed.

AOS Reviewed on the net August 16, 1996 No. 226
Roch On Music
By Roch Parisien

WEBB WILDER

Acres of Suede ****

(Watermelon/Stony Plain)

The self-proclaimed "Last of the Full-Grown Men" returns with a bad suit-day's worth of dry wit-infused roots rockin' party music, by far his most consistently cool slab since underrated 1989 major label release Hybrid Vigor.

On one hand, Wilder takes his most accessible, radio-friendly stab to date with "No Great Shakes," a rousing slide guitar anthem (with the delightfully self-deprecating "the crystal ball ain't all it's cracked up to be/the Psychic Hotline, hell, that's way too deep for me...") that would feel right at home as a John Hiatt show-stopper. Long time producer and songwriting/instrumentalist collaborator R.S. Field tops himself with the stirring, acoustic ballad "Fall In Place."

On the other hand, there's no dearth of that trademark snake oil that makes Webb...ah...wilder, including the rebellious "Loud Music," manic "Flat Out Get It,"cheesy space-age "Rocket To Nowhere," freeform interior decoration tips via "Scattered, Smothered and Covered," and liberal excerpts from the inspirational _Webb Wilder's Motivational Tips for Teens Manifesto and Rock'n'Roll Pamphlet_.

Keyboards gracing "Soul Mate" fall somewhere between Tex-Mex Farfisa and early-Elvis Costello and The Attractions aggro. For a change of pace history lesson, we learn that "The Olde Elephant Man" "took a lick from an ugly stick/Made all the people of London sick." Nothing like a little kultur with your corn flakes in the morning.

With _Acres of Suede_, The wily Wilder weaves a tangled Webb for afficionados of vintage rock'n'roll in its myriad of country, blues, and pop personalities and forms.

***** - a "desert island" disc; may change your life.

**** - excellent; a long-term keeper.

*** - a good disc, worth repeated listening.

** - fair, but there are better things to spend money on.

* - a waste of valuable natural resources.
Webb in Stereo Review September 1996
Here's the review from Stereo Review September 1996... It's in the "Best Of The Month" section and was written by Steve Simels

NOTE: A BIG THANKS to Heath Peek for providing this!

WEBB WILDER: LOUD MUSIC, BIG LAUGHS

If you haven't already encountered Webb Wilder, let's simply state up front that he's one of the most, er, unlikely characters to have emerged from rock-and-roll at this or any other moment. Bespectacled and dressed in thrift-shop clothes, he could pass for Buddy Holly's slightly nerdy older brother. But when he starts singing in his trademark twangy baritone (which suggests a cross between a late-night televangelist and a game-show host), Wilder becomes the self-proclaimed Last of the Full Grown Men, purveyor of a music that's a tough-as-nails synthsis of Sixties Brit-pop and its Big Star / Cheap Trick derivatives, surf instrumentals, "Exile on Main Street"-era Rolling Stones, hard country a la Steve Earle, and rootsy New Wave bands like Rockpile. And as you may have guessed, Wilder can be extremely funny; as self-mythologizing rock-biz constructs go, he's a lot closer to Bobcat Goldthwaite than to Ziggy Stardust.

"Acres of Suede," his latest (after a 1995 covers set), offers all of the above plus gobs of great guitars, here played mostly by the star himself, long-time producer / collaborator R S Field, and David Grissom (of John Mellencamp's band). At times the textures and interplay have an almost compositional grandeur, a Nashville power-pop version of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd's mesh with Television (No Great Shakes, Carryin' the News to Mary). Elsewhere, the players hark back to ferocious, vaguely psychedelic Yardbirds-style rave-ups (the minute-plus instrumental coda to the aptly titled Loud Music, which must be heard to be believed). Beyond that, as if that wasn't enough, is a brace of inimiably goofy songs that make hash of Nick Lowe's dictum about the appalling lack of humor and realism in contemporary music. Highlights include the mutant rockabilly ode The Olde Elephant Man ("He became the toast of London town / because a pachyderm slapped his mama down"), the Ventures-on-Ecstasy romp Rocket to Nowhere ("This galaxy is too small for me"), and Scattered, Smothered, and Covered, a delerious bachelor-pad seduction rap that quotes from the Count Five's garage classic Psychotic Reaction and thus offers a sneaky aural metaphor for our culture's recent sexual mores.

In short, it adds up to another terrific album from Webb Wilder. Frankly, if this guy didn't already exist, somebody - probably Wilder himself - would have to invent him.