Saturday, March 25, 2006
For King and Country
Yet more forays on Youtube.
While I was searching for some videos of ZZ Top, this one came up. Of course, the 2 bearded fellows did their usual blues-rock thing with panache, but the other 2 fellows got me curious. Cowboy hats, flame-motif shirts and of course, a Telecaster to complete the whole psycho-billy guitar-slinger look. Naturally, I had to check out these guys who went by the stage name of Brooks and Dunn.
I’m not familiar with today’s country music apart from a disdain for Shania Twain. The impression I got from reading forums (mostly guitar-based) and reviews was that the sounds coming out of Nashville today are a sudden departure from the traditional country sound, to the dismay of many a traditionalist. Criticisms such as inane song-writing, soulless instrumentation and over-production akin to mainstream pop were all leveled at the current country scene. Not very promising.
Which was why I was quite surprised to hear some of the Brooks and Dunn songs and videos. While it’s true that some of them are slickly packaged MTV friendly tunes designed to go down well with a mainstream crowd (one or two of them do remind me of the awful shmuck that I abhor on the radio waves), the rest do have some musical credibility to them. They don’t really stick to the traditional country sound though they do have a pedal-steel player and a fiddler, but if you look at it for what it is it’s actually quite listenable. Some blues boogie-woogie piano sounds and raunchy slide guitar work find their way into Boot Scootin’ Boogie, while Play Something Country brings on the rock side of it, on top of being the soundtrack to a testosterone-laden dream. Even though Ain't Nothing 'Bout You sounds suspiciously like some LeAnn Rimes song, the lyrics make a lot more sense even if they're simple. As long as you leave your expectations of an old-school country band at the door (if you have one), you’ll find something to like. If for nothing else at all, at least for the fact that they're a band actually playing their own instruments in this age of scratchy turntables and electronic noise.
Apart from the abovementioned expedition into the current scene, I also jumped into a time machine back to the 1930s to check out Django Reinhardt, one of the most recognizable names in gypsy jazz. A virtuoso guitar player who did a lot more with his 2 intact left fingers than most people can with 4, he was probably the defining force in the genre. While it’s not exactly a very popular one, it’s nevertheless being carried on by many talented practitioners today such as John Jorgenson, whom I managed to catch in Singapore. It was a mightily impressive performance, being my first time watching such music being played live, though perhaps a better venue could have been chosen. Anywhere other than a loud rock bar with its usual crowd.
I guess sometimes a little bit of exploration is good for the musical self, and by extension the human self. Stepping out of the comfort zone once in a while can be a source of comfort in itself.
While I was searching for some videos of ZZ Top, this one came up. Of course, the 2 bearded fellows did their usual blues-rock thing with panache, but the other 2 fellows got me curious. Cowboy hats, flame-motif shirts and of course, a Telecaster to complete the whole psycho-billy guitar-slinger look. Naturally, I had to check out these guys who went by the stage name of Brooks and Dunn.
I’m not familiar with today’s country music apart from a disdain for Shania Twain. The impression I got from reading forums (mostly guitar-based) and reviews was that the sounds coming out of Nashville today are a sudden departure from the traditional country sound, to the dismay of many a traditionalist. Criticisms such as inane song-writing, soulless instrumentation and over-production akin to mainstream pop were all leveled at the current country scene. Not very promising.
Which was why I was quite surprised to hear some of the Brooks and Dunn songs and videos. While it’s true that some of them are slickly packaged MTV friendly tunes designed to go down well with a mainstream crowd (one or two of them do remind me of the awful shmuck that I abhor on the radio waves), the rest do have some musical credibility to them. They don’t really stick to the traditional country sound though they do have a pedal-steel player and a fiddler, but if you look at it for what it is it’s actually quite listenable. Some blues boogie-woogie piano sounds and raunchy slide guitar work find their way into Boot Scootin’ Boogie, while Play Something Country brings on the rock side of it, on top of being the soundtrack to a testosterone-laden dream. Even though Ain't Nothing 'Bout You sounds suspiciously like some LeAnn Rimes song, the lyrics make a lot more sense even if they're simple. As long as you leave your expectations of an old-school country band at the door (if you have one), you’ll find something to like. If for nothing else at all, at least for the fact that they're a band actually playing their own instruments in this age of scratchy turntables and electronic noise.
Apart from the abovementioned expedition into the current scene, I also jumped into a time machine back to the 1930s to check out Django Reinhardt, one of the most recognizable names in gypsy jazz. A virtuoso guitar player who did a lot more with his 2 intact left fingers than most people can with 4, he was probably the defining force in the genre. While it’s not exactly a very popular one, it’s nevertheless being carried on by many talented practitioners today such as John Jorgenson, whom I managed to catch in Singapore. It was a mightily impressive performance, being my first time watching such music being played live, though perhaps a better venue could have been chosen. Anywhere other than a loud rock bar with its usual crowd.
I guess sometimes a little bit of exploration is good for the musical self, and by extension the human self. Stepping out of the comfort zone once in a while can be a source of comfort in itself.
# posted by BloozeGit @ 12:28 am 
