Girls, Guns, and Glory is that cocktail, and tasty (not to mention high octane) it is. The inspiration was traditional country music, enforced by the lack of anything else to listen to, until all of a sudden everything clicked:
Yeah, you could do worse than that. A lot worse. I relate to this, because I myself gravitated back to Country music when I decided I didn't like anything else that was on the radio, and then discovered all sorts of great music that I'd missed out on for thirty years:
“What initially got me listening to country was a lack of anything else,” [lead singer Ward Hayden] said, taking a break from the road for a Waffle house fuel-up and a phone interview. “I had an old car (an Oldsmobile Delta 88), and it only had a cassette player, so my only option was to listen to my mom’s old country tapes, so I borrowed those. And it was like lightning had struck.
“It was ‘Don’t Take Your Guns to Town,’ by Johnny Cash, and I couldn’t believe it. It knocked me for a loop that music like that existed, and for 20 years I’d never found it. I remember sitting in the parking lot and listening to it, missing the bus to go to class because I couldn’t peel myself away.”
“In the Northeast, we get that all the time - people can’t believe we’re from Boston, and the follow-up question is always, ‘What are you doing playing anything that has to do with country music?’” Hayden said. “But we’re hugely appreciative of music that came out of the 1940s and ’50s, and so much of that has overtones of country music. Look at Patsy Cline - at that time, she was definitely a pop star, but that’s real country music. Something we’ve tried to do is blur the lines a little bit.Great old music inspiring a new generation to tip the hat to honest music. You don't find that every day - maybe especially in the "New Nashville" - but you find it in Boston. They might even say something like It's a wicked pissah, y'all.
“We are from the North, and we certainly didn’t go to school and have any country music around us, but it came into our lives, and we really appreciate it. We’ve really fallen in love with the honesty that a lot of great country music and classic country music has. You don’t find that in every genre, but there’s an abundance of it in the old country stuff.”
Sweet.
667 (Songwriter: Ward Hayden)
You don’t need to go to prison, to rot inside this worldPicture, video, and lyrics pulled from the band's web site, which is entirely blogger-friendly. And since they've made it so easy, let me post this announcement for readers in New England (*cough* Weer'd Beard *cough*):
Don’t need no ones opinion, I know you’re a pretty girl
So, go get my pistol, gonna try and shoot the moon
With a couple songs on heartache and one called “Soft Raccoon”
I forgot to say “I love you”
I forgot to call
Forgot to say when I got back home
When I went out I had a ball
And I forgot that I was sorry, for all the things I’d done
Forgot not to do ‘em again, I’ve got to have my fun
Oh, you don’t need to tell me, what I’m doing’s wrong
Be careful what you say to me, I’ll put it in a song
Don’t go tellin’ stories to all your little friends
I’ll bait that hook, you little fish
I know you’ll bite again!
Hell hounds and worry, are catching up to you fast
Hell hath no fury, like a woman who’s love you can’t give back
Whoo, Six-Sixty-Six, I’m at Six-Six-Seven
Right next door to hell is a long way from heaven
She pulled me close, kissed me hard
I know right then that’s the devil, my god
Oh, baby….nothing, but love for you
And you don’t need to go to prison, to rot inside this world
Don’t need no ones opinion, I know you’re a pretty girl
So, go get my pistol, gonna try to shoot the moon
With a couple songs on heartache and one called “Soft Raccoon”
I forgot to say “I love you”
I forgot to call
Forgot to say when I got back home
When I went out I had a ball!
Actually, it does sound like a wicked pissah.
March 26, Girls Guns & Glory will be returning to their hometown for a show at Johnny D’s in Somerville, MA.
We are looking forward to this show like a 5 year old the night before Christmas. We know something big is coming, it might not be a sled pulled by reindeer, but it’s definitely something full of pleasant surprises.
So be sure to mark this date, post it on your fridge, write it in the steam on your bathroom mirror and scribble it on your hand every day until March 26 arrives.
And be sure to spread the word, get your friends on board and have them bring along some of their wicked good buddies. GGG will be returning, fresh off a trip to Austin, TX for SXSW, and we want to keep the party going!!
What does it take for a local country band to win "Act of the Year" at the 2008 Boston Music Awards? It seems that if you take one part early Johnny Cash, add one part Chuck Berry, and garnish with a hint of yodeling, you've got the cocktail.
ReplyDeleteColor me unsurprised, since both Berry and the Man In Black drew their original inspiration from age-old country music sounds.
I've been getting into country recently. It started, weirdly enough, with the remake of Dawn of the Dead, which had Johnny Cash on the soundtrack.
ReplyDeleteBoston recently (~1-2 years back) got a country station, which is a nice alternative.
Speaking of which, my personal version of "When the Man Comes Around" is now good enough that people can figure out which song I'm horribly butchering! ;-)