DVD: Kinky Friedman, "Live from Austin, tx"

/ ARTIST: Kinky Friedman / TITLE: "Live from Austin, tx" / GENRÉ: Musical film / FORMAT: DVD /

A very good friend of mine, like me, a former skinhead and unlike me, a man of great musical skill used to play with a Swedish country band and he usually knows what I like and sometimes comes with a few pointers, like "you might like this".

As he has been talking of Kinky Friedman for ages, I was glad when I found this DVD at the brilliant FolkÅRock record store in Malmö.

Before I had watched this DVD, I had actually never heard his music, but I did know that Kinky is jewish, a loudmouth, highly intelligent and of some musical skill. In other words, a darling of the alt country left wing environment.

Now, though it is true I don't like everything my buddy advices me to listen to, I don't share his love for Faron Young, as for an example, he is guilty of making me check out Townes van Zandt, for which I'm ever grateful. Kinky, I'm sad to say, is another addition to the list of performers I find overrated. Yes, I said it, it's time to start roasting sacred cows.

The music is ok, but nothing special. This show was recorded in the 70's and the appearance of the band is not the only thing flowerchild-hippie-longhair-wanker thing about them, parts of the music is more Woodstock than Muskogee. True, there's a few decent tunes on this disc, mainly the more rock & roll/R&B sounding stuff, but I can't say I particularly like the music.

The thing which really disturbs me with Kinky, though, is not his music, but his lyrics. Some of the tunes try to be funny, but aren't exactly above the level of oi! music's most overrated act, Splodge and some of it tries to be political, but only ends up as a load of crap.

To be honest, I don't see how his lyrics are "alternative" in any way. Now, there are obvious sides to American culture that aren't very nice, but I'm a Swede and it's not up to me to slander the USA, but Kinky is American and if an American wants to criticize his country, it should be his right to do so, but also his duty to present serious criticism. On this, Kinky fails, big time.

Kinky manages to put his childish humor lyrics together with "criticism" of American culture in a way that it neither becomes funny nor serious criticism. He most of all comes across as a middle class intellectual who wants a better society, but ends up blaming the working class instead of the bosses and big government. I don't buy that bullcrap. If you're not working class, got musical and intelligence gifts and want a better world, you ought to make yourself a servant of the people and sing like Woody Guthrie, instead of making fun of the very people that should drive the change.

Nope, Friedman, you don't fool me.

Some of the tunes are musically alright, so I'm not gonna slaughter this DVD totally, but it's actually that bad in my ears that it only gets 34,7% in rate of satisfaction.

DVD: Merle Haggard, "Live from Austin, tx"

/ ARTIST: Merle Haggard / TITLE: "Live from Austin, Tx" / GENRÉ: Musical film / FORMAT: DVD /

It was a bit of a let-down that three of my favorite Hag songs weren't included on this one, namely Branded man, Okie from Muskogee and The fightin' side of me. But Merle is forgiven, cos included is a number of other great tunes, like Workin' man blues.

This DVD captures one of the greatest country music performers of all time (who continues to make great albums to this day) and it captures what is so special about the Hag. He is, as I see it, the missing link between the 1950's-60's Bakersfield sound and the 1960's-70's outlaw sound. He incorporates part of both sounds, the brutal guitars from Bakersfield, as well as the bluesiness of the outlaw scene and lyrically, he is just as credible when he sings about love, as when he sings about a prisoner waiting to be electrocuted.

Another great quality of Haggard's is the fact that he can play his music with a few guitars, bass and drums, as well as with a bigger band, as on this DVD, with strings, piano and saxophone. If the 60's demanded that you played down to the bare essentials and the late 70's got back to bigger bands (this recording is from 1978), Merle does both things just as good. He plays his Workin' man blues just as credibly when he is backed up by his band, as he does when he does it with an acoustic guitar.

But Merle also surprise us by playing the fiddle on a few tracks and does it surprisingly well. Again, we're in for a surprise, as Haggard plays a few western swing numbers, as well as old time feeling country tunes and proper blues.

But even though the musicianship alone makes the Hag one of the greatest country performers of all time, his lyrics is what makes him stand out as unique. No one has captured the daily struggle of the white (not that it matters), protestant (again, not that it matters), blue collar working man (which matters) nor the sentiments of jailbirds like the Hag has. Commies can rant all they want about proletarian culture, but the fact is that none has come as close to describing working class reality like mr Haggard.

New West Recordings should have a lot of credit for publishing these DVDs and this particular DVD is one of the better and is recommended not just to fans of old country, but also to fans of Taylor Swift, if they want to discover what country once was, as well as to fans of music in general, as the Hag is strong enough to appeal to all music lovers.

This is a near perfect DVD. Had my other three fave tunes been included, it would've reached highest rating, but now I give it 95,6% in rate of satisfaction.

Buy this DVD!!!

Willie Nelson, "Live from Austin, Tx"

/ ARTIST: Willie Nelson / TITLE: "Live from Austin, Tx" / GENRÉ: Musical film / FORMAT: DVD /


Much has happened in the world since I last wrote on country music on this blog. For starters, Blake Shelton made his infamous "old farts and jackasses" statement and, very sadly, a legend passed away, none other than George Jones.

The two things can be seen as two sides of the same coin. The old timers are getting old and soon there will be no "old farts" remaining in country music and as the young generation takes other, there will be what Merle Haggard called "too much boogie-woogie" and not much traditional country. Even Dwight Yoakam is getting old.

Anyway, I often say that other people got Joy Division and Morrissey, I've got Buck Owens, but performers like Willie Nelson comes pretty close too.

This DVD/CD is a live recording of Nelson's music, spanning most of his career as it looked when he recorded this in 1990. You got all the faves on it, tunes like On the road again and Always on my mind, as well as some tunes from the start of his career like Crazy.

I've got straight edge and am no big fan of drugs, that goes without saying. Still, I think Willie Nelson, does a good job at singing, with his distinctive voice, whether it's christian music like the tunes on his Troublemaker album or the druggier stuff like his recent duet with rap legend Snoop Dogg, he always delivers.

Anyway, you don't get any open drug propaganda on this vid, but you do get music that breathes of the 70's drug-fuelled music and a couple of "far out" treatments of instruments.

But maybe this is Nelson's grandeur? That he can consume that much ganja and still remain active as a great artist. Artists who consume ganja quite often degenerate and their music becomes intolerable. Not so with Willie Nelson.

Fact is that Willie, despite being a junkie, sounds as good live as on record, something many artists of today can't manage. Over all, the band and Nelson makes a good impression of a bunch of lads and lasses who've enjoyed playing this kind of music and done it for a long time.

On this piece of recording, you also get a duet with Shelby Lynne, whom I hadn't heard before, but who's got a great voice.

I really liked this vid and would recommend it to anyone who likes country music and to fans of Willie Nelson, it's a must-have.

A vid as good as this gets a good review, 81,3% in rate of satisfaction!

Dwight Yoakam, "Live from Austin TX"

This is actually a boxed set of one cd and one dvd of live material from what was once, back in the 1980's, a popular American tv show.

At the moment, I haven't listened to the live cd, only watched and utterly enjoyed the dvd. I'm sure I'll put the cd in my record player one time or another in the future, but at the moment I don't see the point, as it's the same material on the cd as it is on the dvd.

This vid is from a performance given in October 1988. Dwight was still new to the game, though he had released some records and consequently, this vid is full of his 80's hits we all love, groundbreaking as they was when he first came into popularity.

Dwight has a voice quite similar, I think, to Pd Heaton of British 80's pop act The Housemartins, a bit soft, one could say. This means I have trouble hearing his stage talk in between the numbers, but I'm sure he's much more confident belting out his hits than he is talking to people. He's also got those wild dance moves one has come to associate with him.

It is with difficulty one must pick the best tunes on this, cos it's full of lovely ones. I, however, think he made a wise decision in saving two of my faves for the encore, they really are some of the best he's ever sung.

One song that must be mentioned though is the classic Streets of Bakersfield, on which Dwight calls in some support from another country vocalist. I won't tell you whom, but I'm sure you can guess! ;-)

This is a good dvd and I'd recommend it, not just to Dwight's die hard fans, but also to country fans in general and to people into 80's country music in particular, cos he was one of the most important newcomers back in the days and he's still a master musician.

A good, although not perfect vid like this gets 73,7% in rate of satisfaction.

Kris Kristofferson, "Closer to the bone"

I like Kris K, but I don't worship him like some reviewers do.

Sure, mr Kristofferson is beyond doubt one of the best wordsmiths country music has ever fostered and although his voice isn't beautiful, it's distinctive and it "works". Then add the fact that he has a talent for good music too.

On this album, what you get is a bunch of emotional country songs, not necessarily emotional as in crying material, but simply songs investigating various emotions, although there is certainly a few blue tunes too.

Musically, there's not much more than an accoustic guitar on this little darling and Kris comes across sounding a little bit like Johnny Cash did on his last recordings and a little bit like Townes van Zandt, but most of all like himself.

There's a few surprises too, like a song about Sinead O'Connor, didn't see that one coming.

There is not a weak song on this album, but there's also not a really strong standout song, no hammers, just good songs. The fact that this album is just about 30 minutes saves it, cos I couldn't listen any longer to a, by all means good, album, but somewhat repetitive.

This means that I can't give the album a rave review.

78,3% is all it gets in level of satisfaction.