BILL HARKLEROAD (WITH MALLARD, "BACK ON THE PAVEMENT" )

Here's Bill Harkleroad, aka Zoot Horn Rollo, with his post-Captain Beefheart band Mallard. While I don't like this nearly as much as I like the Magic Band, Mallard is a great ensemble with some unusual ideas. Harkleroad's solos and background riffs under the vocals are a lesson in how to incorporate Beefheart guitar ideas into a more conventional context. Great Telecaster sound-- trebly, slightly overdriven. Harkleroad can't really be called underrated, because most people, even guitarists, haven't heard of him. He's one of my heroes, though-- anyone interested in the traditional/avant-garde kind of playing Tom Waits featured on his records (esp. guitarist Marc Ribot) should listen to Harkleroad's work to hear one of the guys that pioneered it.

The music here is somewhere in or around bluesy/funky Little Feat/Joe Cocker territory, with just enough off-kilter rhythms and phrasing to distinguish it from the mainstream. (Some of the other youtube cuts have more of a prog-rock flavor, and some of the keyboard soloing sounds Cecil Taylor-esque.) I suspect the band wasn't accessible enough for the mainstream, yet too connected to roots music to please the prog crowd.