Description
Little Red Riding Hood is the sohpomore album by the American americana/pop combo the Lost Dogs, released by Brainstorm Artists International in October 1993, manufactured and distributed by Word under the WAL (Word Associated Labels) umbrella, a division of Word. The album was recorded by Gene Eugene with David Hackbarth and Mark Rodriguez and the dogs at The Green Room in Huntington Beach, California. Mixed at Mixing Lab in Garden Grove, California. Produced by Terry Taylor, Mike Roe, Gene Eugene and Derri Daugherty. (Produced for the WAL by Brainstorm Productions.)
The album track “Jimmy” was later covered by Richard Swift on his 7-inch EP known as Buildings in America, released on Velvet Blue Music in 2002.
Most “supergroup” conglomerations remind me of a tightrope act. There is always this rough balancing act that any such group must create something familiar, yet unique; something that is serious, yet fun; they must record a project that approaches the level of artistry or the individual contributors without overshadowing outside projects, and, finally, all those self-indulgent egos have to get along. When they find it within themselves to release a second album, it raises the rope about another ten feet. Fans’ expectations for them to do it again and improve on the first outing rise.
The Lost Dogs, a loose association of alternative Christian music’s leading front men (Terry Taylor from Daniel Amos, Gene Eugene of Adam Again, Derri Daugherty of The Choir, and Mike Roe of the 77s) are releasing a second balancing act upon their adoring public, a follow up to last year’s successful Scenic Routes. On that record, the Lost Dogs each brought older material written separately over the course of several years. However, from the opening measures of «No Ship Coming In», Lost Dogs immediately sound like a more cohesive songwriting/performing unit, due no doubt to the shared writing chores and more comfortable collaborative climate of a second time around the block.
As on the first release, Lost Dogs continue to walk a fine line between parody and reverence. The first victim is a Southern gospel send up called «Bad Indigestion» that likens hellfire to heartburn. Just for contrast’s sake, only three songs later they place a heartfelt rendering of the Southern gospel standard «Precious Memories».
Little Red Riding Hood also pays tribute to one of the Lost Dogs biggest influences, the Beach Boys. «No Ship Coming In», an ode to true love with such romantic lines as “No money to spend / (Hard times are comin’ again) / No ship comin’ in / (We’re here through the thick and the thin) / But I’m going to love you forever” recalls the Boys’ Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson’s “symphony in a pocket” style of production. Then with hearts on sleeves and tongues in cheeks, they offer the sentimental «Jesus Loves You, Brian Wilson».
Lost Dogs serve up several “trademark” numbers in the mish-mash style of country, blues and rock that was Scenic Routes. There is the Taylor-penned country ballad, «Rocky Mountain Mine». Mike Roe again contributes a couple of bluesy numbers. And then there are the all out rockers like «Imagine That» and «Eleanor, It’s Raining» (where they take their motorcycle out on the circle slide).
Finally, there is the pop anthem, «Pray Where You Are», the one song where they slip off the rope. It’s a good song with a hum-able melody, an engaging lyric, and a hook to boot. But it’s just too much like «Breathe Deep, Part Two» to be comfortable.
Clearly, they have done it again. Lost Dogs have finally proven that a supergroup status and can produce not only one but two great albums. They have also developed their own sound and style and the disc’s lone cover, Lennon & McCartney’s «I’m a Loser», fits the project as something quite different from padding. While they may not be doing cartwheels across the wire, they manage to keep their balance and deliver all the thrills and chills their spectators have come to expect. [Brad Caviness, Syndicate, Vol. 8 – Issue 5, Sept/Oct 1993]
When word first surfaced in the summer of ’91 that a ‘supergroup’ project featuring the leaders of (arguably) Christian music’s top alternative bands – Terry Taylor (Daniel Amos), Gene Eugene (Adam Again), Derri Daugherty (The Choir) and Mike Roe (77’s) – was coming together, modern rock lovers began salivating like one of Pavlov’s mutts. Who would take the guiding hand in the sessions? Would the album (A) sound more like one band than the other; (B) little bits of each, or (C) none of them at all? The answer provided by ‘Scenic Routes’ seemded to be “all of the above.” The country/blues arrangements proffered on many of the tunes were a mild disappointment to those expecting Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or at least the Traveling Wilburys. Sales of the record proved to be less than the Dogs had hoped for, although the group’s limited number of personal appearances were overwhelming successes. If you were one of those slightly put off by the musical direction of ‘Scenic Routes’, the good news is there’s a lot more to love and a lot less not to like about ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.
For starters, this new release sounds like an album and less like an idea somebody thought up at the end of a long tour when everyone was very tired. This time, these four extremely talented individuals write, sing and play like a band. Returning again in supporting roles (would that make them “Deputy Dawgs”?) are drummer Burleigh Drummond, whose tasteful percussion work propels the tracks and Greg Kellogg, who plays every stringed instrument the four principals don’t have a lock on; brief instrumental and vocal assists also come from Tim Chandler and Jerry Chamberlain.
This time out, there’s 15 tracks, unless you count the intentionally “ba-a-a-a-d” (and mercifully truncated) version of the 1966 Sam the Sham title song; and again, there are many gems and no clinkers. Once more, it’s Gene Eugene who surprises us with not only the sensitivity of his writing, but his understated vocal delivery in both solo and group vocal contexts. In Adam Again , Gene’s urban cool sometimes comes across as dispassionate; with the Dogs, you hear and feel nuances of his voice often buried in the funky mix of an AA record. «Jimmy» (written by Eugene) will strike an uncomfortable chord with those of us who go too long between visits to friends that seem to be beyond our help; «Dunce Cap» (penned with Daugherty) finds the singer unable to muster the maturity to hold a relationship together, so he decides to “…clean up my room/ A corner to sit in my sorrow.” Mike Roe contributes two of his better blues numbers, «You Satisfy» (a cousin to «Perfect Blues») and «Free at Last», with lyrics which sound as if they were improvised by the band on the spot. But it’s his «Jesus Love You, Brian Wilson», a heart-tugging paean to rock’s tortured genius which displays just how fine a writer Roe can be. Daugherty, who was truly the “lost” dog on the last session, gets more playing time as a writer and lead singer, both which raise the quality of this outing. Besides the aforementioned «Dunce Cap», Derri co-wrote (with Taylor) the brilliant «Imagine That», which examines certain events in the Scriptures and asks if we can imagine how and why certain wonderous things happened. And Daugherty turns in his best vocal on «Rocky Mountain Mines», a maudlin country ballad about a family unable to escape the cycle of poverty and doomed to lose successive generations of men to unsafe coal mines.
Taylor, Christian music’s favorite iconoclast, seems to once again be ring-leader of the pack. It’s truly a delight to see what a wide swath he can cut as a composer and performer. The opening «No Ship Coming In», a song of “stick-to-itiveness” for a couple, draws on Taylor’s ’60s influences, as does «Eleanor, It’s Raining» (which sounds a bit like a ‘MotorCycle’ out-take) and (most obviously) the completely straight-faced cover of The Beatles’ «I’m a Loser». «Red, White & Blue» (an extension of Taylor & Eugene’s «The Fortunate Sons») is a harrowing example of the terrible consequences of war – a displaced Vietnam vet who bitterly intones “You can save your tears for the names on the wall/ I’m a living example that pride comes before a fall.” Doffing his sackcloth for just a moment, Taylor’s comic relief comes in the form of «Bad Indigestion», a grocery list of all the harmful things we tend to put in our bodies. Its hilarious chorus is proof that the Lord cares about every intimacy of our lives – even how regularly certain bodily functions occur!
It’s difficult to put a finger on exactly why this disc seems more cohesive; perhaps it’s because the band knew what mistakes it didn’t want to repeat, or maybe because this follow-up wasn’t rushed out. In any case, the Dogs have made an album which easily stands with the best of their “real” band’s efforts. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, October 1993]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/little-red-riding-hood-remastered/388318229)
CD tracklist:
01. No Ship Coming In – 3:56
02. Imagine That – 4:03
03. You Satisfy – 4:06
04. Bad Indigestion – 3:25
05. Dunce Cap – 3:47
06. Jesus Loves You, Brian Wilson – 3:16
07. Precious Memories – 3:10
08. Rocky Mountain Mines – 4:11
09. Jimmy – 2:49
10. Eleanor, It’s Raining Now – 6:16
11. Free At Last – 4:58
12. Red, White and Blue – 2:44
13. I’m A Loser – 2:51
14. No Room For Us – 4:11
15. Pray Where You Are – 3:46
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Brainstorm. The Lost Dogs CD-single/EP Pray Where You Are was released simultaneously as well. Little Red Riding Hood was re-issued by Millenium Eight Records in 2001 as a double CD featuring the Pray Where You Are EP on the second disc. EP tracklist: Pray Where You Are (3:39) / Terry Teaches Rocky Mountain Mines (11:51) / Rocky Mountain Mines (4:14) / Rehearsing Jimmy (2:09) / Jimmy (2:52) / Riding On The Devil E. Lee (Studio Madness) (3:46) / Bad Indigestion (3:17) / Señor Gomez…Truth Don’t Lie (Even More Studio Nitwittery) (0:26) / Imagine That (Radio Edit) (3:55).
Re-issued as a 25th Anniversary Edition on both CD and vinyl by Lo-Fidelity Records in 2020 through a 2019 Kickstarter campaign. Released as a Limited Edition 2CD (Little Red Riding Hood + bonus album, Big Bad Wolf), fully remastered, and packaged in an 8 panel digipak with booklet containing previously unpublished photos from the era and liner notes from Michael Roe, Terry Taylor and Derri Daugherty. Also released for the first time on vinyl, fully remastered for vinyl. (Limited Edition 180gram 2LP in a gatefold jacket with 4 panel lyric foldout poster, pressed on Red; Black; Red/Black/White Tri-Color and Red, White & Black Splatter vinyl, limited to 100 copies of each version.) As a stretch goal for the Kickstarter campaign, Lo-Fidelity also created a Limited Edition 7-inch 5-track vinyl EP in January 2020, entitled On The Good Ship Lollipop, 500 copies pressed on red vinyl. (EP tracklist: A1. On The Good Ship Lollipop / A2. Red, White, And Blue (Demo) / B1. On The Good Ship Lollipop (Live at Cornerstone 1994) / B2. Li’l Red Riding Hood (Live in St. Louis 1996) / B3. Wooly Bully (Live in St. Louis 1996).)
Little Red Riding Hood + Big Bad Wolf available at Bandcamp: https://thelostdogs.bandcamp.com/album/little-red-riding-hood-big-bad-wolf
https://thelostdogs.bandcamp.com/album/little-red-riding-hood-vinyl
Little Red Riding Hood, Limited Edition 2LP pressed on Tricolor Vinyl, Lo-Fidelity Records 2020.
CREDITS. Produced by Terry Taylor, Mike Roe, Gene Eugene and Derri Daugherty. Produced for the WAL by Brainstorm Productions. Recorded the dog’s way at The Green Room, Huntington Beach, CA, by Gene Eugene with David Hackbarth and Mark Rodriguez and the dogs. Mixed at Mixing Lab, Garden Grove, CA. Mastered by Steve Hall at Future Disc. Art Direction, Design and Photography by Anna Cardenas. Additional Layout and Production by Ed McTaggart. Executive Producers: Ojo Taylor and Gene Eugene.
Musicians: Lost Dogs – Terry Taylor (Guitars, Vocals), Derri Daugherty (Guitars, Bass, Vocals), Michael Roe (Guitars, Bass, Harmonica, Vocals), Gene Eugene (Guitars, Bass, Piano, Vocals), Greg Kellogg (Dobro, Banjo, Pedal Steel Guitar), Burleigh Drummond (Drums, Percussion). Additional Musicians: Tim Chandler (Bass – tracks: 5,10,15), Jerry Chamberlain (Background Vocals on track 1 and 8).
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