Paul K - Clippings

the SCENE
Nashville, TN
August, 1992

Down and Dirty
By Jonathan Marx

Paul K and the Weathermen, The Blue Sun (Homestead Records).

Much of Kentuckian Paul K's reputation is based on his talents as a songwriter, but if he came to Nashville and tried to play the Bluebird, there's a good chance he'd get thrown out of the place. Compared to the homespun folksiness and stale platitudes churned out daily by some Nashville hacks, K's songs are, to quote Hank Williams Sr., "pictures from life's other side." Even though some of the material is arranged in a stark, somewhat folky, solo acoustic guitar setting, some of the best numbers, performed with the Weathermen, do a better job of reviving the sound of gritty, garagey punk rock than anything since The Saints' first LP. "Amphetamines and Coffee," a raw, terse anthem that takes a bleak look at family life, captures this spirit best. The acoustic "Root Canal Blues," on the other hand, turns down the volume but keeps the rawness intact. The song is about a breakup, but K defines his approach to songwriting when he sings, "I just wanna make some sense of the things I see."
For someone so celebrated as a songwriter, K's instrumentals are equally engaging, ranging form the surfing-in-hell raveup "Sattelite" to the more pensive and atmospheric "Mandarin Jade." With only one spoken line and a whole lot of power chords in "Interstate," the listener gets a pretty compelling glimpse of someone living in desperation. K closes the LP with his epic, "The Blue Sun," a dire plea for help in a time of crisis; he sings with the conviction of someone who's stared down into the void a time or two. How many other songwriters could say the same?