RJ Silver and Art Of Dysfunction Reviewed
RJ Silver – Playing the Cards I’m Dealt
Cynics never have to look hard for ways to insult things that other people genuinely and earnestly love. The trick, of course, is to just say the most obvious thing that you can while ignoring any complexities or effort required to understand something properly.
Don’t believe me? Let me show you! Heavy metal music? A bunch of people screaming about how they’re just mad at their parents. Dance music? A bunch of simple beats meant to make people move and forget about the real issues. Folk music? Boring bards telling stories over acoustic guitar chords.
How about the blues? Well, the blues is the music of the people and the origin of most pop music. But if you were one of those cynics, you could always say that it’s just music for complaining about how hard life is.
“Always?” RJ Silver is happy to play the exception. In fact, “Playing the Cards I’m Dealt” is the rare “happy blues,” a real, albeit rare find. It’s a song where the lead guitars get the focus that they deserve, but where the lyrics are a series of plays on words about making the best of any situation. And, boom, the Cliche Police has no authority left!
Art Of Dysfunction – Scumbag Rock N’ Roller
It’s a good thing that people are confused about what a modern musician does. It’s the one way that I’ve avoided ridicule among old acquaintances who imagine that little old me is living a life of debauchery, fortunes spent and lack of consequences.
It sure beats having them see the truth. There’s no way to make the fact that modern musicians spend money out of their pocket to do what they want sound good.
And, when you’re sweating through your leather jacket trying to get guitar cases and amps in and out of an old van where the steering isn’t working properly, there’s no way of making it sound glamorous.
But that’s the point, isn’t it? Art Of Dysfunction’s “Scumbag Rock N’ Roller” is a dirty, gritty, funny blues-rock song about chasing the dream for the right reasons even if regular people fail to recognise what those are. This is a song with all the passion of bluesy AC/DC and, like most modern musicians, little of the similarly handsome financial rewards.
