North - Blackie & the Rodeo Kings
from the album South (2014)
One of my favorite Johnny Cash songs is Get Rhythm. The central character of the song is a shoe shine boy who "gets rhythm" in order to cope with his mundane job. He accomplishes this by creating rhythms with his horsehair brush and cloth. I dig that kind of optimism.
Johnny Cash takes it a step further by creating a rhythm to the song that sounds like it could actually be coming from that shoe shine boy. Geniuses do things like that.
North by Blackie & The Rodeo Kings is an alt country tune about riding a train to the north country. Train songs are almost always good, but what makes this song special for me is how the rhythm sounds like a locomotive. It is steady and sure, chugging along, made possible by brushes on a snare and some light percussion. As the song progresses, the brushes give way to a stick, with the rhythm never losing a beat. Cool stuff.
The rest of the song also grabs my attention. I really like the gravel vocals and guitars trading textures. They play off each other well with well placed harmonies joining in periodically.
When I listen to this song with eyes closed late at night, I can imagine myself on that northbound train.
Click Here to listen to North on SoundCloud.
Click Here to watch a stripped down acoustic version.
One of my favorite Johnny Cash songs is Get Rhythm. The central character of the song is a shoe shine boy who "gets rhythm" in order to cope with his mundane job. He accomplishes this by creating rhythms with his horsehair brush and cloth. I dig that kind of optimism.
Johnny Cash takes it a step further by creating a rhythm to the song that sounds like it could actually be coming from that shoe shine boy. Geniuses do things like that.
North by Blackie & The Rodeo Kings is an alt country tune about riding a train to the north country. Train songs are almost always good, but what makes this song special for me is how the rhythm sounds like a locomotive. It is steady and sure, chugging along, made possible by brushes on a snare and some light percussion. As the song progresses, the brushes give way to a stick, with the rhythm never losing a beat. Cool stuff.
The rest of the song also grabs my attention. I really like the gravel vocals and guitars trading textures. They play off each other well with well placed harmonies joining in periodically.
When I listen to this song with eyes closed late at night, I can imagine myself on that northbound train.
Click Here to listen to North on SoundCloud.
Click Here to watch a stripped down acoustic version.
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