Nate Currin – The Crying Wolf
Back in the 1960s, European popular culture had been completely taken over by American movie stars, rock musicians and all of their choices of fashion. It was common to see French or Italian actors or directors trying to ape what they saw from productions from across the ocean. Serge Gainsbourg may have had Brigitte Bardot by his side and may have turned into a folk hero, but he was also dreaming of lightning-fast Ford Mustangs. Everybody needs some help being themselves, even people as cool as Gainsbourg or Nate Currin.
Everyone also needs a bit of help in trying to become somebody else for a moment. The Americans were acting in much the same way. Pop stars, film directors and those with the power to influence youth culture had studied their European counterparts. They were looking to bring in some of that Euro sophistication, some of the natural cool.
Everyone needs to be someone else before they can be themselves. And even great showmen are reluctant to reveal themselves to others. The country-rock stomp guitar lines of “The Crying Wolf” are packed with clever observations, gags and lyrics that help Currin come to terms with what this world has become. But this ain’t a bitter country-rock tune. Nah, it’s a bar song about finding the self-confidence to walk into The Crying Wolf bar and get up on the stage at the back of it. Everyone needs a bit of a push before they can be who they really are.
The Deltaz – A Little Longer
Where do you go when everyone in the audience can guess your next move? Do you work to outsmart them, or learn to accept the power of expectation? For many minimalist blues-rock bands operating nowadays, groups like The Deltaz, the decision was a simple one – weave some magic around the sounds that audience members have come to expect.
But it’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s a lousy blues band playing in every bar across this world and plodding through the standards with more yawns and than applause by the time that they’re over. The real masters are the ones that can take each cliche and infuse it with enough energy, talent and/or new angles in which to see the problem, that audiences react.
The Deltaz’ “A Little Longer” is a bare-bones blues-rocker. The song is composed with the assumption that everyone who will ever hear this song has heard one like it before. Perfect! That must’ve been exactly the problem that bands like The Black Keys or The White Stripes tried to solve and did. “A Little Longer” plays with your assumption about what the band’s next step will be. It never moves exactly in a straight line and never really strays from the path either. In that, you’ll get the story of the survival of the blues itself.
