I remember one time watching a bunch of Londoners laughing at a Texas
act in a club there because the lead singer had on a cowboy hat. They
assumed it must be a joke and that nobody who took himself to be a
serious musician would dress up like that. I think what has happened
there is that country music has come to be thought of in the same way
that we in the US think of Branson. This is in part because there is a
contingent of country fans there who are considered to be squares.
We had to fight like hell to convince people that we were not square,
not Nashville country types, and didn't dress like Texans to be cute,
but because that's how we actaully dressed at home. We got it from both
sides, too. The squares hated us because we didn't play Nashville dreck
and the hipsters tried to lump us in with the squares.
We finally learned which places we would be accepted and which places to
avoid and it all worked out, but the cultural differences were very
tough to fathom at first.
I remember one tiny little old lady, dressed to the nines in a black
cowgirl outfit of rather dubious provenance, who came up to Kimmie after
our show in Hartleypool and began to hiss squinty-eyed right in Kimmie's
face. She said "I don't like you! I don't like you atall! You don't play
country music! 'Tis jazz!! 'Tis jazz!!" and stomped off in her
psuedo-cowgirl boots. This was because we had brought our big Western
Swing band directly from the Broken Spoke the the shores of the North
Sea, and the natives just didn't get it atall. They apparently had never
heard of Bob Wills, heard a record of his, and didn't realize that in
Texas we use more than three chords! It was rather disturbing to be
lectured repeatedly about a subject that we assumed we might know more
about than a British person, but it happened a lot.
Go Figure.
Anyway, we love England and we love our London gigs and I thought the
whole thing was a great experience.
--
Joe Gracey
President-For-Life, Jackalope Records
http://www.kimmierhodes.com
