Shadric Smith and Friends - Reflections

https://song.space/6j29nc/song/1757779

Walk with me. No, no, we aren't going anywhere in particular, just passing time. You know, i talk a big game, but i try to make it meaningful. You might not agree with me, you might be surprised that you actually do, that's not really my concern. We all have to contemplate our own mortality from time to time, but we should also take some time to chase away those blues. 

We've all had a rough year or so, and it's tempting to try to will the world back to some simpler state of mind, but metaphorically speaking i dug my own grave long before they built fences like America is a gated community and people found any excuse to be as racist and mean as possible. Relax, it's just a metaphor. Not the racism part, that's terribly real and really terrible. I guess what i'm getting at is yes, obviously, you have to take care of yourself so that you can be in a position to help others, but you have to actually go do the helping others part, not just say "i'm doing swell, everybody else can go jump off a cliff." 

Then one day you wake up and feel old. You can't play all night like you used to, you get rusty, you feel like you're all alone with only the internet to keep you connected, but you know what? Your best friends are still there, you're still enjoying what you do, and there's a lot to be said for letting it bounce off you. Not ignoring it by any means, but also not letting the parts that don't involve you rule your life. Tend your own garden, and share the extra with your neighbors. 

I see that look. You're thinking "Bottle hates Country, why are there banjos and pedal steel coming over the intercom?" Simple, this isn't actually Country. This is Roots, modern Americana, and there's a world of difference between Redneck Rock and Americana. You're totally allowed to like the former and i won't say a bad word about you. Not my thing, but to each their own. I just mean Country is a mythology, Americana is something quintessentially mundane. Oof, those eyebrows, they hurt my soul. Mundane is not a bad word at all. You think it means dull or humdrum, but it really means "of this earthly world"; the here and now, reality as we experience it, life as it is not life as we wish it would be. 

Who better to provide the soundtrack of our little meander than people i know? This is Shadric Smith 's latest album, and Kris Karr  plays drums on Route 20. I live in between the old and new versions of it, so we'll raise a toast to wherever we find ourselves at the moment, and enjoy Reflections by Shadric Smith and Friends like there's no tomorrow. Cheers.

https://song.space/6j29nc/song/1757779

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w...
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho...
Read more

J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame

Image
Speaking of New Wave, I just listened to the penultimate J. Geils Band album, Feeze Frame, and it is awesome. You know the title track and Centerfold, but i highly doubt you know the album closer, Piss On The Wall.  It's not even really reviewable, to be honest, it's Freeze Frame, couple songs, Centerfold, couple more songs, and Piss On The Wall. I guess i could rehash what Post-Punk/New Wave New Wave was all about (actual dance club Rock & Roll with quirkily expensive synth leads), but you know The Cars and The Motels and Talking Heads. Believe it or not, the Ramones were considered New Wave rather than Punk in the beginning. Now we'd call them Pop Punk, but the point is that Rock in the late 70s existed on a spectrum from Corporate Cock to Nerdly Neurotic Pocket Protector, and in 1980/81 J. Geils Band said hold my beer, I gotta take a leak, how's this for "radio-friendly, twitchy nerd Rock with huge sing-along choruses?" Freakin' awesome, dude, freak...
Read more