Musicians:  Robert Reynolds, Mike McAdam, Paul Deakin, Al Perkins, Jerry Dale McFadden, Scotty Huff and Penny Jones.

In a dozen tunes, the all-star cast of SWAG (including Wilco's Ken Coomer, the Mavericks' Jerry Dale McFadden and Robert Reynolds, and Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson) offers a figurative catch-all of smart pop/rock. 

When an album starts out chiming the hook "doodle-ly doo doo, dwee diddle doo doo" you can safely assume the band has a yen for unabashed pop, but what makes the flavor of even the most bubblegum moments of Catch-all last is the group's astonishing craft, sophistication and energy. 

From Revolver-inspired nuggets (Lone) to tender ballads (Near Perfect Smile) that might make Elliott Smith quiver in envy, to raw rockers (Eight and Ride) that hint at the band's live thrust, Catch-all isn't supposed to be subtle.  The fingerprints of Ronnie Lane, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and the Zombies are all over this thing, but it never stoops to kitsch.  Finally, someone put the super back in supergroup.

Steve Ciabattoni: 
CMJ New Music Report
Issue: 703 - Feb 26, 2001  

http://www.cmj.com/

The drawer on the cover of SWAG's Catch-all contains enough pop-culture flotsam to keep eBay busy for a week - those glasses belong to Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, and there's a Cheap Trick guitar pick, a Yellow Submarine pin, a Spiro Agnew watch.  The album title and its cover signify the intent of this side project for members of Wilco, Cheap Trick, and the Mavericks - it catches the music not covered by their day jobs. 

"This was the antithesis of other experiences that we were all having", says Robert Reynolds - better known as bassist for the Mavericks - who formed SWAG with Coomer, Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson, Nashville singer-songwriter Doug Powell, and Jerry Dale McFadden, who's backed the Mavs and Sixpence None the Richer.  "I have always been very pleased to do the Maverick thing - still feel that way.  But it comes with a price.  You end up taking on certain roles in those groups. That gets cemented in, and that's it." 

SWAG began a few years ago on the Mavericks tour bus as Reynolds and McFadden looked for an additional outlet for their music. "Like anything", Reynolds says, "too much of one thing has you wanting more of another thing, has you wanting something else."   Membership stayed fluid - Mavericks drummer Paul Deakin came and went early on, and the occasional Nashville live date has featured Bill Lloyd and producer Brad Jones - solidifying only when North Carolina label Yep Roc asked to release a SWAG album.  "You get together, and it is the most family atmosphere I've had in a long, long time from any situation", Coomer says. 

The music's pure power-pop, from the Beach Boys harmonies on When She Awoke to the Zombies-like chord progression of Please Don't Tell.  SWAG hooks listeners in with ultra-catchy melodies that echo Badfinger and early Todd Rundgren.  Cheap Trick gets name-checked, appropriately, on Ride.  And, true to power-pop form, three of the album's songs bear the names of girls - Louise, Trixie, and Lone. 

Back to that album cover:  If you look carefully near the top right corner, you'll see a small band of gold - Reynolds' wedding ring from his former marriage to country singer Trisha Yearwood. 

"I did that with a sense of humor and certainly, with my really awesome relationship with Trisha, I can do it with a little more confidence than if it was ugly", he says.  "I thought it was kind of appropriate, because a catch-all drawer catches things that are not being used.  They've just kind of collected there.  Obviously, I wouldn't throw away my wedding band - I just wouldn't wear it anymore." 

By Brian Mansfield, 
CDNOW Senior Editor 

Take members from Wilco, the Mavericks, Sixpence None The Richer, and Cheap Trick, hole them up in Nashville, and you get something approaching a pop-rock masterpiece. 

Sound unlikely? Listen to Trick's Tom Petersson howl through I'll Get By or the massed harmonies on the hard-rocking Please Don't Tell and you'll know SWAG has some wondrously eclectic, Merseybeat-meets-the- Flamin'-Groovies mojo working.

If all the kids who bought the Beatles' 1 bought this, too, guitar-powered pop would be in great shape.

Rating: A

Label: Yep Roc
Released: 3/12/01

Rating:  ****

SWAG is a sort-of super-group, a “pick-up” band whose members serve primarily as side-men in their day jobs with Wilco, Cheap Trick, The Mavericks, and Sixpence None the Richer (plus solo artist Doug Powell).   Catch-all, their debut full-length CD, is an enormously good-natured, very catchy batch of songs.  A collection of work recorded over the course of several years, the CD’s 12 power-pop tunes comprise a consistent album that holds together remarkably well. 

The band’s name is self-effacing - the word “swag” implies that there’s no thought behind the music, that it’s all the product of some “simple wild-ass guess”.   But if that describes the band’s origins and free spirit, it says nothing of the high quality of music contained on the CD.  At just over 35 minutes, the CD speeds by, one Beatle-esque gem after another.  The songs are well crafted and arranged - they are immediately grabbing, and many of them are memorable.  The vocal harmonies are gorgeous (especially on the terrific, McCartney-esque Different Girl, one of the CD’s few ballads), and the musicianship is (of course) superb. 

The songs are so consistent that it’s hard to choose a few highlights, and since they are written in collaboration, singling out a leader doesn’t really fit with the overall vibe of the project.  My favorite songs tend to be those sung by The Mavericks’ Robert Reynolds, whose voice is surprisingly good.  And Wilco’s Ken Coomer turns in a Chris Mars-like effort with the joyously earnest Eight, which features a fun, fat baritone guitar solo. 

Think of SWAG as the '60s pop answer to Golden Smog.   No mere novelty act, Catch-all is the sound of seasoned vets playing music that they love for the fun of it.  Highly recommended for fans of The Beatles 'sound', with hints of Cheap Trick and The Replacements here and there. 

What happens when members of Wilco, Cheap Trick and the Mavericks get together on their days off in Nashville to make a little "out of the box" music?

Absolute pop magic.  Catch-all (Yep Roc Records), the debut album by the off-duty band playfully named SWAG (it means "promotional freebies" in the music industry), deliberately and audaciously flaunts its pop influences, practically daring the listener to identify its origins.  And yet the disc is wholly original and wildly successful at recapturing the pure passion of power pop.

The core of the group is guitarist Robert Reynolds (Mavericks), keyboard player and studio stalwart Jerry Dale McFadden, drummer Ken Coomer (alt-country heroes Wilco), guitarist Doug Powell and bassist Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick, John Lennon).  Guests who found their way into the studio include Nashville guitar slinger Kenny Vaughn, horn player Scotty Huff (Mavericks) and Bill Lloyd (guitar and vocals).

In lesser hands, the defiantly twee melody of Lone could have been a disastrous beginning, but by the time the instruments kick in with their infectious jangle, the ear is caught in an inescapable and transcendent sonic net for exactly two minutes, and by the end of the number SWAG's contumacious statement has been made.

The fun continues with the Beatlesque Please Don't Tell, the Todd Rundgrenish When She Awoke, the World Party-like You, the love-struck, Paul McCartneyish Near Perfect Smile, the triumphantly poppy Eight featuring a killer baritone guitar solo by Powell), the brazen "hair band" spin of Ride and the delightfully playful ascending/ descending chord changes of Louise.

The only clunkers are the string-heavy ballad Different Girl and the closer, She's Deceiving, which sound like the band was trying too hard for overly sweet confections. As for the rest of SWAG's Catch-all, the songs grow better with each listen.  Repeat when necessary.  (To hear a free Sound Bite from this album, call Post-Haste at 202-334-9000 and press 8163.) 

Buzz McClain
Washington Post,  21 March 2001

Thirty five minutes of honest-to-goodness pure power pop goodie comes courtesy of this underground supergroup.   Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson, the Mavericks' Robert Reynolds, free agent Jerry Dale McFadden (once billed as ''The S&M Cowboy'' in his days as a Reptile Records solo artist, but that's another story), ex-Wilco drummer Ken Coomer and solo artist Doug Powell are SWAG's official members, but they get instrumental assists from Bill Lloyd, producer Brad Jones, Chris Carmichael, Jim Hoke and Kenny Vaughn, and a guest vocal from Scotty Huff.

The music is highly derivative, and that's not an insult.  Songs will immediately remind listeners of the Beach Boys, The Hollies, The Beatles and Cheap Trick.   Intricate - often poignant - melodies are here in abundance, as are vintage keyboards, ebullient harmonies, bright guitars and drumming that crashes and rolls like Ringo.

It's a sweet little album: an offering from music fans to music fans.  Mostly adoration, and just enough inspiration.  When She Awoke stacks layers of harmonies atop a memorable melody, starting softly and ending with a cinematic flourish, with Brad Jones' gurgling bass holding down the fort.  Ride is a joyful summons to lost days and loud rock 'n' roll, and She's Deceiving is as close as we'll ever get to a brand new Beatles song.

Only one question: where can I get this on vinyl? 

Peter Cooper
The Tennessean
Monday 13 March 2001

SWAG is the all star band that includes Robert Reynolds and Jerry Dale McFadden (from the Mavericks), Tom Petersson, Ken Coomer (Wilco), Doug Powell and Scotty Huff.  Not only are there four tracks on this 10" single (yep, it's vinyl) but Winston Smith did groovy retro artwork on both sides of the disc.  Tracks include: Lone, Different Girl, When She Awoke and Louise.

SWAG consists of Ken Coomer (Wilco), Jerry Dale McFadden (The Mavericks), Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks), Doug Powell (from Not  Lame Records) and Tom Petersson out of Cheap Trick.   You'll have seen his name on quite a few albums.

This sounds like a 'lost' '60s album by a band who sound like an American band jumping on the Beatles bandwagon.   Even the titles have a familiar ring to them, She's Deceiving, Ride, Different Girl, Please Don't Tell, When She Awoke etc.   If you listen to You, you'd swear it was a great McCartney song left over from the 'White Album' or 'Let It Be'.   Very strange indeed.  What it all boils down to is a pastiche concept album.  Lots of  'carry your books home' lyrics, innocent young love songs.   The band sing more about 'summer' and 'school' so they are obviously American.

And in the end the album and band may be having fun, but they do it extremely well and it is infectious.  It's also nice to hear something that's lighthearted and doesn't sound like it's a collection of someone else's problems.

The right single, the right DJ, you never know.  They do sound better with every listening.

SWAG
Catch-all (Yep Roc)

SWAG is a Nashville supergroup of sorts, though if you're looking for country, you've got the wrong band. 

Composed of Ken Coomer (Wilco), Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick), Jerry Dale McFadden (Sixpence None the Richer), Robert Reynolds (Mavericks), and Doug Powell, SWAG delves into a brand of pop that borrows a lot from latter-day British invasion bands like Badfinger and the Hollies, with passing nods to the Beach Boys and (of course) Cheap Trick. 

One might think that a band exploring such territory would find nothing but overwrought cliches and bad Wings imitations, yet SWAG takes sweet harmonies, sing-along melodies, tightly constructed guitar lines, and sparingly used synthesizer to construct a delightful debut. 

Stylistically, it's all in the same mode, though some tracks do stand out.  I'll Get By has a big beat, ringing guitars, and so many hooks it could be a long-lost Cheap Trick out-take, while the breezy Ride is a throwback to the halcyon days of Top 40 pop, and Please Don't Tell is perfectly orchestrated piece of fluff with soaring harmonies. Maybe rock isn't dead after all.  (Thursday, March 15, Continental Club, 11pm) 

Jim Caligiuri 
Austin Chronicle, March 16, 2001 

With a lineup that includes former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, The Mavericks' Jerry Dale McFadden and Robert Reynolds, Todd Rundgren sideman Doug Powell, and Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson, SWAG are a supergroup out to win hearts with unabashed pop songs. 

"Doodle-ly doo doo, dwee diddle doo doo", Reynolds sings on the Hollies-like opener, Lone.   It may be the most perfect two-minute burst of ringing 12-string guitar you hear all year.   More importantly, it's a lot of fun.   Powell takes over lead vocals on I'll Get By, which sounds somewhat like Petersson's day job band and which features Nashville pop veteran Bill Lloyd on guitar.   Another Nashville pop genius, Brad Jones, produced the record and played bass when Petersson was busy with Rick, Robin, and Bun E.

On Please Don't Tell, SWAG marries a melody swiped from The Zombies to a Dave Davies freak-out guitar solo to create '60s pop nirvana.  Near Perfect Smile is a sweet acoustic ballad that wouldn't sound out of place in the Elliott Smith catalog.  Different Girl is a Beach Boys-like charmer, and When She Awoke is majestic pop that may remind you of other deft assimilators like Jellyfish.

While it's fun to play spot the influences, though, Catch-all never sounds like a collection of genre exercises.  It's a thoroughly modern collection that stands up pretty well on its own, thanks to the combined talent and energies of the individual members.

I used to believe you could judge the quality of an album by the number of songs with girls' names in the title, and Catch-all has several (Louise, Trixie).  And you've got to love a band that mentions themselves in one of their songs.  On the rocker Ride, McFadden sings, "Have you ever seen Swag play live? / Did you dig the show? / I've got tickets for tomorrow night / Let's go."  I didn't need the subliminal advertising to get me there.

Sean Slone
Ink 19
http://www.ink19.com

There's nothing quite like success to lock a band's hierarchy permanently into the status quo.  As talented - yet decidedly supporting - members of such durable chart denizens as Wilco, The Mavericks and Cheap Trick, the musicians in SWAG know all about this, er, 'George Harrison Syndrome'.

SWAG's nebulous beginnings go back to 1996, when Mavericks' bassist Robert Reynolds and "A-list" session/touring keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden discussed the need for a side project to serve as an open-ended creative outlet.  Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson, Wilco drummer Ken Coomer and talented multi-instrumentalist Doug Powell joined the fold as time allowed, and SWAG became an intermittent reality.

Catch-all reprises four previously released (as limited-edition singles and a 10-inch picture disc EP) tracks and adds another eight gem-cut originals, which brilliantly reflect the tenor, tone and time (12 songs in a breezy 35:37) of classic Top 40 AM rock 'n' roll. 

Cut loose from the well-defined roles of their 'day jobs', the SWAG-ers freely swap instruments and vocal chores, while the songs are co-written by the band in just about every permutation possible.  Through it all, amazingly, there is a clear, cohesive band identity and sound.

Considerable credit for this last is due former Iowa Citian Brad Jones, whose typically stellar work as producer, engineer, mixer and occasional bassist at his Alex The Great Recording studio in Nashville, Tenn., provides spot-on flourishes and nostalgia-inducing context for the project. 

Although original, the tunes on Catch-all keep a loving eye in the rear-view mirror, with the resulting disc's feeling like an extremely hip, well-picked mix tape.  The first two are - to these ears - the slightest, but there truly ain't a runt in the litter. 

With the exception of the giddy Ride (a joyful, name-checking salute to rockin' on wheels), the songs are all written about (or to) girls and are delivered with a cheery, poignant naivete worthy of pre-"Rubber Soul" Fabs.  Speaking of whom, Near Perfect Smile and Different Girl are like long-lost, prime McCartney pillow-weepers; Please Don't Tell slaps a Cavern Club Lennon on early-Kinks raunch, and lush, Beatle-esque backing vocals pop up here, there and everywhere. 

"Trixie" could slip sweetly onto The Zombies' classic "Odessey & Oracle", "You" exquisitely cops everything not nailed down on Todd Rundgren's "I Saw The Light"; Eight evokes prime, thumping Dave Clark Five, and the spunky Louise is obviously much, much more than "just a barmaid".

Elegant, pure-of-heart and thoroughly ebullient, Catch-all is as close to perfect as a pop record has been in quite awhile.  SWAG recently has been forced to change its name to 'American Swag' for legal reasons, but by any name, this band of inspired second-fiddlers is strictly top drawer. 

Jim Musser
Music Beat
Iowa City Press-Citizen
June 2001

SWAG was originally conceived by Jerry Dale McFadden and Robert Reynolds while touring with The Mavericks.   Over thousands of miles and countless hours, they shared their mutual love of pop music and the concept of a utopian pop-rock band. 

After enlisting some of their like-minded peers, Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick), Ken Coomer (ex-Wilco) and Doug Powell, they hit the studio.   The results, found on the debut full-length Catch-all, embody both the fun-loving nature of SWAG and their amazing songwriting skills. 

Classic Pop meets indie rock in this mix of tunes so hummable, they're honestly addictive.

Advert for Pinnacle Records 
published in Mojo, July 2001

Yep Roc Records

Does the idea of a supergroup scare you?   Granted, when artists from different bands come together to work on a "project", the results too often don't live up to the potential or hype.   Perhaps this happens because the sessions are informal and the atmosphere is very loose, not exactly a great setting for inspiration.  That said, do not be afraid of the latest supergroup, SWAG, or their CD Catch-all. 

SWAG was formed when Robert Reynolds and Jerry Dale McFadden, two members from the country band, The Mavericks, decided they wanted to explore making an album of songs in the style of sixties and seventies pop-rock.  Before you can say "Chris Gaines", they hooked up with like-minded artists such as Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson (obviously no stranger to seventies pop), singer/songwriter Doug Powell, and Ken Coomer, the drummer for the alt-country band, Wilco.

Catch-all is a virtual tour-de-force of classic pop.   On each track, the listener gets to play the game, name that influence, starting with the faux-British Invasion opener, Lone.  Granted, absolutely no new ground is broken here, but what makes Catch-all so enjoyable is the attention to detail the band gives these songs, including the most important detail of all: these songs are incredibly catchy.

Powell was certainly serious about this project.  The two songs he co-wrote and sings on Catch-all sound like they could have made it to one of his solo albums. In fact, When She Awoke did appear in demo form on his CD, Curiouser.   In Catch-all, producer Brad Jones fleshes out the song in all its glory, making it sound like a tender ballad that George Harrison might have written for the Beatles.  The other song Powell wrote is much different.   I'll Get By is a rocker that frankly I cannot trace the influence.   Powell sings this one with great intensity, and it is not the type of feel-good song that dominates the CD.   It has this great line: "Our love was just a play / I never paid to see / but your little tragedy / it's all Greek to me."

Catch-all alternates between ballads and rockers, for the most part very smoothly.   One exception is the sweet folk-rock ballad, Near Perfect Smile, and the garage-band stomper, Please Don't Tell, which are good songs on their own, but a bit of a rough transition hearing them back to back.   These two songs do show the versatility of Reynolds as a singer, considering he is not the lead singer of his own band.

McFadden, the other Maverick, has a distinctively high-pitched voice but puts it to very good use on songs like the very catchy Louise, the cute Paul McCartneyesque number, Trixie, and on the other end of the spectrum, the rocking Ride.  He can also be heard singing in unison with Reynolds on the aforementioned Please Don't Tell, and on You, a bluesy pop song recalling something John Lennon might have written for the Beatles around 1968 or 1969.

By now, you've figured out that the Beatles are a huge influence on Catch-All, so much so that Coomer's one singing contribution, Eight, basically sounds like, for better or worse, the Ringo song on a Beatles album.   At least, the Beatles songs they reference aren't obvious ones like "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

Other influences on Catch-all range from the Beach Boys on the pretty ballad, Different Girl to Ride, which not only sounds like In Color-era Cheap Trick, but mentions Cheap Trick in the lyrics, just in case you didn't get the reference.   She's Deceiving is the closing number and with its soft and loud passages, it pretty much sums up the whole CD.

Is Catch-all a great album?   Hardly.   SWAG won't make anyone forget the bands or the albums that they are emulating, but if you like the artists they like, it is definitely a fun listen.   Everyone sounds like they were having fun making it, but they also sound like they were serious about getting it right.   So for that, you could call this an anti-supergroup album.

RATING: B+

© 2001 George Agnos and "The Daily Vault".
http://www.dailyvault.com/

SWAG is a Nashville "supergroup" composed of Robert Reynolds and Jerry Dale McFadden, both of the now-defunct Mavericks, as well as former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, Cheap Trick bass player Tom Petersson, and solo artist Doug Powell.  As its title suggests, their debut album is a catch-all of such pop influences as the Beach Boys, Big Star, and the Kinks - to name just a few - and the band relies on them very heavily for direction and inspiration.

Songs like I'll Get By and Ride sound like vintage Cheap Trick, and When She Awoke contains some very Beach Boyish ba-ba-bas and lush orchestration.  Both Reynolds and guest singer Scotty Huff sound eerily like White Album-era Paul McCartney on Near Perfect Smile and Different Girl, respectively.

But the band plays with such energy and obvious affection for these self-penned tunes that Catch-all becomes more than just the sum of its influences.  There's a playful inventiveness here, evident in the harpsichord groove on Please Don't Tell, the smooth harmonica that graces Near Perfect Smile, and the call-and-response solo between baritone guitar and piano on Eight.  Such unexpected flourishes add life to the album.  This project could easily have been derivative and stiff, but Catch-all sounds spontaneous, endearing, and heartfelt. 

Stephen Deusner
Memphis Flyer
July 26 2000

http://www.memphisflyer.com/MFSearch/full_results.asp?xt_from=1&aID=1132