There are musicians in America now who have taken off for unexplored territory, land once staked out by the greats from our past: Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and other less-famous names. These new songwriters aren't there to grab headlines or fill the pages of meaningless magazines. They are there to write and sing their songs, living words that come to them sometimes in a hurry and sometimes in a haze. And at a time when the music business itself seems lost in a spiraling fog of self-declared importance and self-fulfilling decay, these new singers are actually saviors of the sounds we love so much. Without them, it might be hard to find our way out of the ninety-nine cent download, and even harder to care whether the world of music even continues. Make no mistake: there is a small army of musicians who care enough about their calling to gamble their future on it. The singers and songwriters, guitarists and drummers, drive around the country playing wherever they find an audience. Some nights they may connect with thousands, others with ten. What matters most is their pursuit of the sound they hear in their hearts and in their minds. Today, when too much space is spent talking about what is going to happen to the music business, Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies are like thieves in the night, sneaking into town to steal the thunder right out from under the media glare of despair. With their new album Bluebird, released on the new Breakout Music label, the group is poised to plant a flag in their Los Angeles home that this is one band who isn't prepared to settle for less than greatness. The way they make that claim is at the heart of their strength. These are musicians who respect the boundaries of music, and then go about messing them up every chance they get. While some might try to collar them with an alternative country tag, that would be a big mistake, because Wright and the Waco Tragedies are at heart a band with a ton of country influences, sure, but with a rock & roll heart all the way through. Much of that has to do with attitude as much as altitude. The group plays with an aggressive edge even when they're quiet, like they're trying to take the music as far as they can even if it gets twisted into a brand new shape. The album opener, "Over and Again," begins mildly, but it isn't long before the ghost of the Velvet Underground is knocking on its door with an experimental edge impossible to ignore. Every song on Bluebird has the same creative streak. Sparked by Wright's lyrical precision and endless imagination, this is music that dares listeners not to pay attention. Wright's first album, Dog Ears, was a first step towards making Bluebird. Recorded in just three days at the Wagon Wheel studio in North Hollywood, Wright and the Waco Tragedies new album is like a promise fulfilled. "I had the guys I wanted, and I'd been touring a lot on my own, so when I got home and went in the studio with the band, we were really ready," Wright says. "The setting was perfect. The studio is in somebody's house. Almost everyone was in the same room. We put the amps in the kitchen and the drums in the bedroom. We'd record then play it back and there was the song, just like we wanted. We did the album in two days, but I'd forgotten some songs, so we went back in one more day and did some more. And that was it. Day three made the record." Sometimes knowing when something is finished is the most important fact of all. Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies knew their Bluebird album was finished on that third day. And now, with its release and a national tour about to start, their new life is just beginning. Who are Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies? They are men like you and me, unless you are a woman, in which case they are different, though not better. They play music. They do this with their hands and faces and feet and sometimes with their chins and knees. All parts are available to serve if required. The Waco Tragedies are, as a group, shorter than the Brian Wright who leads them, and this is only fitting, if not actually true. Once, in a midnight raid upon the villain's outpost, one of the Tragedies was nearly shot and killed. Brian Wright lept into action-- he was like lightning, but deadly quiet. His knife gleamed in the moonlight, and then found its sheath in the black heart of a bad man. It was a harrowing time, but God was on the side of the Tragedies once again. Horses like to have blankets; in this respect they are like pigs, and humans. No one should ever shout too loudly in the presence of the Alps. It could fall on you and crush you like a twig. Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies are waiting to do the same thing to you, the listener. Go ahead, listener, please, call out, yell, scream-- it will be our pleasure. Music is a good thing for everyone to have on their head. What, do you not believe?