The Tennessean du lieu suivant : Nashville, Tennessee • Page 47

music WEEKEND, SECTION, DECEMBER 10, 1993 Country's Pirates cruise 'radio friendly' shores iP 1 1 TJIlliM 4 Getting there Pirates of the Mississippi perform their annual Christmas concert to benefit the homeless at 7 p.m. Friday at The Sutler Saloon. Admission is free. A collection will be taken for the Nashville Coalition for the Homeless. "We were a bunch of wild boys who happened to get a record deal.

Now we're professionals. Let's face it, we are competing with Diamond Rio and Alabama and Brooks who have hit songs and a hit sound." RICH ALVES guitarist 5 1 1 4 'tilt- i 1 i 1 i i I I 1 1 "We really believed in that song," says Alves ruefully. "Knowing what I know now, I definitely would not release it." After radio passed on Street Man, Liberty Records didn't issue Pirates singles for a full year, stalling the act's forward progress. During that time, the band faced another crisis when a lighting rack fell on steel guitarist Pat Severs last May. It broke his back.

"Pat was very badly you can't keep a Pirate down," says Lowe. Six weeks later, Severs was back in the band, on crutches. He is still recuperating while performing. The Pirates say these experiences have given them maturity. "We were a bunch of wild boys who happened to get a record deal," says Alves.

"Now we're professionals. "Let's face it, we are competing with Diamond Rio and Alabama and Brooks who have hit songs and a hit sound." So this time out, it's go-for-the-gut, good-time songs. No controversial lyrics. No social statements. "This album is back to how we got started in the first place," says Bill McCorvey, "playing party music in the basement.

Music to drink beer by." Pop From the Top, Wild Side of Life, The Night They Rocked the Grand Ole Opry, Save the Wild Life and the rest of the songs on Dream You are the fun side of Pirates of the Mississippi. But the group hasn't lost its social conscience. This Christmas, like every Christmas, it is doing its benefit show for the homeless. Robert K. Oermann Is a Nashville-based free-lance writer.

By ROBERT K.OERMANN They've sailed the high seas of controversy, but now Pirates of the Mississippi are looking for safe harbor. The rollicking quintet of country rockers has scored a top-10 video hit with Dream You, its fourth CD's title tune. Previously known for musical risk taking, the members are hoping for mainstream acceptance this time around. "We wanted to stay true to what we do, but we also commercial-type album," says Pirates drummer Jimmy Lowe. "They call it 'radio adds guitarist Rich Alves.

That's a switch. Despite its enthusiastic fans, an Academy of Country Music award, and hugely successful videos, ra-dio stations have generally shunned the band. The Pirates ran aground almost immediately when they released Feed Jake as a single from their debut CD in 1991. The song suggested tolerance toward homosexuals, so many stations refused to play it. Fans, however, loved the number and its video was named best-of-the-year in many polls.

Today Feed Jake is the group's "signature song," although it never made the top-10. During the Christmas season of The rollicking quintet of country rockers Pirates of the Mississippi, (from left to right) Pat Severs, Bill McCorvey, Rich Alves, Dean Townson and Jimmy Lowe, has scored a top-10 video hit with Dream You, its fourth CD's title tune. homelessness. This time, programmers said it was political and anti-Bush during the Clinton election. So while that 1992 single became the theme for a national campaign against homelessness and its video became a major hit, radio wouldn't play it.

1991-92, radio programmers decided that the stirring ballad Fighting for You was too downbeat. Again there was a hit video and big fan support, but no radio airplay. Then came Street Man Named Desire, the title tune from the third Pirates album. It was an emotional depiction of SPONSORED BY tffSOk THfWkftf fMJScSSV MEDIA SPONSOR GOURMET. fcl7.