Heartbreak Highway

What are the chances that two guitarists named Robert Holmes would be in two signed bands from Boston in the 1980s? Rubber Rodeo's Bob Holmes had a sound not dissimilar from Til Tuesday's Robert Holmes, and with Ziggy Stardust producer/engineerKen Scott aboard for the second album, Heartbreak Highway, Rubber Rodeo had a more defined presentation and better material than what was found on the group's first Mercury disc, Scenic Views. Scott worked with Devo in 1979, and hit with Missing Persons' "Destination Unknown" and "Words" as well as Kansas' "Play the Game Tonight" in 1982, some sterling credentials to enhance this fine effort from New England's band with the strange name, Rubber Rodeo. Departing steel guitarist Mark Tomeo had some rather harsh words for Scott's production talents, but that work holds up and — as stated — works much better this second time around than the highly derivative project that came before it. Trish Milliken sounds more like Girls Night Out'sDidi Stewart here, and delivers a terrific song that should have been a smash — "If You're Ever Alone." Written by the singer and her partner, Bob Holmes, it is simply tremendous. The cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" opens with a bit of that "water guitar" sound Vinnie Bell put on Ferrante & Teicher's "Midnight Cowboy" theme. The rendition is interesting, again giving the band a slight British flavor. Followed by "Souvenir" — a duet between the two front people — there are three strong moments here that prove the band was heading in the right direction. It's too bad that they were on a real-life "heartbreak highway," because it was coming together on this disc and Scott helped put the material in the right setting. "When Words Collide" continues the intensity and, though the band still feels like an amalgam of what was going on in the Boston scene at the time, influences from local bands Til Tuesday and the Maps to Mr. Curt's Pastiche generously finding their way into the grooves, the album proves to be a valuable albeit forgotten effort from a group that gave it a good go. The final track, "Maybe Next Year," has that hopeful optimism that the band as a whole needed — the sentiment an unfulfilled wish as this episode brought it to a close. But it's still fine stuff.