CD Review of Fresh Out of Georgia Live Like a Satellite by Dan Baird and Homemade Sin
Recommended if you like
Georgia Satellites, Faces,
Rolling Stones
Label
Dream Catcher
Dan Baird and Homemade Sin:
Fresh Out of Georgia
Live Like a Satellite

Reviewed by Jeff Giles

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H
e’s mostly remembered – if he’s remembered at all – for “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” the jokey rock tune he snuck onto the Top 40 with his old band, the Georgia Satellites, in 1986, but as any discerning roots rock fan could tell you, Dan Baird has been one of the preeminent practitioners of good ‘n’ greasy amplitude over the last several decades. Unfortunately, for all the piss and vinegar he brings to his performances, Baird seems to be a very lazy businessman, which is why even ardent Baird fans can be forgiven for not knowing about Live Like a Satellite – not even a visit to his (for all intents and purposes official) website is enough to tell the story. To put it as delicately as possible, this is one fucked up situation.

Well, if Baird won’t tell this album’s story, we’ll tell it for him: Homemade Sin represents a quasi-reunion of the dearly departed Georgia Satellites, bringing Baird together with former Sats Keith Christopher (who split before the first Satellites record, but was an original member) and Mauro Magellan, adding Warner Hodges (late of Jason & the Scorchers) for good measure. If you’ve followed Baird’s scattershot solo career – particularly over the last decade – and thought to yourself, “This is nice, but I sure do miss the Georgia Satellites,” this is probably about as good as it’s going to get.

And if you just happen to like good, loud, sweaty rock & roll? Again, this is probably about as good as it’s going to get.

Dan Baird and Homemade Sin laugh at Pro Tools and are too poor for overdubs, so you can be certain that you’re hearing these 21 tracks pretty much the same way the audience did, only with a marginally better mix. Given that Baird released a live album (the excellent Redneck Savant) less than a decade ago, hasn’t released a true solo album since 1996, and has never been the type of performer whose studio recordings differ appreciably from his stage performances, there’s really nothing revelatory here; for most of the songs, live versions either already exist or aren’t too far removed from the ones fans know by heart.

That being said, they still kick chubby mudflaps. If you’ve ever approached the end of the work week feeling the burning desire to catch a blast of air from a kick drum, windmilled an air guitar, or felt the waves of joy that come with exercising your God-given right to turn it up as loud as it’ll go, then this, friend, is a record you need to hear. Do not pass go, et cetera. Your ears are thirsty, and Dan Baird and Homemade Sin have got the nectar.

Baird’s lack of interest in self-promotion has made obtaining some of his recent releases an adventurous undertaking – you typically need to navigate past paragraphs of German before handing over your financial information to strange-looking websites with names like Blue Buffalo – but not this time: Amazon’s MP3 storefront has the whole blessed mess available for $8.99. You are now officially out of excuses for not immediately following the above link and getting down to the business at hand. Less readin’, more rockin’.

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