Dean Schlabowske of Chicago’s notorious Waco Brothers and Jo Walston of Austin’s Meat Purveyors are releasing their self-titled debut album, out June 30th, 2023 via Plenty Tuff Records.

‘Deano & Jo’ is a mix of Dean’s original songs and classic but lesser-known covers from bluegrass and honky-tonk greats. The album is old-school enough to appeal to traditionalists, but with enough edge to put a foot in the alt-country/americana world. The songs range from sprightly and lighthearted to genuinely moving, while avoiding saccharine, singer-songwriter territory.

Schlabowske and Walston are both veterans of the alt-country scene that grew up in the 90s. Dean is a founding member, and one of two main songwriters (along with Jon Langford) in the Waco Brothers. The band’s “Cash meets Clash” sound has become an alt-country touchstone over the course of 25+ years and 12 albums. Jo was the lead singer for Austin’s legendary Meat Purveyors. Her Texas born and bred vocal style and on stage intensity were the perfect vessel for that band’s punkgrass tales of redneck debauchery and woe.

A musical couple before becoming a romantic one, Dean & Jo both had to work through a series of ill-advised marriages and bad life decisions before finally getting together. They moved around a bit, with Dean initially moving to Austin for three years, followed by a stint in Dean’s hometown of Milwaukee, before finally settling in Lafayette in 2022.

“We’d like to get our music to people in more of a DIY fashion”

It’s wonderful to have you. I’ve been truly enjoying your debut self-titled album. How much work went into it?

Deano & Jo: The album was more than a year in the making. A great deal of work went into it. Some records come about very spontaneously. This was not one of those. Beginning with Dean writing the original material, the two of us selecting and rehearsing the songs and gathering the musicians, and everyone involved completing the multiple recording and mixing sessions–it is both a culmination and the beginning of a new chapter.

<a href="https://deanojo.bandcamp.com/album/deano-jo-2">Deano & Jo by Deano & Jo</a>

How did you approach songwriting? Was the process any different from your other projects?

Dean: Yes, the writing was more specific, in terms of genre and feel, than anything I’ve ever done. With the Waco Brothers, Dollar Store and other projects, I just let the writing take me wherever my brain wants to go in a given moment. Sometimes, it takes me to weird places! This was different, for a couple reasons.

First, in our (relatively) new home of Lafayette, Louisiana (we moved here in October of 2021), music mostly gets appreciated as a part of socializing. Music is a part of a night out. Drinking, dancing, having fun. In other scenes, people go see music more to appreciate the art. Not that that doesn’t happen here. And the danceable styles that are popular here are certainly “art.” But there would be far fewer opportunities here for a band like Dollar Store, for example. Eventually, we want to play regularly in our area, so I deliberately wrote in a purer honky-tonk and bluegrass inspired style that I knew would go over well. The weird and subversive aspects are in there, just buried.

Second, Jo and I are truly passionate about classic honky tonk and bluegrass. That’s an area where our tastes are nearly identical. So it made sense to emphasize that influence for this partnership.

Would love to know how you originally met and what led to this exciting collaboration?

Dean: Both the Waco Brothers and the Meat Purveyors recorded for the Chicago record label Bloodshot for many years. We shared countless stages together, and both bands’ members became great friends long before Jo & I became a couple. I would travel to Austin to record and play shows with the Meat Purveyors for many years, which eventually produced the ‘Ice Cold Singles’ album. So, we’ve been collaborating for about 15 years. When my first marriage broke up, I immediately started chasing her! Once we became a couple, that collaboration was obviously going to continue.

Where was the album recorded and produced? What was the studio time like for everyone involved?

Dean: The album was recorded and produced in Lafayette, Louisiana, at Staffland Studio by Chris Stafford. Chris is a seasoned, incredibly talented musician (he played pedal steel on the record) who helms his own band (Feufollet) and plays in Cedric Watson’s band, Bijou Creole, along with just about every other well-known musician in the area.

Since we were still new to the area, we used some of the musicians that we knew from the Austin and Chicago music scenes. The sessions began by getting basic tracks down: Jo’s acoustic guitar, my electric, and the upright bass track, which was provided by Mark Rubin of Austin’s Bad Livers. The Bad Livers were a big influence on the Meat Purveyors, and Mark is an absolute pro at the slap style, so we were delighted to have him on board.

From there, we added all the additional instrumentation: fiddle by Beth Chrisman from Austin, and additional guitar tracks from Chas Justice (The Revelers) and Robbie Fulks, who I knew from sharing bills with the Waco Brothers. Next, final vocals were done. Overall, the sessions had a very relaxed vibe. Everyone involved is something of an old pro, so we could pretty much let them do whatever came naturally, confident that it would be great. In between takes, lots of jokes, storytelling and cajun food were consumed!

Are your songs written especially for the project or did you have some old sketches in your sleeve that you finally finished?

Dean: I had recorded solo acoustic versions of a couple of the songs. While they weren’t all necessarily written with this project in mind, even the songs that were written a while back had been hanging around, waiting for an appropriate band. At this point, straight honky tonk or bluegrass inspired material doesn’t really fit with the Waco Brothers anymore. And my “Ramblin’ Deano” solo material is more political folk, so they weren’t necessarily a great fit there either.

You are both from a rich musical background, would you like to talk a bit about your background growing up, early influences and those special moments when you knew you wanted to become a musician?

Dean: Starting at the very beginning, I begged my parents to learn piano from the age of about 6 or 7. By the time I was 10 or 11, I knew I wanted to play in bands. In about 1979, I became aware of punk and new wave, and my fate was sealed! Punk’s DIY attitude inspired me to start writing. And punk’s acceptance of primitive musicianship meant I was able to start playing in clubs at 16 (in 1981-82). Some of my heroes back then started me on the path to discovering country and other roots music. The Clash turned me on to Joe Ely. Elvis Costello turned me on to George Jones. All the punk and new wave kids seemed to dig Hank, Sr.

Jo: My first foray into music was ukulele class in the 2nd grade in Bishop, Texas. I remember learning very quickly how to play and sing at the same time and being quite proud of myself for doing so. Although the soundtrack of my childhood contained a lot of George Jones and Loretta Lynn, by the time I became a teenager, I had turned my back on country music. I had fallen victim to the irresistible charm of the Bay City Rollers. It wasn’t until I moved to Austin in 1984 that I came back around. At that time, Austin was truly a land of misfit toys, a place where punk rock, psychedelia, honky tonk, bluegrass, and outlaw country could all play on the same lineup.

Dean, I would love it if you could tell us about Wreck. What do you remember from those days? What was the alt scene in Milwaukee like in the late 80s?

Dean: To be honest, I spent most of my early adult life trying to escape Milwaukee. I moved to Minneapolis in 1984 because the music scene was so much more happening and exciting than in Milwaukee (Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Prince, et cetera). Looking back, I was probably too critical of Milwaukee. But it is true that there were no record labels of note there, and that touring acts would often pass Milwaukee by.

Wreck formed in Milwaukee when I briefly moved back there in 1987, but really was a Chicago band, despite the initial members all being from Milwaukee. The drummer, Bart Flores, and I moved to Chicago because we were able to record with Steve Albini. I got a job at the record label Wax Trax!, and eventually that’s who began releasing our records. That was probably a hindrance, because they were known for industrial dance music, but that’s another (long, boring) story. Wreck was a noisy, musically difficult band. We struggled to find much success but I still look back on most of what we recorded with pride.

Do you ever miss those days playing really intensive music?

Dean: I’m not sure that I’m physically capable of playing that fast anymore! But if you see the Waco Brothers live, we still bring an energy level that reflects all of our punk roots.

How did that lead you to The Waco Brothers?

Dean: After recording a few records with Steve Albini, Wreck were interested in working with another producer. We were all fans of Jon Langford’s work with the Mekons and Three Johns, as well as the production work he did for other bands. He happened to be in Chicago one night in 1990 (this was before he moved there), and we tracked him down doing a DJ set and asked him to produce our next record. While in the studio, Jon and I discovered our mutual love of old honky tonk. So, when he moved to Chicago a short time later, we began playing country covers in small taverns for fun and free beer. Eventually, other musicians joined in and it became the Waco Brothers.

Listening today to those early Waco Brothers albums, like ‘To the Last Dead Cowboy,’ what runs through your mind?

Dean: I’m still happy with the songwriting but I wish I had been a better country singer and guitar player back then! I went from screaming in Wreck, rarely having ever learned or played anyone else’s songs, to trying to write and sing like George Jones! I think I improved pretty quickly but those first couple records are hard for me to listen to.

What about the Dollar Store?

Dean: Dollar Store started because I had an abundance of songs. Since Jon & I split the songwriting duties on Wacos recordings (with Tracey Dear usually adding one or two), there was just not enough room on Waco Brothers records for all of the songs I was writing. I think the two albums we recorded are quite good. For whatever reason, Wacos fans didn’t care. After three or four years of playing to tiny audiences, I just gave up.

Jo, tell us about the formation of the fantastic Meat Purveyors.

Jo: Although I didn’t move to Austin for any other reason than to get the hell out of Houston, I had the good fortune of befriending some musicians, and somehow I was able to trick them into letting me sing with them.

I had a musician boyfriend who knew Brant Bingamon from the Pocket Fishermen, and Brant was friends with Bill Anderson from Poison 13 and Hand of Glory. We all bonded over our shared love of bluegrass, honky tonk, and punk rock.

The Meat Purveyors were actually a spin-off of my first band, Joan of Arkansas, whose lineup included Brant and Bill. We put together a sassy curated repertoire of bluegrass and honky tonk as well as a few oddball covers.

Bill and I were housemates in South Austin in 1991, and we lived within walking distance of the Saxon Pub, where we spent many Monday nights watching the Bad Livers and having our minds blown. By the time the Joan of Arkansas experiment had sort of run its course, Bill was starting to write original songs in the same sort of genre that Joan of Arkansas was known for, and we decided to build a new project from the ground up. Enter the Meat Purveyors.

‘All Relationships Are Doomed to Fail’ is the first album I heard from the band years ago and I love it. Truly a lot of fun hearing those songs. What do you remember from listening to those albums today? What are some pleasant memories coming back when hearing it again?

Jo: This was our third record, recorded when we reunited after a year-long breakup. The thing I remember most is finally realizing that it’s all about the music and having fun, and that nothing else really matters!

Your current project brings both bands together in a way, doesn’t it?

Dean: As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been performing and recording together for many years. (See ‘Ice Cold Singles’). But, yes, I think that both Jo’s Meat Purveyors experience and mine in the Wacos inform what we are doing now.

What are some of the most important players that influenced your own style and what in particular did they employ in their playing that you liked?

Dean: Guitar-wise, my early playing was influenced by people like Andy Gill in Gang of Four, D. Boon in the Minutemen, Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd…though I’ll never be able to play as well as any of those players! You wouldn’t think that those influences could be applied to the country but they do still come through in how I play. I was attracted to noise and dissonance, and that still pops out, sometimes even in a country tune. Currently, I do my best to ape licks and sounds achieved by the great country players, especially Bakersfield legends like Don Rich and Roy Nichols. But, again, I’ll never be anywhere nearly that good. We rely on surrounding ourselves with outstanding players to play the fancy stuff!

Do you often play live? Who are some of your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to play with over the past few years?

Dean: The Waco Brothers are fairly active. We probably play 50-60 shows per year, all across the US. I typically play an additional dozen or so “Ramblin’ Deano” shows in a typical year. Jo & I want to play as much as possible once the record is released. But. even with our history, it’s hard to make money, so that limits the amount we can do.

What are some future plans?

Dean: We’d like to become established in our own musical community here in Lafayette, as well as New Orleans. We’ll continue to write and record new songs, of course. We’re planning on doing so on more of a digital only, singles basis for a while. Recording and releasing albums is expensive. We’d like to get our music to people in more of a DIY fashion.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Dean: From the honky-tonk and bluegrass vaults, Buck Owens’ very first album (‘Buck Owens’) is a great listen all the way through, which is rare for country LPs of the era, which were mostly a couple hits with a bunch of filler. ‘The Best of the Stanley Brothers’ on Starday (red cover with a framed picture of the two) is a favorite. ‘The Golden Country Hits of George Jones,’ also on Starday, features some of his greatest early material. From my post-punk days, some albums I always return to are The Dream Syndicate’s ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ and the first two albums by The Gun Club. A somewhat recent favorite is Eleventh Dream Day’s ‘Since Grazed’.