Biography
This quartet was formed in Marietta, Georgia, USA, in 1981 by vocalist/guitarist Murray Attaway and guitar player Jeff Walls, initially as a vehicle to perform renditions of Civil War songs. However, with a line-up of Robert Crowe (bass) and John Poe (drums), they went on to specialize in guitar-led songs with impassioned and wilful lyrics, in a manner that prefigured the 90s rise of Grant Lee Buffalo. Mainly written by Attaway, who once led a Yes covers band, these songs looked at Americana, personal disasters and spirituality - notably a fascination with southern Baptist culture summed up by one critic as ‘gospels, damnations and hallelujahs’. Named after a soldier’s history of the World War II Guadalcanal campaign, the group made its debut in 1983 with the EP Watusi Rodeo. Two of the songs also appeared on their first long-player, as did ‘Watusi Rodeo’, which had given the EP its title but which had not actually featured. Afforded the...
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