Peter Dawson-Coupland Live

Peter Dawson

Coupland Live

by TxLogCabin

Coupland Live is Peter Dawson’s follow up to Do You Don’t or Do You Do, his debut CD. The band continues to explore and mature, covering lots of interesting musical territory. Only 3 of the 13 tracks are not authored or co-authored by Dawson. The sound is one of simplicity, honesty, and enthusiasm. As the title implies, this is a live dancehall recording with all the ambience and warmth the rustic circa 1910 Coupland Dancehall has to offer. Coupland Dancehall is just a spit from Austin and provides the perfect cultural atmosphere and musical nourishment for this singularly Texas down home experience.

During his school years, Dawson exhibited a talent for music. Throughout junior high and high school he juggled his two favorite activities, football and music. After one semester of SMU in Dallas, Dawson chose the latter and transferred to the renowned Belmont University in Nashville, for a top music business program. His first CD, Do You Don’t or Do you Do was cut in Nashville, but the Texas sound was too strong to not come back to roost. So Texas welcomed back another wayward, but now wiser, soul and has made him our own.

Coupland Live opens with a couple of good, solid Texas 2-steppers. An expected cluster of clichés is bound together with the glue of good traditional Texas music with these 2 openers. "Change the Things I Can" laments how there are things one can’t control and the struggle to accept these truths:

"I can’t make the hard truth softer.

Raise my hands and part the waters.

The way we live is getting out of hand.

I can’t grab the world and shake it.

It’s not up to me to save it.

After all I’m just one man.

I just live my life to change the things I can."

"I Want to Get Loud" is an anthem to the choices of the "right" life and those of the more decadent. A little too simplistic a concept, but the song works well.

"I wanna go out drinkin’ and raise a little hell

Have more fun than the law will allow

And try not to go to jail.

Some say that I’m so foolish;

Some say that I’m too proud.

I don’t care what they say.

I just wanna get loud."

"Good lord holds my soul

In the palm of his hands

But me I hold the devil

With a cold beer in my hand.

Oh Lord please don’t take me now

I promise I’ll get it right

You can take me home tomorrow

But give me one more night."

"It Ain’t Texas" is my favorite selection from this CD. It is an extraordinarily graphic comparing/contrasting musical essay of Tennessee and Texas. It reveals not only the artist’s personal struggle, but also the musical struggle between the two geographical regions. It has some of the best lines in today’s Texas music bibliography. For example: "Where the Grand Ol’ Opry is a dancehall down in Gruene." And "I can see that Lone Star guiding me back home." Then the chorus just knocks your socks off with:

"Nashville’s nice but it ain’t Austin Texas.

Tennesee River’s nothing like the Rio Grande.

Sunset on the Smokies is quite a site to see,

But nothing like bluebonnets in the spring.

To tell the truth I like both places.

Tennesee is nice but it ain’t Texas."

That pretty much made it click for me. After I listened to this one, I better understood the rest of the CD: where the artist was coming from; the personal, ongoing conflict of Austin and Nashville; and why so much of this CD shows such a tremendous Nashville influence.

"As Big a Star" is a touching ballad of the realities of a music star wannabe. This one still "drives that old pickup; sings in them ol’ bars; don’t have a million dollars; just this old guitar, and these songs I sing."

"It don’t break my heart that I’m not on the Opry.

As long as I can touch folks when I sing.

Dalhart to Del Rio and all points in between.

This is as big a star as I’ll ever wanna be."

"Willie Nelson for President" is another selection that really captures the heart of Texas music. The chorus really cuts to the chase:

"If I could I’d vote for Willie

To run our government.

Good morning America; how are you?

He’d say with his pigtails and a grin.

He would unite the whole nation

With his guitar and a song.

It’s the only thing that makes perfect sense

Willie Nelson for President."

"Blacktop Highway" is rocking, true Texas honky tonk. This reflects the spirit of real Texas roots music.

"I’m living my life on a blacktop highway

Living like a modern day gypsy, just getting by.

I’m living my life on a blacktop my way

Playing for a living and living just to play the next time."

"Try" has an optimistic, rite of passage message with an upbeat tempo sure to be a hit with the college frat set.

"Just when I think that I’m in over my head.

I remember the words my daddy said.

You can do anything at all if you try

Don’t be afraid to set your sights way up high.

Even an eagle will fall before it flies.

You can do anything if you try."

The remainder of the CD is made of love songs in varying tempos with a tad too much Nashville to appeal to the hard core Texas music audience. The overall effort is well worth the listen, but be prepared for the undercurrent strife of styles that Dawson is still working through. The CD is available at Waterloo Records, Bills Records & Tapes, Surf Club Records, Lonestar Music, Texas Music Express. It is also available through http://peterdawsonband.com/index.html, as well as additional info about Peter Dawson and band members. If you want to contact Dawson, he can be reached at peterdawsonband@hotmail.com.

Written by Cheryl Arthur, November 2004

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