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Friday, November 21, 2008
The good, the bad and the country
Posted by Lorna Bracewell on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:49 PM
When I give an interview, 9 times out of 10 I am asked the same litany of inane questions. The one I dread the most (even more than the completely irrelevant "How old are you?") is this one: "Who are your biggest influences?" There are a lot of reasons I don't like this question: It's overly broad, it takes for granted that my "biggest influences" are "whos" rather than whats or whens and it assumes, quite dubiously, that whatever my influences are, I am consciously aware of them. These are all perfectly legitimate reasons for loathing this question, but they don't tell the whole story.
The truth is I can't stand being asked about my influences because, by general critical consensus, my influences are pretty lame. Take, for instance, my biggest influence, country music. I love it. And I'm not talking about the country that even hipsters like you CL readers can stomach. I'm talking about the uber twangy stuff that most people in my socio-cultural demographic dismiss as maudlin, cliché, trite and unforgivably corny; the songs about how the corn fed boys from my map dot can out work, out fight and out drink the soft handed sissies from your urban center; the songs with titles like "Where I Come From" and "Where the Green Grass Grows."
Don't get me wrong. Some of this music is hopelessly bad, but some of it kicks and spits on the door of greatness. I'm devoting this blog to separating the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats and any other biblically tinged agricultural metaphor for good from any other biblically tinged agricultural metaphor for bad that you can think of. Here it is: The good, the bad and the country according to me.
We'll start with what I consider to be one of the genre's worst songs, Chicken Fried by the Zac Brwon Band. It's the kind of song that gives country music a bad name. If it were up to me, I'd add it to the Kyoto Treaty's list of banned air pollutants. (It is currently #22 on Billboard's Hot 100. Goes to show you how much I know.) For those of you who haven't had the misfortune of hearing it, it's a musical knock off of Black Water (the Doobie Brother's classic, not the private security firm). Lyrically, it is little more than a series of down home-esque clichés whose only apparent organizational scheme is rhyme. Here's an example from the last verse:
"Thank God for my life / And for the stars and stripes / May freedom forever fly / Let it ring / Salute the ones who died / The ones that give their lives / So we don't have to sacrifice / The things we love / Like our chicken fried..."
Now, I'm as big a patriot as the next gal and that is exactly why I demand that the heroism of our men and women in uniform be extolled with craft and eloquence. Is fried chicken really the most suitable metaphor for all that is America that Zac Brown and his band can muster? Please.
Jason Michael Carroll's latest single Where I'm From is guilty of similar lyrical sins. It's as cliché as a $0.99 greeting card. Here's Carroll's description of his titular hometown:
"Where the quarterback dates the homecoming queen / The trucks a Ford and the tractor's green / And Amazing Grace is what we sing / Where moms and dads were high school flames / who gave their kids grandmother's maiden name..."
These well worn metaphors are truly abysmal, but they're not the ultimate reason for the song's failure. Where I'm From (and countless other songs just like it) fizzles because it obscures the very America it purports to describe. It may not go as far as collapsing the whole thing into fried chicken, but it does reduce the greatness and grittiness of small town American life to a truck and tractor brand and visions of sexuality and the family sanitized to the point of fairytale. Some of us may wish we were, but no one is actually from the place Carroll is singing about.
I could sit here and rattle off examples of really bad country songs until boots go out of style, but there's no need for that. I'm sure you already have a list all your own and I'm here to vindicate the genre, right? Let's move on to the good stuff.
The best country songs don't romanticize or simplify life in America's hinterland. They paint the whole picture in all its tragic, beautiful glory. My Town by Montgomery Gentry is ostensibly the same kind of song as Chicken Fried and Where I'm from - it is about the same sorts of places and engages the same familiar themes - but it has much more in common with a song like Springsteen's The River. The verses flesh out the sad history shared by countless small farming communities across America and warrant a thorough listen, but the chorus is enough to make my point:
"Where I was born, where I was raised / Where I keep all my yesterdays / Where I ran off cause I got mad / And it came to blows with my old man / Where I came back to settle down / Where they'll put me in the ground / This is my town"
There is no comparison between the town of My Town and the town of Where I'm from. In My Town innocence gets irretrievably lost, families fight and forgive, people die and time marches on. This is country songwriting at its best.
Brooks and Dunn's Red Dirt Road and Kenny Chesney's Back Where I Come from are two more shining examples of all that country music can and should be. These songs sport some of the best couplets to ever come out of the song mills of Nashville. First, Brooks and Dunn, then Mr. Chesney:
"It's where I drank my first beer, where I found Jesus / Where I wrecked my first car. I tore it all to pieces...""We learned in Sunday school who made the sun shine through / I know who made the moonshine too / back where I come from..."
These lines don't peddle some cheap conservative fantasy of a picture perfect and monolithic America. They remind us that this country, from the shot gun shacks of Appalachia to the high rises of Manhattan to the suburban sprawl of everywhere in between, is full of hypocrites and heroes, fuck ups and fortunates, hard times and happy endings. "There's life at both ends of that red dirt road" is more than just an awesome hook. It's the God's honest truth and that's what great country music is all about.
Comments (58)
Showing 1-50 of 58
How about the not so cliche, research before you blog. If you would take some time, you could easily realize that Jason Michael Carroll didn't write that song, so I wouldn't call that a description of his home town. I'm sure there are other mistakes, but I didn't take the time to read anymore.
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Stock answer: "Matlach" Just remember that no one reads at your level. You cant expect a reporter to write at it.
You know, there are decaf brands that taste just as good. Lorna's not a reporter; she's a damn fine musician. The burning question of who wrote "Where I'm From" up against who recorded it recently isn't incredibly relevant to the point she was trying to make. Thank God you didn't take time to read more.
thanks for having my back banchu. It is nice to know someone took the time to read the dern thing. I promise no more posts over a thousand words!
Great post. Check out my New Nashville fave Miranda Lambert's ballad "Desperation." Not the most poetic lyric, but the expressiveness of her voice is pure country gold. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S81JRJyn-j0 And here she is doing it live, accompanying herself on guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7YIXp_v_o0
I can't believe I wasted my time reading this but I have to respond to the Chicken Fried critique. When bands write songs, they are not trying to make every song they write a lyrical masterpiece. Some songs are just fun and that's what Chicken Fried is and it is now the #1 Country Song in America. As far as the patriotic and heroism remark, why don't you join Zac Brown in Iraq when he's there this month playing for the troops. By the way, Kid Rock was just qouted in Entertainment Weekly saying that Zac Brown is the best he's heard in ages and said he spent all weekend with his son listening to Zac's new album and was blown away. You seem to be in the minority when it comes to this band but to each his own.
chicken fried is a great song because it shows how americans can appreciate the simple things in life and be happy with what they have. the negative response to zac associating the troops sacrifices to simple american pleasures is just what makes the song great and shows that he sees things from a unique perspective. i am currently doing a school report on why the song is special to me and how it relates to my life, and that is what zac is about, putting simple american life in the perspective of others.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter's "I am a Town" might be considered to have gone too far in the other direction from "Chicken Fried", but I've always loved it. It's bittersweet. "I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside stall I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a drawl I'm the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade, where the boys have left their beer cans I am weeds between the graves. "My porches sag and lean with old black men and children Their sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them I am a town."
Michael, Mary-Chapin Carpenter has been one of my biggest inspirations for as long as I can remember. "I am a Town" is one of my favorite songs, country or otherwise, of all time. She is a true master of the craft.
Katherine, I'd love to join Zack Brown and the band over in Iraq but the USO won't have me. (Trust me, my agency has tried.) An open lesbian who opposes the war in Iraq and quotes Karl Marx essays in the liner notes of her records is a pretty tough sell. :)
You want to hear a country artist who is hopelessly bad. Check out Gory Bateson's new Country Christian song "Your Name" at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nINlQjR6az0
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