Funky Nashville - "Hitch A Ride"
(Iceberg Records / 215 Records, 2006)
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Much like in Canada, where it seems great music is around every corner, something must have gotten out into the water in Denmark. A few months ago I reviewed a Danish band called 2nd Street, and in the process I was contacted about Funky Nashville, a band Iceberg Records was hoping to be able to market to an American audience. I liked what I heard.
The band's music, a blend of surf-rock, pop, country and jump blues, is like nothing I've ever heard in this country, despite the fact that Funky Nashville draws from a number of significant American musical developments over the last fifty years. Particularly the country and surf-rock blend made me think radio might be intrigued by their prospects -- especially now that country music has been making consistent inroads into the pop market.
What I didn't expect when I first heard the band in the fall of 2005 was for them to craft an album that would become such a favorite. But this three-man band from Copenhagen has an inate ability to develop a hook. Each of the eleven tracks on Hitch A Ride are infectious and hip, awash with steel guitar (used as a bass element, no less!) and the staccato rhythm of mexican-styled trumpets, while vocalist / guitarist Sverre Stein Nielsen takes it all to the next level with his gravelly-yet-smooth blues vocals. Think Johnny Cash meets U2 in a bar with Cake-frontman John McCrea during a four-day bender and you might have a slight inkling of the potential this band posesses.
"Hitch A Ride," the first track (and lead-off single) from the album is a toe-tappingly addictive alt-country number with a killer hook; a non-traditional murder ballad involving a male hitchhiker taken hostage by a femme fatale driver, which has the potential to take college rock and top-forty radio by storm -- If only stations will be willing to take the chance. From there, the album is chock-full of single material. From the merenge-tinged "Mexican Stars" to "Ain't No Cowboy" -- something of a reworking of the likes of Dave Loggins' "Please Come To Boston," all would make solid additions to traditionally tepid summer playlists. In that particular song, the main character is pursued by a woman who wants him to return to town and settle down, but (unlike Loggins' protagonist) he chooses to dump her rather than give up the cowboy life. "I wish that you were homeward bound," she says, mournfully. He responds: "Baby, please don't worry; I'm sure you'll find another man." Now that's cold!
The key, however, is that while crafting a series of solid singles, the band has built an album from the bottom up that tells the traditional cowboy story, updated to a modern setting and blending genres in a way that hasn't been done before to my knowledge. It's a brilliant effort, one that deserves to break through into the American radio market in a big way. To overlook Hitch A Ride would be a massive mistake. Here's hoping this won't be the best album of 2006 no one hears.
www.funkynashville.dk
Much like in Canada, where it seems great music is around every corner, something must have gotten out into the water in Denmark. A few months ago I reviewed a Danish band called 2nd Street, and in the process I was contacted about Funky Nashville, a band Iceberg Records was hoping to be able to market to an American audience. I liked what I heard.
The band's music, a blend of surf-rock, pop, country and jump blues, is like nothing I've ever heard in this country, despite the fact that Funky Nashville draws from a number of significant American musical developments over the last fifty years. Particularly the country and surf-rock blend made me think radio might be intrigued by their prospects -- especially now that country music has been making consistent inroads into the pop market.
What I didn't expect when I first heard the band in the fall of 2005 was for them to craft an album that would become such a favorite. But this three-man band from Copenhagen has an inate ability to develop a hook. Each of the eleven tracks on Hitch A Ride are infectious and hip, awash with steel guitar (used as a bass element, no less!) and the staccato rhythm of mexican-styled trumpets, while vocalist / guitarist Sverre Stein Nielsen takes it all to the next level with his gravelly-yet-smooth blues vocals. Think Johnny Cash meets U2 in a bar with Cake-frontman John McCrea during a four-day bender and you might have a slight inkling of the potential this band posesses.
"Hitch A Ride," the first track (and lead-off single) from the album is a toe-tappingly addictive alt-country number with a killer hook; a non-traditional murder ballad involving a male hitchhiker taken hostage by a femme fatale driver, which has the potential to take college rock and top-forty radio by storm -- If only stations will be willing to take the chance. From there, the album is chock-full of single material. From the merenge-tinged "Mexican Stars" to "Ain't No Cowboy" -- something of a reworking of the likes of Dave Loggins' "Please Come To Boston," all would make solid additions to traditionally tepid summer playlists. In that particular song, the main character is pursued by a woman who wants him to return to town and settle down, but (unlike Loggins' protagonist) he chooses to dump her rather than give up the cowboy life. "I wish that you were homeward bound," she says, mournfully. He responds: "Baby, please don't worry; I'm sure you'll find another man." Now that's cold!
The key, however, is that while crafting a series of solid singles, the band has built an album from the bottom up that tells the traditional cowboy story, updated to a modern setting and blending genres in a way that hasn't been done before to my knowledge. It's a brilliant effort, one that deserves to break through into the American radio market in a big way. To overlook Hitch A Ride would be a massive mistake. Here's hoping this won't be the best album of 2006 no one hears.
www.funkynashville.dk
posted by Jonathan Sanders @ 11:38 PM
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