y'all are gettin' pretty het up, here. SOME of us are forgetting that one of
the things this whole "whatever it is" does is introduce people to music and
artists they wouldn't be familiar with otherwise by mix n matching people and
songs.
Hazeldine covered Wild and Blue BECAUSE the Mekons sang it.
I for one, think that's pretty cool, and I'm really irked that SOME of us are
getting snooty about knowing more arcana about some genre than some folks who
just liked something good when they heard it, and liked it well enough to
record it themselves.
Now, expecting an urban rock critic to dig deep enough to find out that liner
notes might ton provide the comprehensiveness and accuracy of a country music
encyclopedia, which, by the way, would have to be organized by song title, is,
imho, asking an unreasonable amount.
Linda, who knows she should at least own Tragic Songs of Life and will remedy
that one day, but had to pick up The Donnas, Superdrag and Silver Jews while
she had the chance with this week's used CD budget. Besides, Jon's too nice
about answering stupid questions.
In a message dated 1/25/99 1:18:38 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
<< Guilty as charged. I've never heard of the guy. But, if we really want to
get
into it, I think there's something pretty unfair about this comment, Don.
After all, I suspect Hazeldine would call themselves a rock band first.
Therefore, we apply *rock* knowledge to such an assessment of their work. And
I for one have never heard of this effin' guy and, as an rock critic, am
confident enough in my own depth of knowledge of country music to feel okay
with such ignorance. It's not like he's Willie or Harlan or Acuff or
something. (Is it?)
And should a country music writer not write about the album if he's not sure
who Sparklehorse is or the E6 tradition that spawned Neutral Milk Hotel?
Neal Weiss >>
