Fur Dixon and Steve Werner

From the yesteryears to the present tier, without sounding forced or fake...as if the Swine is the dust devil with deft fingers across the wasteland of the frets , and the pearl is the perfumed voice of the praire breeze . If your true hobo is waiting for that train to the big rock candy mountain or somewhere similar, then ' The Pearl and the Swine ' by Fur Dixon and Steve Werner is the album for you .
- Eddie Russell of ' The Country Eastern / Outlaw For Peace Radio Show '

From the yesteryears to the present tier, without sounding forced or fake...as if the Swine is the dust devil with deft fingers across the wasteland of the frets , and the pearl is the perfumed voice of the praire breeze . If your true hobo is waiting for that train to the big rock candy mountain or somewhere similar, then ' The Pearl and the Swine ' by Fur Dixon and Steve Werner is the album for you .
- Eddie Russell of ' The Country Eastern / Outlaw For Peace Radio Show '

Fur Dixon and Steve Werner CD
Artist: FUR DIXON and STEVE WERNER
Title: THE PEARL AND THE SWINE
Label: GRASS AND GRAVEL RECORDS, 2006

BY LARRY WINES

With lively melodies, marvelous harmonies, great hooks, downhome sensibilities and deft playing of their six strings, Fur Dixon and Steve Werner are a hot act. They bring high-energy old-time style with modern lyrical sensibilities and a lively bluegrass feel.
Their CD is titled, “The Pearl and the Swine.” It strings together luminous examples of the former and none of the latter.
The album features some of the duo’s accomplished musician pals who are just as likely to be playing some honky-tonk with them. Paul Marshall, from the band, I See Hawks In L.A. (and way back when, the Strawberry Alarm Clock) plays bass and autoharp. Cliff Wagner, of Cliff Wagner and the Old Number 7, contributes banjo and fiddle, while John "Groover" McDuffie is aboard on pedal steel. Mike Stinson, one of L.A.’s most successful alt-country songwriters, plays drums, and Scarlet Rivera, who’s performed with Bob Dylan, contributes her fiddle on the catchy Back Roads and Blue Skies, a Fur and Steve co-write.
But co-writes are the exception. Fur and Steve are both formidable songwriters, and they balance their gigs with an equal number of originals by each. They keep track, and they let you know it.
Fur and Steve launched as a pairing in 2003. Before that, each had piled-up plenty of credits. He opened for Bob Dylan. She toured with Rosie Flores.
He’s been bandleader for still-at-it ‘50s rockabilly stars, including Glen Glenn, Ray Campi (who still climbs his stand-up bass like Hillary on Everest), Johnny Legend, Sonny Burgess and Tommy Sands. She made her name in the ‘80s roots/punk scene, with the Hollywood Hillbillies and the Cramps, yet she cites Gillian Welch, June and Mother Maybelle Carter, Hazel Dickens and Johnny Cash as her strongest influences.
She’s lived and been part of the music scene in L.A. New York and Austin. He made an album called Biker Campfire that’s a staple in the road-trip motorcycle world.
Her witty writing includes hilarious prose, like that on their myspace page (www.myspace.com/furandsteve). He’s played Europe and Japan, and had hits across European radio that he penned for expatriate American rocker John Whiteleather, now a resident of Sweden.
As formidable as the two halves, the sum is much greater. Their harmonies are incredible. Someone said, “When they sing harmony, it’ll raise the hair on your arms.” In case you’re worried, you can forget Steve’s biker world. Their songs let you generate the propulsion of your choice, from horseback to shoe leather, or anything with an engine attached. And they make you want to hit the open road to the first off-ramp that becomes a winding back road.
Their pickin’ is first rate, and their songs are very California, glimpsing the ocean from Fur’s Mulholland Highway, crossing the Ventura County Line with her (en-route to who-knows-where) or rolling across the Mojave with Steve’s Brother Tumbleweed. It’s the spirit of the early surf songs, carefree discovery with one you love or want to, though instrumentally like an old timey string band. It harkens to the early days of The Dirt Band, or today’s Old Crow Medicine Show, or acoustic Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. And it’s just as much the musical sensibilities of their long list of heroes, including Doc Watson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Townes Van Zandt, Jimmie Rogers, Willie Nelson, the Yonder Mountain String Band and more.
These two pay attention. They seek and embrace the influences, and they’ll tell you things, like Fur’s reverent observation, “Gillian Welch and David Rawlings changed everything in acoustic music.” And Steve’s, "Back in the real day, folk singing was a hardcore deal. In the '30s and '40s, it was playing in rough bars all across the country, and the guys that came out of that were rough, tough guys."
Lyrically, that homage is present, as in Steve’s Reputation of a Rambler (with Cliff Wagner on banjo and Paul Marshall on bass). Steve’s song, When My Face Is Covered Over can stand alongside any Appalachian paen to death. His very playful Right On Time, Buddy contrasts nicely with her introspective When Will My Wandering End? and her mea culpa song, If I Wake Up Tomorrow.
But the album’s 12 tracks deliver plenty of dance-in-the-aisles, crank-it-up-on-the-open-road kinda music. When Fur melodically asks Where Are We Going? Steve responds with Every Day a Different Journey, occasioning more fine harmonies.
It’s all first-rate, and this CD was chosen as a member premium (alongside Kris Kristofferson’s new CD) in the Spring 2006 KCSN pledge drive.
- Folkworks Magazine

Fur Dixon and Steve Werner CD
Artist: FUR DIXON and STEVE WERNER
Title: THE PEARL AND THE SWINE
Label: GRASS AND GRAVEL RECORDS, 2006

BY LARRY WINES

With lively melodies, marvelous harmonies, great hooks, downhome sensibilities and deft playing of their six strings, Fur Dixon and Steve Werner are a hot act. They bring high-energy old-time style with modern lyrical sensibilities and a lively bluegrass feel.
Their CD is titled, “The Pearl and the Swine.” It strings together luminous examples of the former and none of the latter.
The album features some of the duo’s accomplished musician pals who are just as likely to be playing some honky-tonk with them. Paul Marshall, from the band, I See Hawks In L.A. (and way back when, the Strawberry Alarm Clock) plays bass and autoharp. Cliff Wagner, of Cliff Wagner and the Old Number 7, contributes banjo and fiddle, while John "Groover" McDuffie is aboard on pedal steel. Mike Stinson, one of L.A.’s most successful alt-country songwriters, plays drums, and Scarlet Rivera, who’s performed with Bob Dylan, contributes her fiddle on the catchy Back Roads and Blue Skies, a Fur and Steve co-write.
But co-writes are the exception. Fur and Steve are both formidable songwriters, and they balance their gigs with an equal number of originals by each. They keep track, and they let you know it.
Fur and Steve launched as a pairing in 2003. Before that, each had piled-up plenty of credits. He opened for Bob Dylan. She toured with Rosie Flores.
He’s been bandleader for still-at-it ‘50s rockabilly stars, including Glen Glenn, Ray Campi (who still climbs his stand-up bass like Hillary on Everest), Johnny Legend, Sonny Burgess and Tommy Sands. She made her name in the ‘80s roots/punk scene, with the Hollywood Hillbillies and the Cramps, yet she cites Gillian Welch, June and Mother Maybelle Carter, Hazel Dickens and Johnny Cash as her strongest influences.
She’s lived and been part of the music scene in L.A. New York and Austin. He made an album called Biker Campfire that’s a staple in the road-trip motorcycle world.
Her witty writing includes hilarious prose, like that on their myspace page (www.myspace.com/furandsteve). He’s played Europe and Japan, and had hits across European radio that he penned for expatriate American rocker John Whiteleather, now a resident of Sweden.
As formidable as the two halves, the sum is much greater. Their harmonies are incredible. Someone said, “When they sing harmony, it’ll raise the hair on your arms.” In case you’re worried, you can forget Steve’s biker world. Their songs let you generate the propulsion of your choice, from horseback to shoe leather, or anything with an engine attached. And they make you want to hit the open road to the first off-ramp that becomes a winding back road.
Their pickin’ is first rate, and their songs are very California, glimpsing the ocean from Fur’s Mulholland Highway, crossing the Ventura County Line with her (en-route to who-knows-where) or rolling across the Mojave with Steve’s Brother Tumbleweed. It’s the spirit of the early surf songs, carefree discovery with one you love or want to, though instrumentally like an old timey string band. It harkens to the early days of The Dirt Band, or today’s Old Crow Medicine Show, or acoustic Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. And it’s just as much the musical sensibilities of their long list of heroes, including Doc Watson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Townes Van Zandt, Jimmie Rogers, Willie Nelson, the Yonder Mountain String Band and more.
These two pay attention. They seek and embrace the influences, and they’ll tell you things, like Fur’s reverent observation, “Gillian Welch and David Rawlings changed everything in acoustic music.” And Steve’s, "Back in the real day, folk singing was a hardcore deal. In the '30s and '40s, it was playing in rough bars all across the country, and the guys that came out of that were rough, tough guys."
Lyrically, that homage is present, as in Steve’s Reputation of a Rambler (with Cliff Wagner on banjo and Paul Marshall on bass). Steve’s song, When My Face Is Covered Over can stand alongside any Appalachian paen to death. His very playful Right On Time, Buddy contrasts nicely with her introspective When Will My Wandering End? and her mea culpa song, If I Wake Up Tomorrow.
But the album’s 12 tracks deliver plenty of dance-in-the-aisles, crank-it-up-on-the-open-road kinda music. When Fur melodically asks Where Are We Going? Steve responds with Every Day a Different Journey, occasioning more fine harmonies.
It’s all first-rate, and this CD was chosen as a member premium (alongside Kris Kristofferson’s new CD) in the Spring 2006 KCSN pledge drive.
- Folkworks Magazine

T'was something of a surprise and an honour to receive a message from Fur Dixon recently. Since then Ive become acquainted with her most recent music project but lets not get ahead of ourselves here. A recap for those who might not know, prior to her becoming the rather striking Mohican bass player with The Cramps, Fur had always dabbled in the art of country music. Way before the advent of those new country or Americana pigeonholes, she was in the Screamin Sirens (with Rosie Flores) and then The Hollywood Hillbillys. Someone should release their album.

Anyway, we're down the road apiece now. She hid her light under a bushel during that time with Lux, Ivy and Nick. She has a fabulous warble of a voice which is perfect for the smokin folky bluegrass that is The Pearl and the Swine. Fur's companion is a guy by the name of Steve Werner and together they've crafted a beautiful set of travelling songs and there are 12 of on the album. Its unashamedly good natured and the two trade off one another effortlessly. The perfect soundtrack to ride a station (or any other kind of) wagon through yer actual and metaphorical desert landscape. They're hauling plenty of liquid to keep you hydrated.

Where Are We Going? asks track 8, well hopefully in the direction of Europe at some point. Check out some of their songs at the FUR and STEVE website. Its addictive stuff. Steve Werner's voice compliments his female accomplice perfectly and the music they make is utterly uncomplicated and all the better for it. If you like pickin that'll make you grin then stop off in these folks company for a while. They appear to exist in a world that revolves at a different pace. I for one chums, am down with that!
Lindsay Hutton, editor http://nextbigthing.blogspot.com - TNBT Scotland and U.K.

T'was something of a surprise and an honour to receive a message from Fur Dixon recently. Since then Ive become acquainted with her most recent music project but lets not get ahead of ourselves here. A recap for those who might not know, prior to her becoming the rather striking Mohican bass player with The Cramps, Fur had always dabbled in the art of country music. Way before the advent of those new country or Americana pigeonholes, she was in the Screamin Sirens (with Rosie Flores) and then The Hollywood Hillbillys. Someone should release their album.

Anyway, we're down the road apiece now. She hid her light under a bushel during that time with Lux, Ivy and Nick. She has a fabulous warble of a voice which is perfect for the smokin folky bluegrass that is The Pearl and the Swine. Fur's companion is a guy by the name of Steve Werner and together they've crafted a beautiful set of travelling songs and there are 12 of on the album. Its unashamedly good natured and the two trade off one another effortlessly. The perfect soundtrack to ride a station (or any other kind of) wagon through yer actual and metaphorical desert landscape. They're hauling plenty of liquid to keep you hydrated.

Where Are We Going? asks track 8, well hopefully in the direction of Europe at some point. Check out some of their songs at the FUR and STEVE website. Its addictive stuff. Steve Werner's voice compliments his female accomplice perfectly and the music they make is utterly uncomplicated and all the better for it. If you like pickin that'll make you grin then stop off in these folks company for a while. They appear to exist in a world that revolves at a different pace. I for one chums, am down with that!
Lindsay Hutton, editor http://nextbigthing.blogspot.com - TNBT Scotland and U.K.