The Derailers

The Derailers just released a Buck Owens tribute album, Under the Influence of Buck (Palo Duro)—hardly surprising for this traditional country band, which renders faithful versions honoring the legend, who died last year. But with nearly all of Owens’s back catalog available on CD, exactly why would we need these identical cover versions? Especially when Dwight Yoakam, another disciple of Owens’s Bakersfield sound–flavored country, is also coming out with an Owens homage this fall. Make no mistake: The Derailers duplicate Owens’s songs well, but next to their previous album (the excellent Soldiers of Love), this slavish paean seems like a slight derailment itself.

Although they hail from Austin, Texas, the Derailers emerged in 1995 with a West Coast–focused eye toward Bakersfield, playing honky-tonk country with a rock & roll attitude—fuller guitars, louder drums and a mild rockabilly influence. After singer-guitarist Tony Villanueva left to become a pastor, the band recouped, regrouped and recorded Soldiers, which expanded on its Owens-influenced sound by experimenting with R&B and power-pop while maintaining a honky-tonk frame of mind.

It’s hard to say how their sound will evolve next, but hopefully they’ll soon pick up where Soldiers left off. With a discography stretching back over a decade, you can probably expect to hear all of their stylistic turns through the years, with the cover versions running neck-and-neck with various originals from the pre- and post-Villanueva eras. And get ready for the occasional curveball—we’re talking about a band that used to climax its shows with a C&W version of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret.”—James Porter