Mike & The Moonpies Join with John Baumann to Counter Claims That “Country Music’s Dead”
When you come across someone making traditional country music for a living, you know they’re not focused on fame and treasure. If they were, the joke’s on them. If anything they must be a glutton for punishment. But when you have a passion that can’t be quenched by compromise, it’s better to scrape by doing what you love than succeeding at what you hate.
Many will tell you that true country music is dead. Then all the more reason to rise to the cause and help bring it back. What fun is it taking the easy way out, writing Bro-Country clichés that you know will sell, and leaving your true passions behind? The best things in life worth doing are the ones where the rewards come hard, and the goal is something bigger than yourself.
Austin, TX’s Mike and the Moonpies are quickly becoming the group with one of the most anticipated releases of 2018 with Steak Night at the Prairie Rose arriving February 2nd. John Baumann (also of Austin) released a really superb, under-the-radar record Proving Grounds earlier this year.
Their collaborative effort “Country Music’s Dead” is not meant to be a statement of fact or an affirmation to forlorn country music fans. It’s a devil may care attitude disregarding what might be trendy, because they’re going to do whatever the hell they want to do anyway, which is make true country music, regardless of the hardship or popularity it may bring. “This song is about being yourself and staying in your lane,” says Mike Harmeier of Mike and the Moonpies. “I think [John] Baumann, [producer] Adam [Odor] and myself all know exactly who we are and what we love to do and will pursue that end no matter the cost.”
And what good would a song be with such and important message if it wasn’t slathered in steel guitar and driven by a thumping beat? “Country Music’s Dead” gets your fist pumping from the message, and your blood pumping from the music. Waylon-esque, if you will. And it’s a one-off affair written a few months after The Moonpies finished up Steak Night at the Prairie Rose, so no reason to wait around to purchase it or put it in your streaming playlist.
“This song came from the need to fan the creative fire and create something with Adam [Odor] again,” explains Harmeier. “We wanted to make a statement about how real country records are still being made and how the bands making that music can still be found playing to ten people in some dive bar. The real deal is still out there, you just have to look for it and support it.”
Phil
December 2, 2017 @ 11:26 am
Saying, “Country music is dead” seems to put much of the onus on artists (or the lack thereof).
Saying, “Country music is alive yet struggling” puts responsibility on the industry, but even more squarely on the fans.
Count me in the latter camp.
Go see some live music tonight! Buy records for Christmas gifts! Support real art.
Megan
December 2, 2017 @ 2:46 pm
I like this. Is it just me, or do the verses melodically remind anyone else of “Okie from Muskogee?” Also, that John Baumann record is brilliant.
DJ
December 2, 2017 @ 3:37 pm
I couldn’t hear the voice for the music, so, I went to you tube to make a comparison with some other songs. Couldn’t hear the voice for the music. Pulled up a Waylon song just to check. I can hear Waylon’s voice. Might be a clue here.
Corncaster
December 2, 2017 @ 4:45 pm
Yeah, but that track is hot in every respect. Ripping steel, pocket drums and bass, flanged guitar, and the drums really stand out, especially with the cymbal work. Hammond is stone cold. I like this a lot, but you’re right. You know, what is it with all these guys in different bands playing their asses off, but all disconnected from each other? If all these guys and gals got together in like some alternate Studio B universe, with Marty Stuart and Dave Cobb and all the rest of them (you fill in the rest), there’d be collaborations that would be so super-fantastic, the whole world would say hallelujah.
Get these damn people together! Work together!
HayesCarll23
December 2, 2017 @ 11:09 pm
You bug me.
And I think you have a difficult time with women.
Corncaster
December 3, 2017 @ 8:08 am
lol, lighten up
Corncaster
December 2, 2017 @ 4:50 pm
Hey, is that Jeremy Long on steel? He’s a great player, played on the Sam Outlaw records. Jon Graboff on the Zeph Ohora records is another one. Before I near snickers, all you snotty Texas boys ought to know that steel came from up here in the cornfields: Elmer Hobar, Buddy Emmons, Paul Franklin, Herb Remington, even Dave Biller (Austin, TX, Wayne Hancock etc.) is from Michigan City!
UNITE
DJ
December 2, 2017 @ 7:34 pm
Not trying to be an ass :), and not that it makes any difference to me, but, when I was a kid they were called Hawaiian guitars. I had an uncle who played one in Texas Honky Tonks.
It is widely reported that the lap steel guitar was invented by a man named Joseph Kekuku in 1885.[1][2][3][4] It is said that, at the age of 7, Kekuku was walking along a railroad track and picked up a metal bolt, slid the metal along the strings of his guitar and was intrigued by the sound.[4] He taught himself to play using this method with the back of a knife blade. Various other people have also been credited with the innovation.[5] The instrument became a major fad in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. The instrument became especially popular in Hawaii, as musicians played in tent-rep shows.[6]
It was electrified in the early 1930s, and in 1932 the first production electric guitar was introduced, the aluminum Ro-Pat-In (later Rickenbacker) A22 “Frying Pan” lap steel. This made the so-called “Hawaiian” guitar the first electric stringed instrument (just a few years before Les Paul and Charlie Christian modified their instruments and after the theremin was patented in 1928). The earliest documented performance with an electrically amplified guitar was in 1932, by Gage Brewer. The Wichita, Kansas-based musician had an electric Hawaiian A-25 (frypan, lap-steel) and a standard electric Spanish from George Beauchamp of Los Angeles, California. Brewer publicized his new instruments in an article in the Wichita Beacon of October 2, 1932 and through performances that month. The first electric instrument on a commercial recording was made and played in 1935 by Bob Dunn, a musician in Houston, Texas who played in the Western swing band Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies. Dunn owned a music store that bore his name in the Houston area.
The lap steel, dobro and pedal steel guitar are associated most closely with Hawaiian music, country music and bluegrass, though some players have used them in rock music, jazz, blues, and other musical genres. The round neck, metal-bodied resonator guitar is used almost exclusively by blues, rock, or blues-rock musicians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_steel_guitar
Corncaster
December 2, 2017 @ 9:24 pm
oh I know, I’m just representin’
eckiezZ
December 3, 2017 @ 12:54 am
honestly, it’s not even the people who hate Country.
it’s the traditionalists who believe that “real Country” music stopped being made around the ’80’s.
moreso than in any other genre of music, Country music has the most unadventurous, closed-minded, stubborn listeners.
people so suspicious of anything new or unfamiliar. they pre-judge it, assume they won’t like it, so they don’t give it a chance.
but you know, i guess that’s to be expected.
still sad though.
DJ
December 3, 2017 @ 8:00 am
Sign me up, but never assume you know why I think the way I do. Real country music is self descriptive and doesn’t need an arbiter to tell everyone listening it is. Don’t forget personal preference either. Until further notice this is called the right to choose, or prejudge, or what ever the listener determines unless or until that causes harm to person or property. Trying to force, shame or coerce is unacceptable. Honestly.
Honky
December 3, 2017 @ 11:55 am
It’s not that I don’t like Waylon, but I’m about as sick of all things “outlaw”, as I am of bro-cuntry.
I’m tired of every “traditionalist” coming out with Waylon-esque beats. I want to hear some Price-esque beats, or some Bush-esque beats, or some Tubb-esque beats, or some Owens-esque beats.
I’ll be a lot happier when all these millennials get the f**k over Waylon and Willie, and discover that Country Music was invented prior to 1972.
Trigger
December 3, 2017 @ 1:26 pm
…yet when Zephaniah OHora and Country Side of Harmonica Sam deliver on these things, they’re hipsters to you.
Honky
December 3, 2017 @ 2:39 pm
Are you contending that those folks aren’t hipsters?
Corncaster
December 3, 2017 @ 4:36 pm
Hipsters can’t play with big boys and don’t have deep love and knowledge. Hipsters are nil skill posers. Not true of those Brooklyn players. I’d say they’re traditionalists, plain and simple. Let ’em in.
Trainwreck92
December 3, 2017 @ 3:58 pm
A-fucking-men. Either they’re hipsters, or phonies, or not really from the South. It can’t be that they’re just talented people that have genuine love and appreciation of the art form.
Honky
December 4, 2017 @ 7:24 am
Again, is your contention that they are not hipsters and phonies, or are you saying you like them despite that.
Everybody on here ignores me when I say I like something, and instead focus on what I don’t.
I’ve stated that I was extremely impressed with Tyler Childers, who is neither hipster or phony.
I also like WMM and Mo Pitney, who are Country with modern sensibilities, and not purposefully trying to be retro.
Trainwreck92
December 4, 2017 @ 11:49 am
I guess my contention is that hipster or not, if they make good, classic sounding country, I’m not going to complain. You could make the case that a guy like Robert Ellis is a hipster, but his debut record “Photographs” is full of excellent 1950s-1960s style country music like this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ZGJWbSsjI
Maybe you’d like The Cactus Blossoms, straight-laced classic country, with no frills, played by guys that don’t seem to be too “hipstery” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ac8yFIife0
Corncaster
December 4, 2017 @ 1:38 pm
My contention is that O’Hora is not a hipster or a phony. He’s a traditionalist who isn’t from your part of the country. The musicians on that record are deeply schooled in that tradition. Have you heard it?
Mike W.
December 4, 2017 @ 3:22 pm
To each their own, but everything about William Michael Morgan screams “remember George Strait?” to me. I like William Michael Morgan and maybe some day he will cut an album that comes close to some of the winners King George has cut, but I’m not sure I would classify him as not trying to be “retro”. I have yet to do a deep dive into William Michael Morgan, but the PR and Music Video stuff that has been out by his label about him have very clearly tried to call back to the 80/90’s “hat act” era.
He might be less overt about it than O’Hara or Ellis or some of the other artists, but it is definitely there if you look close enough IMO.
Jtrpdx
December 3, 2017 @ 9:00 pm
All this laughingly coming from a professed Midland and “girl, girl” Michael Morgan fan. At least honky is good for laughs, if nothing else.
Ulysses McCaskill
December 3, 2017 @ 11:29 pm
Honky, it would be nice if there were more folks trying to imitate Buck, Ray and Tubb. I think the reason Waylon and Willie get more love these days is because people are looking for a way to give a giant middle finger to country radio, so they’re playing music in the Outlaw style rather than traditional style. Both styles of country are good though and they both kick bro country’s ass.
Mike W.
December 4, 2017 @ 6:00 am
Well, that and Willie and Waylon were and are massively more popular than Tubb, Buck, or Ray. Look, it might sound harsh, but that is just the facts. Waylon and Willie (and their image/legacy) have maintained a cultural and social relevance that cannot be matched by Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, or Buck Owens.
Maybe you find that said, but I also think that doesn’t mean someone is a “hipster” (a ridiculous notion) if they play a Waylon/Willie style of Country music. For artists who are in their 20’s-to-mid-30’s there is a very real chance that their first exposure to classic Country music was Willie, Waylon, Cash, etc. because those guys maintained a cultural relevance way beyond the Tubbs, Price,Wagoners, etc. of the world.
Honky
December 4, 2017 @ 3:10 pm
Willie and Waylon are massively more popular among urban millennials who mostly weren’t raised on Country Music. It’s now extremely trendy and cool to like anything that’s perceived as edgy. You’re almost making my point for me without even realizing it.
The last 15 years has been a massive boost to Waylon’s legacy. 25 years ago, historical perspective always had him as a 2nd or 3rd tier legend, behind folks like Haggard, Jones, Twitty, Hank, etc.
You live in bubble where Waylon and Willie are the biggest names in Country Music, but if you ever decide to step out of that bubble, and engage with some old timers, some Country people who were kids when Hank was on the radio, you’ll realize what a utterly absurd statement, “Waylon and Willie (and their image/legacy) have maintained a cultural and social relevance that cannot be matched by Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, or Buck Owens.” is.
And it’s not harsh. You’re just ignorant and uninformed, as are many of the folks who comment here.
Ulysses McCaskill
December 5, 2017 @ 1:09 am
I’m an “urban millennial” who mostly wasn’t raised on country music. I like Waylon and Willie, but certainly not because it’s trendy or edgy. I like them because the only country I ever heard growing up was on the radio and made me want to puke. I thought all country music was like that until I discovered the old stuff. Johnny Cash first, then the outlaws like Waylon, Willie, Billy Joe Shaver, Tompall, etc. But I’m also a big fan of all the folks you mention…Buck Owens, Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, Haggard, Lefty, and the rest of ’em. Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is one of my favorite albums. Lefty wrote the best country song ever, which your favorite guy to hate Sturgill covered quite excellently I might add.
Not all us “urban millennials” are hipsters Honky. I have just as much respect for and get just as much enjoyment and pleasure from traditional pre-70’s country as I do from Outlaw country. As I said earlier, they’re both a hell of a lot better than our options on country radio today.
glendel
December 3, 2017 @ 1:09 pm
this song isn’t genius like lillie mae’s wash me clean or tyler childers whitehouse road or isbell’s song about the cumberland gap, or some white country blues from Stapleton, but it goes down real easy, so more power to these guys, especially in combination w/ each other.
kapam
December 3, 2017 @ 5:54 pm
Cool song, I like it.
Dead? Well, I think much of the industry has aligned itself with pop music for the sake of making money. Rock music did the same and seems to have been swallowed up by the pop machine. Now it’s Country’s turn, by the look of it. It is probably up to the fans (and SCM) to do something about it.
Thanks Trigger
Thoroughbred
December 3, 2017 @ 8:52 pm
John Baumann’s “Here I Come” is strong to quite strong.
Whiskey_Pete
December 4, 2017 @ 9:58 am
What that song is missing is a deeper voice.