Gretchen Goes to Nebraska

This is the second album, and the one on which a Houston trio settled its own way of writing. It was recorded at Rampart Studios in Houston, produced by Sam Taylor with the band, and released by Megaforce Records in 1989. The line-up is Doug Pinnick on bass and lead vocals, Ty Tabor on guitar and Jerry Gaskill on drums. All three sing, and the way those voices stack is the band's plainest characteristic. Tabor also plays dulcimer and sitar on it. Heavy riffing in a lowered tuning sits alongside vocal harmony closer to the Beatles or to gospel. Nothing else in America in 1989 combined the two, and any number of grunge and alternative metal musicians have named it since. The words follow a story written by the drummer, Gaskill. Kerrang! placed it fourth in its albums of 1989. The running order here is the original's as printed.