"Irreverent" is a word that comes quickly to mind when listening to these tongue-in-cheek interpretations of material by the great country songster Merle Haggard. I don't think Haggard would quite expect these renditions, but he would surely enjoy the spirit of fun and adventure that lifts this session.
This is the band's second album of Merle Haggard covers. Bryan Murray (tenor sax), Jon lrabagon (alto sax), Jon Lundbom (guitar), Moppa Elliott (bass) and Danny Fischer (drums) are joined here by guitar iconoclast Eugene Chadbourne, for whom irreverence is a given. He is the perfect guest to share in the Zappaesque playfulness, which both embraces the vehicles' campiness and parodies it — two birds with one stone, as innuendo and ironic tone reign supreme.
True to the originals, this sounds like rousing barroom music, full of spunk via blustery instrumental fills and twangy endearing vocals that celebrate an aspect of American popular music, grafted onto an avant-guard sensibility. There's also a good dose of turn-on-a-dime arrangements for the horns, albeit happily not textbook by any means. In describing the feel of the music, frenetic is another word that comes to mind. A little like Albert Ayler meets Bob Wills' Texas Playboys on acid. Avant-Country? Is that even a term?
A highlight of this 21st century country music comes with the piercing dissonances of the redneck-anthem "Okie from Muskogee," perhaps Merle's best known tune, which serves to blow the cover on the ridiculous patriotic anti-hippy message — bringing the tune into a deconstructed plane for a modern audience.
Respect for Haggard's work, however, is plainly present throughout, and the commitment to cover Haggard songs says volumes about the high regard these musicians have for the singer-songwriter and his poetic capsules of America in his time. The band's reading of them is, furthermore, a resonant comment on the on-going adventure of America.
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