Description
The Green Room Serenade is the third album by the American americana/pop combo Lost Dogs, released on Brainstorm Artists International in 1996, distributed by Diamante. The album is named after Gene Eugene’s recording studio The Green Room located at California’s Huntington Beach, where the album was produced, recorded, and mixed by Eugene and the Lost Dogs.
The album is actually sub-titled “Part One”, and the liner notes says: “1996 – The Year of the Dog. Watch for The Green Room Serenade, Pt. 2 in September. Call your retailer for release date.” Several tracks were started for a tentative “Part Two”, including “Ready For Love To Win” and “Make Believe”. Only “Make Believe” ever surfaced and is featured as a bonus track on the compilation album The Best of the Lost Dogs released by KMG in 1999.
Yeah, actually. It’s every bit as good as you’d expect. Mike Roe (77s), Derri Daugherty (The Choir), Terry Taylor (Daniel Amos), and Gene Eugene (Adam Again) have done it again. And it is saying a lot when I tell you: this is the best of the litter.
The Green Room Serenade Part One brings us 15 songs, and more than one hour of some of the coolest American music you’ve ever heard. While they still dabble in country, blues, and folk, it seems The Dogs are snarling this time ’round. «Cry Baby», «Mexico», «Sweet Work of Love», and «Hey, You Little Devil» are the cuts with the rock-o-meter turned up to 11. There hasn’t been a cruisin’ song as cool as «Mexico» since Bad Company.
Then you’ve got the anthems: «Reasonable Service» and «The Prodigal Bride (I’ll Wait For You)», which fill the shoes of «Pray Where You Are» and «Breathe Deep» (which is reprised here as a bonus cut with some new lyrics).
«Close But No Cigar» swings with the rhinestone verve of a hotel lounge singer who just made a dinner date with the prettiest waitress in the joint. «I Don’t Love You» is the sweetest and most romantic blow-off song in the history of Christian music. Actually, it may be the only blow-off song in Christian music history. Mike Roe delivers the bad news with the same tear-eyed sincerity with which he delivered «Treasure in You». I can just hear all the radio request dedications now, and all the heartbroken youth group kids who had such high hopes. The problem is, this record is just too much fun.
Well, I suppose no less can be expected from the talent pool that’s brought forth no fewer than 50 of the best Christian albums of all time. (Yeah, I did the math.) They say more’s coming this fall. Yipee [S.B. Patrick, True Tunes, 1996]
I’m sitting here, staring at the liner notes for this, the newest Lost Dogs project, and I’m wondering, “Why do I like this?”
Then I back up and break up the question into two parts. First, “Do I like this?” and a voice in the back of my skull replies, “Yes.” Good, got that out of the way, at least.
Now for the harder part, “Why?” Is it because I’m a fan of the individual Dogs and their primary bands? (Those being, for the uninitiated, Derri Daugherty of the Choir, Gene Eugene of Adam Again, Mike Roe of the Seventy Sevens and Terry Taylor of Daniel Amos.)
Not really. I am a fan, but that’s not it. Is it because the Dogs finally come into their own as a band, carving out a distinct musical niche for themselves among the pantheon of rock bands out there today?
Nope, that’s not it either. Musically, ‘The Green Room Serenade’ is pretty scattershot, with the members drawing inspirations (read: stealing) from contemporaries such as REM (with Gene doing his best Michael Stipe on «Cry Baby»), Tom Petty (Terry’s vocal on «The Prodigal Bride»), the Fabulous Thunderbirds («Hey, You Little Devil», with a smidge of Chuck Berry thrown in), and even a little bit of Elvis (Mike Roe’s hilarious take on a tune called «Close But No Cigar»). We won’t even get into the Traveling Wilburys comparisons. Been there, done that.
Which is as it should be. Lost Dogs is set up for the members to take a break from the musical visions they’re normally in charge of, and do something a little derivative, so that’s not it.
Lyrics? Well, that might be part of it, seeing that I love a good turn of phrase as much, if not more than, the next guy. And this has plenty of them, thanks mainly to Terry Taylor’s wonderfully warped sensibilities.
Wait, wait, wait! I’ve got it! Track eight. «If It Be Your Will» by Leonard Cohen. Any band that can take this much talent – songwriting- and performance-wise – and have the presence to totally back off into a simple acoustic guitar, pedal steel and violin track on a song that’s not theirs and turn it into a gem of this quality deserves to be liked.
And I do. And so will you. [Lucas W. Hendrickson, CCM, July 1996]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-green-room-serenade-part-1/388614916)
CD tracklist:
01. The Green Room Serenade – 1:42
02. Up in the Morning – 5:19
03. Cry Baby – 3:01
04. Love Takes Over The World – 4:37
05. Close But No Cigar – 2:57
06. All That Remains – 5:21
07. Sweet Work of Love – 5:26
08. If It Be Your Will – 3:59
09. Mexico – 4:10
10. The Prodigal Bride (I’ll Wait For You) – 4:48
11. Hey, You Little Devil – 3:40
12. I Don’t Love You – 2:51
13. Reasonable Service – 5:01
14. Waiting For You to Come Around – 5:55
Bonus Track:
15. Breathe Deep (The Breath of God) 1996 – 4:15
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Brainstorm.
CREDITS. Produced by Terry Taylor, Gene Eugene, Derri Daugherty and Mike Roe. Recorded and mixed by Gene Eugene and Lost Dogs at The Green Room, Huntington Beach, CA. B-3 recorded at Desert Room, Anaheim, CA. Additional engineering by Eric Tokle. Art Direction, Design, Concepts, Photography, and clay sculptures by the “Fabulous” Anna Cardenas.
Musicians: Lost Dogs include – Terry Taylor (Vocals, Acoustic Guitars), Derri Daugherty (Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Bass), Michael Roe (Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Lead Guitar, Bass), Gene Eugene (Vocals, Rhodes, B-3, Guitars, Bass) – with Greg Kellogg (Pedal Steel, Banjo, Dobro), Burleigh Drummond (Drums), Tim Chandler (Most of the Bass), James Sitterly (Violin).
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