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"Dream Life"
 P.J. O'Connell
 (Sonic Trout Records CD) 

 B Y   L Y N N   B R Y A N   B A N N O N

 Because of punk rock, Velveeta metal and Europop, the crop of
 country rock bands that fatefully rose up between the Flying Burrito
 Brothers and Wilco were somewhat overlooked. (For all of you Limp
 Bizkit fan-club members, that would be the '80s). But Triangularly
 speaking, the Flying Pigs--led by singer and guitarist Pat "P.J."
 O'Connell--have been bridging roots with rock since 1984 right here
 in Durham, and they're still doing it today. Although O'Connell
 recently fled to Cape Cod, he mustered up a heap of his Carolina
 cronies and recorded a solo album at Durham's Overdub Lane. 

 The album, called Dream Life, features 14 local rockers, including
 Terry Anderson of The Woods, Jeff Carlson of The Gladhands, Mike
 Krause of $2 Pistols, and original Flying Pig members Robert
 Truesdale and Bill McCarthy. Dream Life producer Wes Lachot,
 who appeared on the Chris Stamey and Friends Christmas album,
 also plays piano and bass on the record. 

It sure sounds like a dream life: Make a record with your best friends,
then split before everyone starts to fight. But the songs aren't all happy
chug-a-lugs like you might expect. For starters, "Elsbeth" is a tender
instrumental tune carried by pedal steel, memorializing the baby
daughter O'Connell and his wife lost to a fatal illness. And "New
Orleans" recounts the demise of his doomed hero, Gram Parsons, to
a four-count beat Parsons would no doubt approve of. But Dream
Life has another mood; one that sounds like Jerry Lee Lewis joined
to Big Star. On "The Wayward Wind," O'Connell roars, "I was born
a next of kin/To the wayward wind." Likewise, "Please Give Me
Something" tears it up with noisy honky tonk, driven home on bucking
Telecasters. 

So whether it's the Byrds' sad sunset sound or The Replacements'
mad sunrise raucousness, O'Connell's approach to the form is
gleaming with pure country rock intentions. And he was doing it long
before the greasy, corduroy-chic resurgence of today's alternative
country. Heck, he was doing it before Whiskeytown had fake IDs.