<previous page> \In addition to his lead guitar chores, Jeff played some keyboards in Guadalcanal's early stages, but, Rhett explains, "When we started traveling, the keyboards weighed too much, took up too much room, and took twice as long at soundchecks ‹ so we left them at home." "And I don't get paid enough to have to think about what I'm doing," says Walls wryly. "Keyboards definitely cause that problem." The band's thundering drums, kinetic bass, and shimmering 12-strings, acoustics, and twangy electric; all pounded out with garage-band passion ; defy simple categorization, which is to their liking. "I think one reason we've worked out," Walls feels, "is that we never really seriously set out to make a band that was gonna do this or that. We just started writing a few songs together, go Rhett on bass, and brought John out of retirement for our first gig, which was a friend's wedding reception. One thing Murray and I have always had a problem with, and why we haven't played in more successful bands, is that it's always bugged us that one you develop an image or style, that's all you can do. We're always leery about reaching that impasse; we deliberately formed Guadalcanal Diary and picked that name so that we could get away with whatever we wanted to. When we first started out, we were a lot more erratic. After a few years your songwriting styles start to fit the instrumentation and band members more." Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, recorded three years after the groups formation (with only 50 hours of studio time), includes two instrumentals, the moody, psychedelic title tune and "Gilbert Takes the Wheel," which is centered more around the bass and drums than the lead guitar. Then there's the British Invasion-ish "Pillow Talk" and the country-in-overdrive "Watusi Rodeo," which did not appear on the EP of the same name. "Trail of Tears" harks back to the Byrds' 12-strings and vocal harmonies, while "Ghost on the Road" is taken at a frantic Ramones pace. The album closes with a live recording of their "power-quartet" rendition of the folk song "Kumbayah." On Jamboree "Please Stop Me" and "I See Moe" reveal strong country influences, while "T.R.O.U.B.L.E." is taken at a loungey swing pace. Asked about the group's influences, musical and literary, Attaway declares, "I think there's more literary influences than rock and roll influences in our band. To a degree, they're southern, but, like, I've never really read Faulkner or all of The Sound and the Fury; because I think Faulkner gets kind of bogged down. There was a big Flannery O'Connor thing with us for a while; she's such a great writer." "A lot of it has to do not necessarily with reading southern writers as much as just being in the South and knowing what it's like, experiencing it first-hand," explains Walls. Jeff adds, "Musically, I like the best of every era that's come along. What got me into playing guitar was Pete Townshend and Keith Richards and Dave Davies; that while scene. Later it was rediscovering the best of rockabilly, country and the early-'70's stuff. I've always liked bands that were kind of gritty and rough and hard-rock, but with that spark of intelligence and humor. I'd place early Iggy &The Stooges in that category, along with early Alice Cooper and the Groundhogs. We were also very influenced at one time by Genesis and all that; I don't know if it comes out much now." <continues>

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