| Van Go | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | The Beat Farmers |
| Cover: | Van Go (album).jpg |
| Released: | 1986 |
| Studio: | Indigo Ranch, Malibu, CA |
| Genre: | Rock, country rock |
| Label: | Curb/MCA |
| Producer: | Craig Leon |
| Prev Title: | Glad 'N' Greasy |
| Prev Year: | 1986 |
| Next Title: | The Pursuit of Happiness |
| Next Year: | 1987 |
Van Go is the second album by the American rock band the Beat Farmers, released in 1986.[1] [2] It was the band's first album for Curb Records.[3]
The album peaked at No. 135 on the Billboard 200.[4]
The guitarist Buddy Blue left the band during the recording sessions for Van Go; he was replaced by Joey Harris.[5] [6] The album was produced by Craig Leon.[7] Beat Farmers drummer Country Dick Montana later described the album as having "'more of an AOR sound.'"[8] Many of the songs are about cars and transportation.
The Washington Post wrote that the Beat Farmers "sing about the barroom world of retooled cars, busted marriages and dead-end jobs... The band is as capable of irony as [Lou] Reed or [Neil] Young, but the Beat Farmers never allow it to interfere with their back-to-back basics attack."[9] Robert Christgau thought that "except for the deadpan 'Gun Sale at the Church' and maybe the Johnny Cash impressions, their country-rock is now proudly generic."
Trouser Press called the album "amiable but rather thin."[10] The Toronto Star opined that the "best thing about the Beat Farmers is that they make no outrageous claims for themselves; their music is honest and earthy, but it doesn't pretend to defend the dignity of the working man, free enterprise, the American Way."[11]
AllMusic praised the "amazing cover of Neil Young's 'Powderfinger', which sounds like it was written for the band."