Rizdales record release party @ the Dakota tonight

photo by Jack Martin

When you think of great country male/female duets and images of Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood or Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow come to mind, you're reading the wrong blog.
However, if instead you immediately thought of George & Tammy, Johnny & June, Porter & Dolly, Loretta & Conway or maybe even Merle & Bonnie and you haven't yet seen The Rizdales' talented husband and wife tandem of Tom and Tara Dunphy in action, then it's your lucky day.
London, Ontario's finest roots country combo are hosting a swingin' release party for their hot new recording How The Marriage Ended! tonight (Saturday, August 21) over at the Dakota Tavern with friends Luther Wright, Emily Fennell and Brian Connelly's rockin' instrumental rippers Ancient Chinese Secret ensuring a ruckus will be raised.

Even if the Music City brain trust believes the days of dual-gender duets are done, recent headlines suggest that people of every tax bracket are still prone to relationship problems so there may be interest in hearing sweetly harmonizing spouses musically navigating through their own marital minefields like they once did when hair was higher and suits were custom tailored in the colours of tropical fruits.
Unlike the vast majority of your favourite country stars past and present, the self-contained Rizdales unit compose, perform and record their own songs. So rather than simply remake the genre standards as others have done, they decided to try adding a few new pages to the break-up songbook. I'm pleased to report that  they've come up with some corkers for How The Marriage Ended! like The Last Time You Put Me Down and the cleverly cutting It's Not Me, It's You (not the Lily Allen number) which have the feel of jukebox faves which Capitol's Ken Nelson might've cut in Studio B in between sessions by Buck Owens, Faron Young, Wanda Jackson, Tommy Collins and Ferlin Husky.
That's not to say that the Rizdales tunes sound dated, not at all, more like timeless classics that will be sung and spun for years to come. In fact, the video-ready My New Wife's Kids off the new album could be Brad Paisley's next chart smash while Who Knows You is a Lady Antebellum radio staple waiting to happen if only their Nashville A&R reps had ears.
If you decide to head down to the Dakota to see the Rizdales tonight, be sure to bring along a little extra scratch for a copy of their self-released How The Marriage Ended! disc and you might want to grab a copy of their equally exceptional previous album Radio Country while it's still available.

LINKS
The Rizdales site http://www.rizdales.com/
myspace http://www.myspace.com/rizdales