Magic Cropdusters

It’s tough out there for a Magic Cropdusters fan. They (We’ll call them “they,” but understand that Magic Cropdusters=David Jukes) release an album with uptempo grooves and lyrics that seemed at once cryptic, random and symbolic. The 1997 self-titled debut had brothers Rod and Lenny Bryan backing Jukes, who years later returned the favor by joining their band Ho-hum as second guitarist. For a few weeks. In 1998, Magic Cropdusters’ *Goshen* was released on Little Rock’s HTS label, led by the late Paul Lovett, who said he issued the Cropduster debut as a gift to Jukes. If so, *Goshen* was more serious. In more ways than one – HTS had become a “real” record label, Little Rock native session/producing legend Jim Dickinson (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones) was at the board, and Jukes turned in more somber songs and performances. (Background: Dickinson had first produced Jukes when the latter was a member of Gunbunnies, which made it as far as MTV and a major-label release in 1990, in a scenario nearly re-enacted by Ho-hum five years later.) David’s brother Michael Jukes and Grammy-winning percussionist Joe Cripps filled out the Cropduster chairs on *Goshen.* Then, nearly ten years pass. New kids arriving on the Little Rock rock scene hear tales of the Boo Radley-like character on the old-fashioned bicycle who writes songs about boats, mice, houses and pencils. Cropduster gigs, already scarce, become rare. *Goshen* seems less a departure than next step, while the issuance of a fabled third Magic Cropdusters long-player takes on *Chinese Democracy* proportions. But in May 2007, with typical nonchalance, here comes a new set of songs with the trademark winding pop chords and household object subject matter. It’s like our long, national nightmare with no Cropduster tunes to placate us never happened. Accordingly, there’s another set of Cropdusters backing Jukes – bassist Jeff Matika and drummer Burt Taggart -- and a still-differing live group, with steady-rolling Matika and Matt Quin of fellow Little Rock band American Princes (Yep Roc Records) on drums. Cripps isn’t drumming, but producing this time around, for his own Basement Front Records imprint, distributed by Yep Roc. After the light of the Nineties, especially in Arkansas, this quirky voice of normalcy and random specificity is needed more than ever in the dark days of the new century. And, at long last, Magic Cropdusters fans finally have *The Apartment.* -- S. Koch, Little Rock “Arkansongs”