| Author |
Topic: The Chicks latest CD |
Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 10:33 am |
|
My thanks to David for an excellent post. I'm in complete agreement.
I'm off to Walmart for some Cafe Bustelo (I'm delighted I can still get it while in exile in North Dakota!), and I'll be getting the Chicks' CD at the same time.
RR |
|
|
 |
Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 10:37 am
|
|
I agree with what Dave said about ignoring the politics if the music is happening.
But where does one draw the line? Assuming Charlie Manson's album was any good (which, having heard it, I can assure you it is not,) would you buy it? If the greatest singer/guitarist in the world was a child molester, would you play in his backup band?
Or as in my case, if you were Jewish (as I am) would you play for a Jew-hater who didn't know about you, (or in this case me?)
I've played for singers I didn't agree with politically. I've even played at Republican find raisers, even though I'm a Democrat. But when a singer changed the words of a song to include anti-semetic comments, I quit the band, and when a club owner told me he admired Hitler and showed me his gun and said he's shoot any Jew who walked into his bar, I played out the night, (so as not to attract attention) packed up my gear and left, never to return.
------------------
My web site
|
|
|
|
Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 10:40 am
|
|
b0b, it's true that we are straying a bit from the original topic, but this is a worthwhile dicussion. I hope you keep this thread open.
------------------
My web site
|
|
|
|
Terry Edwards
From:
Florida... livin' on spongecake...
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 10:41 am
|
|
Well Mike, now you went and invoked the H-word.
This thread most certainly will be closed.
Terry |
|
|
|
Eric Jaeger
From:
Oakland, California, USA
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 10:43 am
|
|
(oops. just read Mike's post. Same point)
I have to agree with Dave. Some people's music is inseparable from their politics, and they would be upset if you tried to take them apart (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Merle Haggard, Steve Earle, Utah Phillips...). If you're going to write songs that talk about life other than moon/June, you're going to run into political issues somewhere. That doesn't absolve them from having to make it work AS MUSIC, IMHO, though.
On the other hand, there are white supremacist Nazi metal rock bands I wouldn't even start listen to because of their politics, so perhaps I'm a hypocrite or I don't know where the line is.
So, how is it as music?
-eric[This message was edited by Eric Jaeger on 12 June 2006 at 11:45 AM.] |
|
|
|
Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 11:56 am
|
|
Mike, I would have bailed too.I have never been able to connect with Politics,Ethnicity or Religion on the Bandstand.
still can't.
t
|
|
|
|
David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 12:12 pm
|
|
| Well, Mike is right. You have to draw the line somewhere. I'll play with almost anyone as long as we are playing apolitical music for the music's sake. If someone is playing political music I don't agree with, no, I wont go along with that. Even if it is apolitical music, but for a political event I don't agree with, no, I wont do that. In terms of buying and listening to music by people whose politics I don't like, I guess it depends on how good the music is. When Pete Townsend knocked Abbie Hoffman off the stage at Woodstock, I didn't stop listening to The Who. Wagner's anti-Semitism is distasteful, but his music is still great. So I guess it depends. |
|
|
|
Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 12:18 pm
|
|
Tony, in the case of the club owner, I didn't think he'd actually shoot me if he knew, but I did think, and still do, that I would have been beaten up and my instruments trashed. It was more a matter of self preservation than anything else.
I did work for a while for a staunch conservative, and we argued politics a lot, OFF the banstand, but when we walked on stage, all that was forgotten and we concentrated on making music.
Getting back to the Dixie Chicks, Regardless of how you feel aboyut their politics, their music should be judged on it's own merit. It they make good music, in the long run that's all that matters.
50 years from now, Bush, Clinton, Reagan and whoever wins in 2008 will just be names kids study in school, but people will still be listening to the Dixie Chicks.
And if I'm still alive, I'll still be in lust with Natalie.
------------------
My web site
[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 12 June 2006 at 01:55 PM.] |
|
|
|
Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 2:07 pm
|
|
I like the new album. It strikes me as sort of pop/rock, with a country backbone. I think there are some decent lyrics with outstanding melodies. They put a lot of passion into their music, and I enjoy that.
I think Natalie is a good lead singer, but I would prefer it if the sisters took a couple shots at singing lead.
I can see where someone might think that some of the vocals are "shrill" but it doesn't strike me that way. I think they sing beautiful harmonies.
I try to listen to any CD I can that has Lloyd Maines on it - he is way up there among my favorite musicians, and having met him - he's a really nice guy.
Especially to us that love it so much - music is one of the most powerful forces on this earth. It is not unnatural to connect it to politics if one is trying to get a point across.
That said, I hope that this album is the last of all this "amusical" crap that involves the Dixie Chicks, and that's from both sides of the fence.
I love country music, but like many of us here, even though some fine steelers make their living playing for big name acts, there are only a handful of those acts that get airplay on the so-called "hot country" stations that I like. Most of the country music I listen to could be categorized as "flying under the radar." So I sure don't feel "slammed" by the Dixie
Chicks.
My wife ordered tickets for their Sept. show in Oakland, and I have never seen them play live, so I'm looking forward to it.
I hope Emily Robison plays some dobro, since that is my strongest instrument. NOBODY looks better with a dobro strapped on than Emily! 
------------------
Mark
|
|
|
|
Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 2:29 pm
|
|
| Speaking of which, is she related to the Robison family that plays pedal steel? |
|
|
|
Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 3:02 pm
|
|
Off the top of my head, I would say no.
Emily's husband is Charlie Robinson, Texas singer/songwriter. Charlie's brother Bruce, who is married to country singer Kelly Willis, is my preference of the two brothers.
Bruce penned the Dixie Chicks song "Travelin' Soldier."
------------------
Mark
[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 12 June 2006 at 04:02 PM.] |
|
|
|
ajm
From:
Los Angeles
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 4:36 pm
|
|
"....or some band with an out of control vocalist screaming at the top of his or her lungs while some guitarists on steroids turns on the fuzz box, cranks the amp up to 11, and plays the 3,000 notes per second?"
Mike: Which country band are you referring to here?
------------------
Artie McEwan
|
|
|
|
b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
|
Posted 12 Jun 2006 4:36 pm
|
|
| Looks like it's no longer about the Dixie Chicks music. Closed. |
|
|
|
