Limes

Limes

Tarantula

Goner

In a town full of musical hermits and legends, it may seem trite to call anyone the town’s best kept secret. But truck-driving rocker Shawn Cripps and his revolving cast of characters collectively known as Limes have been making lovable late-night rackets at midtown dives for nearly a decade with very little to show for it. A couple of singles (one from France, one from Italy) and two homemade CDRs were all that existed until Goner released Rhinestone River last year. Well, that’s not entirely true—as is typical with many Memphis iconoclasts like Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson and Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Limes clicked with overseas listeners before Americans caught on, and Cripps’s first album Tarantula did receive a limited CD release in 2005 on a small New Zealand label. Somehow that made more sense than it should have, as Limes’ brand of quirky pop and rock wouldn’t be out of place on a Flying Nun comp from the mid-’80s. Cripps has had a crazy life. For a while, he lived on a boat in the Mississippi River; there were rumors he went a little kooky at some point and wouldn’t listen to anything but Exile on Main Street for months. He was a frequent collaborator with Harlan T. Bobo—the two are both reclusive songsters with more than their fair share of talent and bad luck. Catching Limes live, you never knew who will be there or how it’ll turn out. Could be the best show of the year—or the worst....

Limes

Rhinestone River

Goner

Memphis is home to several of rock's most endearingly off-kilter rock storytellers, from Jim Dickinson to Jeffrey Evans to Ross Johnson. To that list, one can now add Shawn Cripps, leader of The Limes.  On the band's debut full-length, Rhinestone River, Cripps retains the musical talents of Harlan T. Bobo, who previously helped on The Limes' Rock 'n' Roll Heart single. Bobo's hypnotic keyboards perfectly complement Cripps's gritty guitar work and vocals, particularly on "Sounds Like a Shimmy." Rhinestone River also features contributions by Memphis scene stalwarts Ross Johnson, Paul Buchignani (Afghan Whigs, Bobo's backing band), Alicja Trout (Lost Sounds, River City Tanlines) and Bruce Saltmarsh ('68 Comeback, Porch Ghouls).  The title track, with its wobbly gait and lyrics like "Sitting on this barstool, sweating the rhinestone river," can induce secondhand drunkenness in anyone within earshot. "Rhinestone River" is the closest an American band has gotten to the pickled poetry of the Country Teasers. The momentum and melody of "Bottom of the Hole" unfurl like the narrative thrust of a bourbon-soaked anecdote at two in the morning.  The album's crown jewel is the closing track, "Last Year." Cater-cornered rock guitars and Cripps's talkin' vocal style build up to a woozy climax that culminates in a feral "woo-hoo." Like the other great songs on Rhinestone River, it threatens to fall apart several times but Cripps, with a little help from his friends and his engaging personality, holds it all together.