September 24, 2008
Old Crow Medicine Show - Tennessee Pusher
Posted by Brendan McKennedy at September 24, 2008 3:29 PMTennessee Pusher, the new album from acoustic string band Old Crow Medicine Show, is uncompromisingly dull. Its lyrics brim with sanctimony, its tempos are drag-footed, its instrumental performances are uninspired and its vocal takes are ... O.K., let's go ahead and call the vocals "bad." "Bad" is something, anyway; the rest of the album hardly registers.
In press materials preceding the release, producer Don Was describes Old Crow Medicine Show as "The Clash of bluegrass," a characterization that shows a misunderstanding of either The Clash and bluegrass music or of Old Crow Medicine Show. As a description of this record in particular, it's flat ironic. Tennessee Pusher drains Old Crow of everything that had set them apart from this decade's sprawl of new old-timey music acts: their chaos and irreverence, their swaggering anger and boyish sexuality, their urgency and their fun. Lemme repeat: This album is no fun. The few tunes meant to be fun, like the joylessly bawdy "Mary's Kitchen" come across as labored and perfunctory.
Was hasn't much changed the band's studio sound as established by David Rawlings, who produced their last couple of records. They still sound like a tightly gathered circle of acoustic stringed instruments and reedy, close vocal harmonies. On a few tracks, the addition of celebrity drum kit and Hammond organ (manned by well-known session player Jim Keltner and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) manage to signify Folk Rock -- you're supposed think Levon and Garth -- without much distinguishing these tunes from any other on the record.
What's different here is the mood, the best word for which I can think of is "deflated." I imagine that the slower tempos, the cringingly earnest topical lyrics, are meant as a type of maturing, developing, branching out, but it doesn't feel that way. There are no fresh ideas here, and no sense of refinement either. What's mostly felt here is what's missing. And what's missing are any of the breakneck fiddle tunes that once were Old Crow's bread'n'butter. There are no re-imaginings of jug band standards, no gems dug out of obscure blues records and re-contextualized.
What we get instead is "Hotel Motel In Memphis," a hagiographic dirge about Martin Luther King, Jr -- yeah, one of those. ("If you were there you'd swear it was more than a man who died.") We get "Methamphetamine," a song about Southern poverty and drug addiction as subtle as the grill of an F-350. "It's gonna rock you till you're out of a job, it's gonna rock you till you're out on the street ... Methamphetamine!" This is Deeply Concerned topical music, the kind of protesty protest music that Bob Dylan used to roll his eyes at.
And what's more, it's all delivered in tones curiously ... dorky. Yeah, I said dorky. I dislike a phony hillbilly drawl as much as anyone, but there's a diction to this phrasing, an insistence on the Northernness of the vowels, that suggests bow ties to me. It sounds square, uptight, a sort of Kingston Trio effect. But the vocals here sound also hesitant, unsure of the melody -- and often as not, off-key.
Now I can imagine this quavery, high-earnest sound coming across to a fan as fetching, somehow authentic. But when compared to Old Crow's earlier recordings, it just sounds unprofessional to me. Ryan Adams's last few albums have displayed a similar disregard for intonation and similar tendencies toward sloppy phrasing draped over irresolute melodies. So I don't know, maybe I don't get it, maybe that's the new thing, the future of Americana music. I just hope it's not the future of Old Crow Medicine Show.
OCMS' last album, "Big Iron World," was a much slower and mature offering then they had had in the past. It took a few listens for it to grow on me, something no earlier OCMS album had required, but after those listens, "Big Iron World" became one of my most favorite OCMS albums, and one of the best albums of 2007.
There is none of that in the new record. In a word, this new record "bites."
Sigh. I'm looking forward to the *next* OCMS record. When's it coming out?
Posted by: larry at September 24, 2008 5:03 PMBrendan, that is absolutely the best bad review I've read in quite so time!
Brendan, that is absolutely the best bad review I've read in quite some time!
Brendan-that is the best bad review of a disc I've read in a long time!
Posted by: Hal at September 24, 2008 9:15 PMI have to clean that sticky key on my keyboard.
Posted by: Hal at September 24, 2008 9:18 PMWhat's wrong with you?? You obviously DON'T get it. Try listening to it instead of what you want it to be. Your review sucks.
Posted by: Catherine at September 24, 2008 11:08 PMI think Bob Dylan rolled his eyes at critics like you more than he would of another musicians.
Posted by: jake at September 24, 2008 11:13 PMI liked Big Iron World right from the git-go. I wanted to like this one, I really did.
My review sucks, I don't get it. OK, fair enough. But I assure you that I did listen to the album, over and over, for a couple of weeks. And now I never have to listen to it again.
Jake, you're probably right about Bob Dylan. Ah well.
Hal: Thanks, and thanks, and thanks, and thanks!
Posted by: Brendan at September 25, 2008 7:55 AMCatherine, how can an opinion be wrong?
Stick around Brendan-we missed you.
Repeating myself -- I completely agree with Brendan. I'm incredibly disappointed in this album.
Posted by: larry at September 25, 2008 9:16 AMSpot on review - this album is a huge disappointment. It's hard to know what has happened - how on earth did we get from the crazy world of "Tell it to me" ("Now I sniff cocaine, I sniff it in the wind - The doc he says it’ll kill me but he can’t say when") to the sermonizing "Methamphetamine"?
Pleasant enough tunes - but file under what? Easy-listening? I can't imagine this album winning fans in the same way that OCMS or Big Iron World did. It lacks charm, it lacks subtlety, it is over-produced. The highlights are for me every time Willie Watson opens his mouth - but for the rest, I feel like a Springsteen fan who got "Human Touch" instead of "Born to Run" as the third album...
Posted by: John at September 27, 2008 12:08 PMEveryone's entitled to their own opinions. I just hope these opinions aren't formed because what you were expecting didn't fit what actually came out. Sounds like a lot of people are going to be depressed for a while, especially if their next next album dares to be different from OCMS and Big Iron World too! I was a bit surprised by the opinions. Thought more people would be open to a great band exploring diffent ideas and sounds. I know i'd be upset if all 3 albums were basically the same.
Posted by: Andrew at September 29, 2008 2:21 PMYeah but see, they're not exploring anything different on Tennessee Pusher. The only thing really different about it is that it sucks. It's just so flaccid, so poorly executed. As I said in the review, there are no fresh ideas here, and no sense of refinement either; the instrumental performances are uninspired, the songwriting artless and joyless, and the vocals plain shitty. As far as arrangements, pretty much all the "different" ground covered on Tennessee Pusher was already broken, with real verve and wit and *solid vocal takes*, on Big Iron World.
Tennessee Pusher plays to none of Old Crow's strengths and manages to emphasize all of their weaknesses. The last two albums didn't do that. So yeah, I guess I wish this album were more like those last 2, at least in that respect.
Also, I'm sort of with you on the idea of reviewing what's there rather than comparing to expectations ... but on the other hand, whence this law of criticism that says you shouldn't account for expectations in an opinion? I mean, why is comparing to expectations not a legitimate angle by which to approach an album? There are a dozens reviews of this record on the web that think it's a watershed for the band and for Americana music. I took a different tack is all.
Posted by: Brendan at September 30, 2008 10:24 AMI know that the version of Caroline included on this record (the rest of which I have yet to hear) will be right at home on CMT.
Posted by: Robert at September 30, 2008 6:29 PMI know that the version of Caroline included on this record (the rest of which I have yet to hear) will be right at home on CMT. (And no, this is not a compliment.)
Posted by: Robert at September 30, 2008 6:29 PMGot to agree with the review for the most part. However, I also think that OCMS was trying to break new ground and not make another string band record. They just weren't that successful. Some of the lyrics do seem forced to me and the instrumentals seem to have lost a lot of vitality. Sad to say, but maybe this one is just a place holder record and the next one will be great with a re-invented Old Crow.
Posted by: Eli at October 2, 2008 9:20 AMI think the review is unduly harsh. Every Old Crow collection thus far (this is # 6 including out of print Greetings from wawa ) explores different territory. They aren't interested in repeating themselves. No this is not their best work, but there are some great songs here- Greatest Hustler, Next Time Around, Caroline, Mary's Kitchen, Lift him Up. Funny how they have moved on from their fascination with Cocaine to Meth! I hear their next collection will feature songs about Huffing household industrial products!:)
Posted by: dan at October 5, 2008 12:06 AMI haven’t heard the whole thing but I have heard a couple of tracks and I am totally disappointed. It seems if they have been moving closer and closer to this sound though. Greetings from Wawa is incredible because it is so unrefined. It's dirty and slightly out of time and out of tune but that’s the beauty of it. It had the qualities of Roscoe Holcomb but with a double shot of energy. Troubles up and down the road was an incredible mix of Memphis Jug Band with country. Eutaw was a slightly bluegrassy bit mixed with their former sounds. Then O.C.M.S. was a culmination of all these sounds. Big Iron World took it a step further by adding an old country sound to the mix. What the hell is Tennessee Pusher? It's overproduction and misguided evolution. I hope this was just a misstep. I hate Nashville and what it stands for musically (I know T.P. was produced in Hollywood but it’s still a product of Nashville). F#@K CMT and the pop country, music industry who’s only interested in money. Nashville does this, I know, I live there.
btw good review, though i am still going to buy the thing if not just to have it.
Posted by: preston at October 10, 2008 12:29 PMThis review is spot-on. The album is awful, the only saving grace would be for the band to apologize and promise to do better next time. "Motel in Memphis" is uber-painful. I felt like I was walking in knee-deep mud for an hour.
Posted by: Scott Hudson at October 10, 2008 10:46 PMAgree 100%. It's still better than most of whats out there IMO. Just not what I expected from OCMS. The lame album cover should have been a giveaway right?
Posted by: Joe at October 21, 2008 12:40 AMWow I am amazed at the unbelievably stong feelings for this band i never heard of until yesterday. Sorry but i live in the land of heavy metal and southern rock. Every now and then though i get a hankerin' for some outlaw country on Sirius Sattalite Radio. Last night as I was driving home from a day of deer hunting I heard Tennesse Pusher.....it gave me the chills you only get when something reaches in an touches your very core. Like the scent of cool fall air that takes you bak 20 years to those friday nights on the high school gridiron or a warm summer breeze that brings back back feeling of that first girl you ever loved. This song brought a feeling like that out in me and I have never even heard OCMS until I looked em up on Google this morning. I think the one poster summed it up perfectly, you people wanted to write and perform this album for them so it sounded just like you wanted it too, but instead the band made the album they wanted and it didnt fit the preconceived notion that you had for it. All I can say is they have one new fan, and I cant wait to hear some more!
Posted by: brian at November 9, 2008 7:56 AM
