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Eleven Hundred Springs featuring Kim Pendleton
Broken Dreams\r\n(Last Beat Records)
By Ken Shimamoto
Eleven Hundred Springs is an anomaly — a hard-working band of country rockers that can be heard in Americana-ish venues like Adair’s Saloon in Deep Ellum as well as four-sets-a-night, straight-country dancehalls all over the state. They have the benefit of a corporate sponsorship from Lone Star beer, and indeed, the last time they played the Wreck Room, bar staff prepared for the event by cramming Lone Star longnecks into every available refrigerated space.
Formed from the remnants of Dallas rockabillies the Lone Star Trio, the band revolves around singer-guitarist-songwriter Matt Hillyer. Over the past four years, they’ve released four full-length c.d.’s, moving in an ever-more-traditional direction. Their last release, 2001’s A Straighter Line, was an all-acoustic affair, and they continue in that vein on Broken Dreams. For the five-song e.p., they’re joined by drummer Bruce Alford’s former Vibrolux bandmate, vocalist Kim Pendleton.
Pendleton plays Emmylou Harris to Hillyer’s Gram Parsons as they alternately trade verses and intertwine their voices. Her sultry tones provide a nice counterpoint to Hillyer’s earnest cowpoke-ishness. She’s such a natural for the band that it’s kind of a shame they didn’t cut more than an e.p.’s worth of tunes together.
These Eleven Hundred Springs boys pen a nice lyric, too. Hillyer’s “Just Me and You” features the memorable lines, “Our love could be like Vegas / Every bet we’d win / We could rake up all the money / And throw it away, again and again.” And they close it out with a neat cover of John Prine’s doper anthem “Illegal Smile.” Throughout the disc, Aaron Wynne’s pedal steel pours over the music like honey.
Sat at the Wreck Room, 3208 W Seventh St, FW. 817-348-8303.
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