Review – Tyler Hatley, Justin Clyde Williams – “The Dick and Tammy Show”

Alt-Country (#564), Underground Country (#590), Singer-songwriter (#570.15) on the Country DDS.

Get backed into a corner by a big fan of country music and songwriting from the State of North Carolina, and they’re apt to talk your ear off about these two dudes named Tyler Hatley and Justin Clyde Williams, swearing they’re second coming of Townes Van Zandt or something. Just to to wiggle free of these conversations over the years, I’ve had to swear that once either of them released a bona fide full-length album, I’d spill some ink on their behalf.

You see, so far it’s been mostly a live phenomenon with these fellas, and a series of acoustic albums, singles, and short EPs. But now Tyler Hatley and Justin Clyde Williams have joined forces with each other, recruited fiddler Matt Parks of The Piedmont Boys who I once declared “one of the best honky tonk fiddlers in the business,” and created a side project strangely coined the “The Dick and Tammy Show.”

Not sure which one’s Dick or which one’s Tammy, but they’ve assembled twelve songs under one title, contracted out for some artwork that they hope doesn’t result in a cease and desist from Looney Tunes, and officially called Saving Country Music’s bluff. This isn’t exactly the full studio LP we’ve been waiting for though. It’s more like an EP smashed together with a live album. But it’s also a damn good listen with some really meaningful songs, a few silly ones, and all the realness you want from a couple of Carolina bumpkins braying into microphones.

The Dick and Tammy Show is some serious North Carolina shit. Ice down some Cheerwine, make up some sandwiches with Duke’s Mayonnaise, and head out to Ocracoke for a picnic. They name drop American Aquarium in the heartbreaking, six minute epic “Oak City.” There’s a great song on here called “Virginia,” yet it might be the most North Carolina song of them all. This album is two dudes from Cackalacky spilling their guts out and singing about their lives, completely unpretentious and devoid of agenda or commercial calculations. It’s not always pretty and polished, but it’s pretty darn entertaining and endearing throughout.

After a quick live intro that acts like a stoned travelogue from a Dick and Tammy Show tour, the album features five studio songs that are probably best described and singer/songwriter alt-country-tinged Americana. All co-written between Hatley and Williams, these are songs that remind you of the time before the Zach Bryan influence had everyone sounding like a bad Lumineers impression, or maybe like a more rugged version of Muscadine Bloodline.

The studio tracks are all solid. But really, all those loudmouth North Carolina fans were right: live is where these two thrive, and that’s what the second half of the album features. The music’s not always super tight, but it’s true to themselves, whether it’s the heart pining frustration found in “Darlene,” or the seriously poetic and heart-wrenching moments of “Fiddles and Rain” where fiddler Matt Parks shines through the darkness.

Though Tyler Hatley and Justin Clyde Williams wrote ten of the album’s twelve tracks, it’s two that they didn’t write that also stand out. This will be the third album review written on this ol’ website alone that features the song “In Came You.” Written by Cory Hunt, Greg Payne, Todd Allmon, and Wyatt Durette, it was previously recorded by The Piedmont Boys, as well as North Carolina’s Mikele Buck Band. Just go ahead and declare it a country music standard of the Tarheel State.

The album arguably reaches its peak at the conclusion of the song “Linda James” written by Nicholas Jamerson. The harmonizing of Hatley and Williams is absolutely mesmerizing, and proves that for the occasional silliness and spitball nature of this collaboration, these are two very serious musical talents that undoubtedly deserve an audience beyond the Carolinas.

You do still hold out hope for a definitive full-length, full band studio albums from both of these guys that could help them break out of the bar scene, because you believe their songs deserve a greater audience. But this request isn’t cheap or easy to do. So in the interim, by pooling their resources and songwriting talents, Tyler Hatley and Justin Clyde Williams along with Matt Parks have mustered up a really good introduction into their songwriting universe in North Carolina. It’s one you find compelling, and want to experience in-person.

1 3/4 Guns Up (8/10)

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