Steve Bedunah: Press

Plug It In And Play

When it comes to narrative-focused country songwriters, few regions can match up to the Lone Star State. Add Steve Bedunah to the list of talented Texans with the ability to spin rugged and robust stories with almost literary flair. Plug It In and Play, his second album, details the desperate and down-and-out, the out of touch and out of time, the proud and the not yet defeated. "If I want a taste of good whiskey," offers the character in "Down The Drain", "I'll tear the drain pipe from beneath the sink." Meanwhile, the technophobic protagonist of "Down To This River" says he wants to e-mail them all to go to hell." The penultimate track,"Reunion", tells a disturbing tale of a mountain man whose aim is truer than an angel's halo" and who has a basement "full of dry goods and booby trap wire." On a lighter note, the rave-up title track is barroom blues at its best. Bedunah's low-key vocals are not especially distinctive, but his finely crafted songs are.

The Title Cut "Plug it in and Play"

The twangin’ title tune to Bedunah’s latest is meant as an inspirational musician’s celebration. But his dusty, world-weary voice makes it sound haunted, dark and desperate. I dig that.

Plug It In And Play

Fort Worth-born Steve Bedunah's writing has been compared to James McMurtry, but stylistically he rides somewhere between Townes Van Zandt's monotone and Kris Kristofferson's gravelly vocals. Plug It in and Play isn't his first recording, but it's the one that should bring him the right audience. Bedunah's knack for wry lyrics suits the grit in his limited vocals, and it's clear that the eye he casts the modern world is as acerbic as his tongue. "Wireless networks and DSL, I want to e-mail them all to go to hell," proclaims "Down to This River," pitting rustic roots against technology. Bedunah is the heartbroken lover in "Down the Drain," while on the title track he's the faithless lover in love with playing guitar: "Some things are scared, some things are holy. Like a twangin' Telecaster, then there's matrimony."

When it came time to start making music, Steve Bedunah opted to hew to tradition.

"My dad got me a guitar when I was in 2nd grade. He saw me playing a tennis racket to a Beatles song," Bedunah said.

In Texas, that amounts to being classically trained. So Fort Worth-bred, Wichita Falls-based Bedunah got serious about playing guitar and writing songs, at least for a little while.

"I played pretty heavily until junior high and then I got interested in girls," Bedunah said, laughing. "But I always played a little at home. I was writing songs, pop country songs, but I wasn't real pleased with them."

Then Texas songwriting icon Ray Wylie Hubbard changed Bedunah's life.

"Eight years ago my wife bought me a Martin guitar for Christmas and I was inspired," he said. "I ran into Ray Wylie Hubbard in Wichita Falls at the Convention Center. There wasn't anybody there. He was playing on a little stage in the middle of the room. I helped him carry his stuff to his van and he invited me backstage and talked with me about songwriting."

Then Bedunah caught a show in Archer City that featured Hubbard, James McMurtry and Steve Fromholz.

"I sat there and listened to those guys and it seemed they just write what they feel, so I started writing what's in my head," Bedunah said.

What's in Bedunah's head, as evidenced by the songs on his second and latest CD, "Plug It In And Play," is a healthy helping of songs that deal seriously, intelligently and cogently about the pull, and clash, of the rural and the urban.

"The term I use for my music is backwoods rock," Bedunah said. "I was raised in Fort Worth. My grandparents lived on a farm in East Texas. They didn't even have running water. My grandfather was a storyteller. I remember sitting at the supper table and he'd tell stories. I wouldn't even eat. I'd just listen."

Bedunah is no slouch in the storytelling department. "Plug It In And Play" builds on the considerable promise of Bedunah's debut, "Hand Me Down Land," a collection songs that proved Butch Hancock and James McMurtry have help in the urban/rural clash department.

Songs such as "Oak Planks," "Please Have Her Call Me" and "Little Sister" are literate, vivid and nothing if not real.

"Life on the farm was real hard," Bedunah said. "I had an Uncle Charlie who did everything he could to get out of that life. After World War II he became a banker. He made a lot of money and he bought a farm. He had this struggle. He ended up living on the farm where he was born until he died. I'm that way, too. I'm drawn both ways."

For Bedunah, the singer/songwriter/troubadour life is also a strong draw. He's a CPA, but walked away from a day job to write songs and work the road.

"There's no secret approach, no formulas to my songwriting," he said. "I usually get a lyric and a melody in my head at the same time and then I'll work on them. Sometimes, if I get a block, I'll pull a book off a shelf, any book, make a stab at a page and just look at a word, any word, and go from there."

Here's one for those who've known the loner's road. Steve Bedunah's deep voice and melancholic ballads put you in a rough hewn dwelling in the woods, self-banished from the city, knowledgeable of alcoholism and still tantalized by it.
Tonal quality is warm and deep, the instrumentation largely (his) acoustic guitar with notes of Dobro, mandolin, pedal steel, and electric guitar. Most of the ten selections are dark and taken at somber pace.
The title track is the most upbeat and has us sitting in at the blues jam at a local bar. "Little Sister" is howdown noir about a family is no better than it needs to b e, while "Please Have Her Call Me" concerns a relationship shaded by a past that will not be denied.
The first two verses of the brilliant opening cut "Down To This River" are taken at funereal gait with guitar, mournful fiddle, and off-beat drums. The third verse shifts to defiant stride, with banjo additive — but its back to slowness for the finish. There's great aural staging on this treatment of self-banishment, as on another standout, "Oak Planks," envisioning a warn and battered man of the sort we've all seen, may have been, and may become. So what's the bottom line on Bedunah?
He gives us good singing, musicianship, and — most importantly, to my reckoning — good storytelling. It's far from a cheerful CD but its even further from depressing. It's more like real life drama as it is when the undeniable dark is met with grace, maturity, and a hardy heart.

Plug It In And Play

Another rootsy Texan, Steve Bedunah plays folk-rock with a bit of grit and edge, as well as a tantalizing twang. His themes relating to the common man ring true. He is a keenly observant storyteller. Armed with strong lyrics, he should become a prominent figure on the Americana music scene.

Plug It In And Play(the single)

Bedunah sings like James McMurtry and writes like him too, making painfully vivid this aging guitarist's dilemma between family responsibilities and his true first love."

Plug It In And Play

As we all know, everything is BIG in Texas. Why wouldn't you expect the best in Roots-Country to be a big success? Steve Bedunah is receiving a lot of positive attention, and it is little wonder. His graven voice seems to shoulder the burden of the world. His songs are musical literature--he is a great storyteller and uses this ability to make his twangy Country downright infectious. This album and Steve have a lot to offer, whether it be foot stomping bluegrass or inspirational Traditional Country, or the Whiskey Blues.

Plug It In And Play

Steve Bedunah is a Texas singer/songwriter whose second release at times recalls the work of Tom Russell, Guy Clark and James McMurtry. Bedunah appears equally at ease with twangy country and more edgy country rock. The most traditional sounding track is "Little Sister," while the rocking title track could have commercial potential with more mainstream vocals.

The folk influence is also strong on such cuts as "Down To The River," "Lady With The Sad Face" and "Reunion." Perhaps the strongest tune is the dark "If You Need To Help," in which the singer's plea for help is accompanied by pessimism ("Appreciate the kindness but I don't understand/How the emptiness will pass by you holding my hand").

With well crafted tunes, Bedunah's effective monotone vocals, and fine musicianship highlighted by Milo Steering on mandolin, steel and fiddle, this is an impressive effort.

Plug It In And Play

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Bedunah builds his songs with pieces of the blues, Americana and country/western and delivers them with deep meaning vocals covered by some fine playing from bandmates Erik Herbst on guitar, organist Tommy Young, Milo Deering on pedal steel, mandolin, fiddle & lap steel, Rocky Gribble on banjo, bassist David DeShazo and drummer Jerry Saracini. Clean, genuine and steeped in country tradition, Bedunah offers up some excellent songs that include the album's rockin' title track "Plug It In and Play," the jangly snarl of "Down The Drain," the big sky ballad "Reunion" and the ingeniously penned "Down To This River."

The Johnstons(the single)

"The first thing that catches your ear is the band laying down a twangin', thumpin' Cash-like groove. The second thing that you notice is that your in the presence of a major songwriter. This dark dramatic word portrait will haunt you."

Hand Me Down Land

"If Ray Wylie Hubbard ever wants to franchise, this gifted singer and songwriter from Wichita Falls proves himself qualified for the job with a CD of smoky and smart Texas neo-folk that's close in style, sound and quality to the best work of the master."

Hand Me Down Land

"...Bedunah joins the ranks of the keen observers of the state's[Texas] rural/urban/suburban situations. The observers, such as Butch Hancock, James McMurtry and Bedunah, know how to take what they see, hear and have lived and turn them into songs that matter."

Hand Me Down Land

"...[Bedunah's] deep rich voice seems to carry not only the weight of the world but also a feeling of menace for those that wrong him, be it intentional or out of unintended circumstance. His songs are strong and literate with a vivid imagery that brings his pictures to the forefront...An especially strong debut offering from this promising singer/songwriter."

Hand Me Down Land

"Soaked in southern singer-songwriter skills that Townes, Guy Clark and others have done before him, Steve Bedunah draws songs... out with a drawl that compliments the great but simple roots-ish arrangements. ...Timeless and put together to near perfection, the weary, barroom sound emitted from Bedunah's pipes are soothing and rough at the same time."

Hand Me Down Land

""I ain't worth a damn" is uttered from the mouth of Steve Bedunah, but he is certainly worth a damn or possibly two... Steve Bedunah has an eye for the details that pictures the tension in a situation. His complications and bluesy delivery on a basically country format make for a marbled and ripe slice of Americana."