I have never thought of myself as Country. I am a townie. I’m a Yankee. My dad was a college professor and a fifties liberal. My mom is a compassionate, educated woman. When the Shame Train band started to happen I was surprised at how country it came off. The first record has twang from Randal Davis and accordion that is not German or Mexican sounding. There might be country songs on it.
Truth be told, I grew up in an anti-Country household, although we did watch Hee Haw. My dad played the banjo, but I am not certain he ever played it outside of the house.
Country music has a many splendored past. It’s a million anecdotes.
South of the Mason Dixon line, you can sleep in your car year round if you need to and this might seem like an unrelated detail, but if you are touring and playing for the door you might not make enough money for a hotel. If it is ten below you are gonna need some money or some friends.
The weather might not seem that important, but of a thousand bands on a thousand nights in a thousand towns the ones that make it might need an advantage. Success is not a meritocracy. It’s a series of fortunate coincidences. Winter nights have an effect on your fortune.
But I still write what can unequivocally be called a country song from time to time.
A 5.08 mile and a ten dollar bag…
Are what stood between me and a law degree hot wife and a Jag
And the liquor made clear it was knuckle down time
You came to your kind of wealth and I came to mine.
And it’s true what they say, when the cat is away, me and my bretheren’ll find ya and bring a light to your face where the lines of disgrace from six days of work have defined you.
Nothing is lost, but the gains don't appear in the columns of a ledger book kept tidy year after year.
It shoes in my face and the ease of my smile.im the hitch hiker silently winning the argument mile after mile.
And it’s true what they say, when the cat is away, me and my bretheren’ll find ya and bring a light to your face where the lines of disgrace from six days of work have defined you.
Nothing is lost, but the gains don’t appear in the columns of a ledger book kept tidy year after year.
It shoes in my face and the ease of my smile.im the hitch hiker silently winning the argument mile after mile.
I'm the hitch hiker silently winning the argument mile after mile.
If you zoom out it’s all the same song for the same reason that what we call Country is a million anecdotes. It’s all music.
Ryan Bernemann and I recorded this at the onset of what was my favorite version of this band. It was Me and Ryan and Adam Bernemann.
Oversimplification- I love a power trio. I’m not even joking. I love some orchestral boop boop beep beep pop music and Classic rock guitar bands but three people making great music together is big enough and small enough and obvious enough. Nobody even knows Adam Bernemann can sing. I haven’t talked to him in years.
My friend Todd visited from Minneapolis and he brought me Adam’s jacket that he left in Todd’s place 23 years ago. It had pay stubs in the pocket.
Me and Ryan recorded this in his living room in his apartment before he was married before the tornado took out the dairy queen across the street and it became a show standard. It’s simple.
Twang in a hurtin tune that tells a story- Country.
https://youtu.be/S9EsjMb70ek?si=UJjlS4O2ZaZO16xk
BANDCAMP LINK:
https://samknutson.bandcamp.com/album/splendor-3
