Galaxy Cabaret

Danny Mack Galaxy Cabaret Dakotamack Inc - DMCD 0103 Produced by: Danny Mack and Perry Barrett (15 Selections - Playing Time 49:44) Don't be misled by the album's title, or it's sub-title 'Where Roy Rogers Meets Buck Rogers'; or the two-page liner note introduction to this album telling the story of how 'the Sirians from a far-off galaxy visited our planet'; or even the fact that Danny Mack has billed himself in the past as 'The Mysterious Cosmic Cowboy'....this is nothing but pure, honky tonk country music. The kind that Buck and Merle and Wynn gave us from their Bakersfield days. Danny Mack is a West Coast veteran of the Canadian country music scene....true he has often ventured down different musical trails, but he remains a 'stylist', and Galaxy Cabaret marks a return to his honky tonk musical roots. All songs here, save for a cover of the Utah Phillips country/folk classic I Remember Loving You are original Danny Mack tunes, and he has created some real winners, touching on all aspects of the honky tonk world....boozin', hurtin', cheatin' and partyin', are all part of the menu. The album opens with the title track Galaxy Cabaret, and it immediately dispels the thought of some kind of 'honky tonk meets Star Wars' project. This is gutsy, steel guitar driven honky tonk music, made even more effective by Danny Mack's smoky throated vocal stylings. You can tell the boy's been in more than a couple of smoky taverns. Next up is a swing-flavoured Dance With Me and it's followed by the whiskey hurtin' song Hotel. All are truly standout efforts. The album continues to toss up some great tunes in the two-steppin' Ol' Beat Up Truck a lonesome ballad in The Loving Game and some Wynn Stewart 'Bakersfield' sounds in Bitter Half. There's plenty of diversity here - Holy Karumba injects a Jimmy Durante-style snort; If You Only Knew has a touch of the Willie Nelson / Ray Price cabaret country magic, and You Beat Me To The Door is a tune reprised from Danny Mack's own 1980's Alberta Crude album which also gave us nuggets like I Wonder If Waylon Jennings Did This, and Good Ol' George Jones, as well as his nationally charted, Debbie Delight. The album closes with Canadian Cowboy, a patriotic ode to the Cancountry way of life; and it comes complete with a Danny Mack yodel that would make Wilf Carter proud. Galaxy Cabaret was co-produced by Danny Mack and Perry Barrett and recorded at Dark Horse Studios in Vancouver. Like any honky tonk album worth it's weight there's got to be a lot of scorching steel guitar work, and Jim Dorin does the honours here with some really tasty work featured on every selection on the album. Good stuff!!! By Larry Delaney (editor) Country Music News (Canada's country music monthly) 'GALAXY CABARET' Where Roy Rogers Meets Buck Rogers This is how it happened................. From deep within the Sirius Star System, the scanners searching the galaxy for signs of intelligent life began to pick up an unusual disturbance. At first, high pitched wailing sounds were identified and thought to be some sort of phonic communication. Soon afterwards, intriguing monotone images of moving creatures began to arrive. These were interpreted to be images of the creatures that created the phonic messages because they both originated from a small blue planet, in a solar system in a distant part of the Milky Way. Eventually, the Sirians were able to decipher the star messages, and came to be captivated with what they perceived to be daily life on the blue planet, Earth. Little did they suspect that they had actually intercepted the first primitive but powerful black & white television pictures transmitted from Earth, fifty years earlier? Basing their assumptions on the information they had, episodes of The Roy Roger's Show, the Sirians decided that this was an invitation to visit. Earthlings appeared to be happy, well adjusted, simple living, singing cowboys who created the wonderful steel guitar driven music they heard in the phonic messages. For the Sirians, starved of any semblance of emotional life, the music became a sort of ton