The Fancy Dan Band – Born Fancy

The Fancy Dan Band – “Away From Here”
(from Born Fancy)

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that today marks the official delivery of Born Fancy, the inaugural album by San Francisco’s rockabilly revivalists The Fancy Dan Band. I’ve been waiting for this day for three, maybe four years and now that it’s finally arrived, everything about it — from its cheeky third-person origin stories to its creaky acoustic jamborees — is cause for celebration.

Now, as much as I’d love to delve into the nitty gritty of this album, and point out how the harmonica-soaked “Away From Here” peals out like a forlorn “Folsom Prison” for today’s time-out-of-mind dreamers, or how the barn-romper “Poor Rich Man” rips it up like a honky tonk Chuck Berry with the conscience of a credit card-carrying Woody Guthrie, there is something I should first confess: I am hopelessly and totally biased. Not only is Dan a regular contributor to this site,* but he and I were once in a band together (and I suppose anytime you’ve performed Bowie-on-Ronson styled guitar fellatio on someone you kind of lose any pretense of impartiality.)

Be that as it may, I don’t intend to let a little personal history stop me from getting on my soapbox and preaching the gospel of Fancy Dan.

Dan, a self-described “humdinger folksinger country stroller rock and roller,” is an axe man first and foremost. But on Born Fancy he’s relegated himself to plying the ginger rhythms out of his maple-backed Southern Jumbo Gibson, allowing Michael Loebs to pick up the jangle on his tremolo-laced Telecaster as drummer Derek McDonald and upright bassist Mark Underwood hold down a steady country shuffle. The stories told, and the clever one-liners, come front and center.

I’ve heard most of these songs develop from rough scratch demos to the Nashville-recorded rhinestones they are today, and it’s clear that this band has found a natural balance playing together — nothing’s pushed too hard for effect, and the instruments all have plenty of room to breathe. On the playfully Perkins-esque “Use Me,” for instance, the band knows to pull back just enough for Fancy to sidle up real close and deliver his not-so-innocent suggestions in your ear. “It don’t hurt to try me, what do you go to lose?” he asks, “‘Cus I just might have something you could use.”

The Fancy Dan Band – “Use Me”

It’s a simple trick, but dastardly effective.

And at it’s heart, that’s really what makes this album so enjoyable. It’s disarmingly charming, fun, danceable, and memorable. While much of Born Fancy hearkens back to the glory days of Sun Records — the Johnny Cash cadence, the slapback echo, the walking bass lines — it comes off authentically; more like a living, breathing extension of a classic style than mere tribute. In fact, some of my favorite moments on the record come when he takes a break from the country, and waltzes into the piano ballad territory of the somber “So Long” or leads a sing-a-long on the Norman Greenbaum gospel pop of “Let It Go” (the former featuring a duet with his wife, Ms. Hankerin’ Jane Kilmer).

Don’t let the stage name and ivory suit mislead you — Dan is one of the most humble, honest, down-to-earth guys I know, and those qualities really shine through in his music. If you’re lucky enough to be in the Bay Area tonight, make a beeline for the El Rio for the Born Fancy album release party.

^{*Dan Nordheim holds the distinct advantage of not only being this site’s handsomest contributor, but also its most long-winded (which, by Post-Rockist standards, is certainly saying something. For serious: if you see Dan’s name in the byline, you know it’s time to slip into a comfortable sweatsuit and put on another pot of coffee because you’re settling in for a looooong haul).}