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PROGRESSIVE BAND ADDS KICK TO BLUEGRASS
~Grant Britt
They took Bill Monroe's baby and rocked it.
Bucktown Kickback came out of the gate five years ago playing what they call progressive bluegrass.
"Some of the forms of the songs seem to be fairly traditional, but the instrumentation is more progressive," says Adam Dudding , founder and lead vocalist for the Columbus, Ohio-based band.
"My family is from West Virginia," says the 32-year-old Dudding. "My dad and I would listen to bluegrass radio shows Friday and Saturday night."
The singer grew up listening to classic bluegrass performers such as Monroe, The Osbourne Brothers and Ralph Stanley. But when he formed Bucktown Kickback, the instrumentation ruled out being labeled as bluegrass.
The band includes a drummer, who uses a small trap set and sometimes plays a hand drum, as well as an electric guitar player. But the band also incorporates acoustic instruments such as banjo, mandolin, guitar and upright bass.
The result is an eclectic mix of country, bluegrass and rock. "Turn Left Off The Exit," from the band's latest release, "Lost In Your Own Hometown," sounds more like Beatles than bluegrass. "Blackswamp Stomp (One Last Dance)" is laid-back country blues with a grass twinge and a considerable dollop of humor. ["She kept the beat of the bass drum twirled me like chewing gum," Dudding is pursued by a large, enthusiastic dancer: "She was 6-foot-10, 'bout 275/ built like a mountain but danced like a river … when she put her arms around me/my whole body shivered."]
Dudding says the band doesn't mind being called a blend.
"There's times when I feel it's been a little bit of a disservice to the reader when we're listed as just country or just bluegrass," the singer says.
"It's the songwriting that directs what kind of sound gets used."
On its current album as well as "Speakeasy" (2005), the band has done all originals. A few covers get tossed in on live shows, but even the covers get a Bucktown Kickback makeover. A bluegrass-style cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a crowd pleaser, as is Hank Williams' "You Win Again." Williams' classic moaner is done as more of a country/folk version.
"It's not as twangy as Hank Sr., but comes from the same sentiment," Dudding says. "There's mandolin all over that song when we do it."
Although the band members come from vastly different backgrounds, Dudding says they're all bluegrass fans.
Multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlenker brings a traditional element with his flat picking and his mandolin technique. Bassist James Donovan is a rocker who also fronts an electric-bass power trio. Drummer David Blankestyn's first percussive love was hand drums and African drumming, but he loves bluegrass, too. Dudding says electric guitarist [Tony Papa] knows all the rock standards but lately has been focusing on Django Reinhardt's gypsy jazz acoustic guitar work, which sometimes crosses over into the bluegrass styles of artists such as David Grisman.
"When you get together with a bunch of musicians from all sorts of different backgrounds and their own catalogue of songs they've listened to over the years, sometimes you're all speaking the same language," Dudding says.
To boost his own musical language skills, when not out on the road with the band, Dudding is working with songwriters in his adopted hometown of Nashville. He's trying to write songs that are new versions of older country-music styles, attempting to bring back some Waylon and Willie…
"It's funny to see the stuff you see and hear when you go out and about in Nashville, the stuff people are calling country these days."
Dudding says that he has ready a dozen songs fit for outlaws.
"We're gonna try to go for that cycle when good old outlaw music comes back into fashion," he says.
That sounds like the voice of reason in any language.
for arts & entertainment news and information.
PROGRESSIVE BAND ADDS KICK TO BLUEGRASS
~Grant Britt
They took Bill Monroe's baby and rocked it.
Bucktown Kickback came out of the gate five years ago playing what they call progressive bluegrass.
"Some of the forms of the songs seem to be fairly traditional, but the instrumentation is more progressive," says Adam Dudding , founder and lead vocalist for the Columbus, Ohio-based band.
"My family is from West Virginia," says the 32-year-old Dudding. "My dad and I would listen to bluegrass radio shows Friday and Saturday night."
The singer grew up listening to classic bluegrass performers such as Monroe, The Osbourne Brothers and Ralph Stanley. But when he formed Bucktown Kickback, the instrumentation ruled out being labeled as bluegrass.
The band includes a drummer, who uses a small trap set and sometimes plays a hand drum, as well as an electric guitar player. But the band also incorporates acoustic instruments such as banjo, mandolin, guitar and upright bass.
The result is an eclectic mix of country, bluegrass and rock. "Turn Left Off The Exit," from the band's latest release, "Lost In Your Own Hometown," sounds more like Beatles than bluegrass. "Blackswamp Stomp (One Last Dance)" is laid-back country blues with a grass twinge and a considerable dollop of humor. ["She kept the beat of the bass drum twirled me like chewing gum," Dudding is pursued by a large, enthusiastic dancer: "She was 6-foot-10, 'bout 275/ built like a mountain but danced like a river … when she put her arms around me/my whole body shivered."]
Dudding says the band doesn't mind being called a blend.
"There's times when I feel it's been a little bit of a disservice to the reader when we're listed as just country or just bluegrass," the singer says.
"It's the songwriting that directs what kind of sound gets used."
On its current album as well as "Speakeasy" (2005), the band has done all originals. A few covers get tossed in on live shows, but even the covers get a Bucktown Kickback makeover. A bluegrass-style cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a crowd pleaser, as is Hank Williams' "You Win Again." Williams' classic moaner is done as more of a country/folk version.
"It's not as twangy as Hank Sr., but comes from the same sentiment," Dudding says. "There's mandolin all over that song when we do it."
Although the band members come from vastly different backgrounds, Dudding says they're all bluegrass fans.
Multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlenker brings a traditional element with his flat picking and his mandolin technique. Bassist James Donovan is a rocker who also fronts an electric-bass power trio. Drummer David Blankestyn's first percussive love was hand drums and African drumming, but he loves bluegrass, too. Dudding says electric guitarist [Tony Papa] knows all the rock standards but lately has been focusing on Django Reinhardt's gypsy jazz acoustic guitar work, which sometimes crosses over into the bluegrass styles of artists such as David Grisman.
"When you get together with a bunch of musicians from all sorts of different backgrounds and their own catalogue of songs they've listened to over the years, sometimes you're all speaking the same language," Dudding says.
To boost his own musical language skills, when not out on the road with the band, Dudding is working with songwriters in his adopted hometown of Nashville. He's trying to write songs that are new versions of older country-music styles, attempting to bring back some Waylon and Willie…
"It's funny to see the stuff you see and hear when you go out and about in Nashville, the stuff people are calling country these days."
Dudding says that he has ready a dozen songs fit for outlaws.
"We're gonna try to go for that cycle when good old outlaw music comes back into fashion," he says.
That sounds like the voice of reason in any language.
