Albums
PLANET ROCK 99THOUGH FEW would begrudge the
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line slot at the Ramblin’ Man festival this July,
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the 21st century has largely been a somewhat
younger dude’s game. Atlanta, Georgia’s Blackĥ
berry Smoke and Nashville, Tennessee’s The
Cadillac Three are among those who have shown
that The South can rise again, and in a climate
recently tarnished by Kid Rock’s rather suspect
rant about Oprah Winfrey, they’ve been a very
welcome alternative.
Listening to The Cadillac Three’s latest, you might even assert that
they’re now doing as much to promote the Deep South as tourist
boards from Little Rock to Jacksonville. Seemingly the result of some
algorithm isolating all that’s feelgood about Southern rock, Country
Fuzz presents a neat fantasy of Southern rocker existence; it’s a world
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ply of chilled booze, and more Daisy Duke lookalikes than a Dukes Of
Hazzard convention. “Chuggin’ that cold beer/Lovin’ that hot girl/Livĥ
in’ that slow life/In a real fast world,” sings Jaren Johnston on the ironĥ
ically titled Hard Out Here, one of this album’s many earworms. “It’s a
helluva job/But somebody’s gotta do it.”
As you’ve probably already realised, that retooling we mentioned
earlier is fairly subtle here. Indeed, if ever there was an album that
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El Camino bring a new funkiness to the trio’s sound, even if it’s the
funk of Ram Jam’s Black Betty, say, rather than that of James Brown’s
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Something else that distinguishes The Cadillac Three’s Southern
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rock and pop wearing a stetson in the early ’90s, so too The Cadillac
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gether that tips the hat to Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard as well as
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booze advertisement in disguise titled Jack
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heart?/Did they make that brown liquor so
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The South can rise
again with a band who
mean business...
”
band might be touting for outside help with their
mission, and Country FuzzDOVRSDFNVÀDJUDQW
plugs for Coors beer and Marlboro cigarettes. We
sold our souls for rock’n’roll? Maybe. But what’s a
listener to do when the deal brokered at the
crossroads sounds this good?
There are 16 songs here, but given that all the
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Raise Hell would nestle down rather nicely on
the O Brother ,Where Art Thou? soundtrack, while
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adding yet another twist to the band’s Southern
rock roots. “You come into the world with your
own tattoo/But nobody want to be labelled,”
sings Johnstone at one point, adding: “I wonder
what you see when you look at me?”
Well, what this writer sees is a gifted and
commercially astute frontman. And if the lyriĥ
cal wordplay on Country Fuzz is sometimes
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shouldn’t be too surprised. This, after all, is the
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Somebody From Somewhere, the title track of
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith’s debut solo album;
the same Jaren Johnston who has written
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Tim McGraw and Keith Urban.
It’s telling, too, that Country Fuzz isn’t just
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fourth album’s more diverse sound, but also,
we’re told, the brand name of their upcoming
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already in bed with it and doing the dirty,
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mean business.
Only a fool would bet against them now.BEST TRACKS: Crackin’ Cold Ones With The
Boys, Dirt Road Nights, All The Makin’s, LabelsTRACKS
Bar Round Here
The Jam
Hard Out Here
Slow Rollin’
All The Makin’s
Crackin’ Cold Ones
With The Boys
Labels
Raise Hell
Back Home
Dirt Road Nights
Blue El Camino
Jack Daniels’ Heart
Why Ya Gotta Go
Out Like That
Heat
Whiskey And Smoke
Long After Last CallBY JAMES MCNAIRTHE CADILLAC THREE
Country Fuzz
BIG MACHINE++++
ILLUSTRATION
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