January 18, 2006

Badonkadonk

Occasionally there's some discussion of Jazz music on these pages but I've gotta say that anyone who doesn't listen to country music is missing out on some serious "flyover country philosophy lessons." Take the latest release from Trace Adkins, for example. (Links include sound clips) In 4:01 he explains the subtleties of male motivation in virtually all of life's endeavors, boiling it all down to a single word: badonkadonk.

Now Honey, you can't blame her

For what 'er mama gave her

It ain't right to hate her

For workin' that money-maker

Band shuts down at two

But we're hangin' out till three

We hate to see her go

But love to watch her leave

With that honky tonk badonkadonk

Keepin' perfect rhythm

Make ya wanna swing along

Got it goin' on

Like Donkey Kong

And whoo-wee

Shut my mouth, slap your grandma

There outta be a law

Get the Sheriff on the phone

Lord have mercy, how's she even get them britches on

With that honky tonk badonkadonk


(Ooh, that's what I'm talkin' bout right there, honey)

Pure poetry (except for finding nothing better to rhyme with "goin' on" than "donkey kong.") Trace integrates the individual rational components of this and the other two verses thusly:

That's it, right there boys; that's why we do what we do. It ain't for the money; it ain't for the glory; it ain't for the free whiskey; it's for the badonkadonk.

I can make some more recommendations as well. Off the top of my head...

Songs About Me (same album)
Welcome to Hell (Trace Adkins, Greatest Hits Vol. 1)
The Taliban Song (Toby Keith, Shock'n Y'all)

Real. American. Glorious.

America, F*ck Yeah! Posted by JohnGalt at January 18, 2006 3:47 PM

Don't know Trace (or admittedly much of the "Contemporary Country scene") but you'd be surprised at what the jazzheads around here listen to. For the record, Sugarchuck is an encyclopedia of classic and serious country players, and -- he'll hate my saying this -- an unbelievably awesome country guitar player.

He taught me that Merle Haggard is just jazz with Telecasters and twang, and has turned me on to many many good country songs and performers.

Many guitar players from country are worthy of awe: Chet Atkins and Roy Clark could and did cover a jazz gig and guys like Roy Buchannan and Albert Lee were HUGE influences for me.

MS is crippling my playing pretty bad but I was hoping that my next project would be a jazzy-country thing in the order of Ray Charles and Merle. The second Berkeley Square CD has the Cindy Walker/Eddie Albert "You Don't Know Me" and Brooke and I have an arrangement of "I Fall to Pieces" that I always liked.

And I do appreciate the unabashed patriotism I hear from country artists.

Posted by: jk at January 18, 2006 4:43 PM

There is no better place to be, on a Friday or Saturday night, than on the bandstand, pickin' Merle, in a VFW. I've got lots of quibbles with the Music Row/CMT/Nashville, and I think it would serve us all well if the beancounters and producers spent a little more time on Lower Broadway with the real pickers and singers, but when it comes to singing truth to power, country music gets her done. There is nowhere left in music, other than in country music, for God, Family and Country. Country also makes lots of room for those with blue state sentiments, just not room on the radio. Somewhere, there is a book waiting to be written on politics in country music. IF not a book, maybe a WWF cage match pitting Emmy Lou Harris and the Dixie Chicks against Trace et. al... maybe on pay-per-view.
I might add a cool music update, rumor has it that Aaron Neville and Aretha Franklin with Dr. John on piano, will do the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Is this a great country or what!

Posted by: Sugarchuck at January 19, 2006 9:53 AM

Emmylou on the dark side? Say it ain't so! I have enjoyed her music and never got over a teenage crush on her (now a family genealogist assures me that I'm related to EVERYONE in the US named Harris. Think about it).

I thought I was turning into a Dixie Chicks fan. When Fred (Winifred) dies on Angel, they play "A Place Called Home." As the character was a Dixie Chicks, fan, I assumed it was them. But no, it is Kim Richey (and it is available on iTunes).

Posted by: jk at January 20, 2006 10:59 AM

Red state values indeed, Sugarchuck.

From the aforementioned 'Songs About Me,' when asked by "a guy on the red eye" why he sings stuff "'bout that twang and trains and hillbilly things" he "just looked at him and laughed and said

'Cause they're all songs about me,
And who I am.
Songs about lovin' and livin'
And good hearted women and family and God.
Yeah they're all just songs about me.
Songs about me."

Or another favorite from the same album, 'My Heaven' (clip available on link in main post) that proclaims,

"My heaven is a wood frame house with a great big porch goin' all the way around, Sittin' on the swing, listenin' to the sound of the birds singin'. My heaven is a warm summer day in the back yard, WHile the kids all play, flies and mosquitoes stay away while we're eatin' watermelon. That's my heaven."

Amen!

(Now that's a faith-based song I can get behind, because it celebrates heaven ON EARTH, not in some mythical afterlife.)

Posted by: johngalt at January 21, 2006 11:33 AM | What do you think? [4]