Rank and File –230

ALBUM: Sundown (1982)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

This is a good album that didn’t get played that much — not just by me but collectively the record buying public . But it launched some careers and served as a bridge between the love of country and western music and punk rock.

Lot of groups made a stab at it with varying degrees of success — the Beat Farmers, the Long Ryders (for whom Escovido played for a while., Jason and the Scorchers, and Rubber Rodeo.

Rank and File played it a little straighter than the aforementioned groups, whose songs dripped with irony. But Rank and FIle would b a nice find in a used record store.

If you iike country, rockabilly and a pinch of punk, this is up your alley.

Rank and File had moderate success, Guitarist Alejandro Escoveda put out some excellent solo abums and burned the house down at Bottle Tree (now defunct) in Birmingham some years ago. I thought it was one of the best small venue Friday night live shows I had seen.

Standing room only in a packed room the size of a middle bedroom, Escoveda let it rip.