Answer: You get your dog back, your truck back, your wife back...
Of course, the pleasures of country needn't all be relegated to the fields of gloom and doom (erm ... right). Some of the most bumptuous, infectious music I enjoy falls within the country format, most notably the rock-a-hillbilly stylings of BR5-49. These guys are capable of "wistful", but mostly they're intent on keeping the honky-tonk hoppin'.BR5-49 ("Junior Samples'ever-flubbed phone number on Hee-Haw", according to the website) got its start playing in the window of Nashville's bar/bootery Robert’s Western World. The band payment at the time was to take home whatever fell into the "Tips" pickle jar, and BR5-49 did well for themselves.
If you give their first album (my personal fave) a spin, you'll quickly figure out why. The solos and fills aren't the most technically demanding in the genre, but they're clean and rambunctious. You don't have to see the band to actually see the band having fun: you might not know who Gary Bennett, Don Herron, Chuck Mead, Smilin' Jay McDowell and "Hawk" Shaw Wilson are, but you know their heads are bobbing along as they pull one terrific riff after another out of their instruments.
Just the tonic for chasing away the blues. Pick up that phone, and dial now...
2 comments:
I find I can chase the blues away by revelling in them. You must have Neko Case's The Tigers Have Spoken, right?
I haven't, even though it sounds like just the ticket to me. I bought her last two albums, and even though I think her singing is incredible, something about the arrangements just left me feeling a little cool toward them. I suspect she's a real ball of fire on stage, though. This album ought to be up my alley.
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