Jeff & Vida – Selma Chalk (Rosebank Records)
This is going to be one of those dreadful reviews that possibly says more about me than the band. I Just Don’t Like It but am trying, trying, trying to be fair throughout as I am sure this is mostly due to my taste rather than their efforts.
The promo material with the CD opens with “It starts with a bang – an aural blast on the mandolin and fiddle. Then the guitar comes in, rollicking along and so begins Heartache Train, the lead-off track on Selma Chalk, the new album from Jeff & Vida.”
Try this instead: “It starts with a groan, then a wince, then a frantic swerve into the slow lane of the M4 as you try to locate the volume DOWN button on the car stereo.”
Oh dear. The words I thought of were “twangy, middle-aged, Mid-West America, overweight, lonely, sugary, nay saccharine”. Country and Western Mallet’s Mallet, if you will. I then rather generously wondered if I’d quite like this as a live performance but I soon realised I would probably be going for it in that slightly cynical “ironic” way that upsets people so much. I do love home brew and LOVE chewing straw and love to dance so perhaps I’d ignore the music for the pursuit of these things. Anyway… my controversial point is that this maybe this sort of music is just not CD-worthy, unless you’re having a party (in a barn, preferably, with loads of strong booze).
We’ve established that my heart sank at the start (not a great thing to happen on track number ONE) but I did brighten a little with track two… then sank deep, deep, God so deep… then brightened again. (Actually track four made me want to drive into the central reservation to end it all, but not because I cared about the sentiment: Vida sings, “you don’t love me no more” me (shouting) “I’m just not surprised”). I suppose the silver lining of this dark, dark cloud was that at least I had nice surprises when songs came along that were OK, like Never Hurt Before which had my head bobbing for a fair few seconds, even a whole minute.
My overriding problem with this album is that my heart never once soared. I never forgot my world and became a part of Jeff and Vida’s. I do think this is possible, even for just moments, with genres of music that are not your usual taste but it didn’t happen between Jeff, Vida and me.
A review on the blurb calls Jeff & Vida “unclassifiable” which made me snigger, cruelly. The words “bluegrass”, “Americana” and “rockabilly” are also used. I’m a fan of all these things and am sure that Jeff and Vida are not any of them. I am also sure they are not, like the blurb posits, ‘some other, wholly-original category’, as we’ve all heard this sort of thing before; to my ears they are pure, trailer park sung-by-a-waitress-who-dreams-of-better-things country and western with requisite fiddle in the background to grind away at your sanity and demand that you order another glass of liqueur to drown out the outside world. But perhaps I don’t get it. If you love that kind of thing then this album is going to be an excellent choice for you.
Joy Thomas
Oh, you poor, poor, lonely, angry man. Would that you’d kept your ignorance under a bushel basket rather than expose it to light of day. I wish to fall dead if you are musician of any talent. Were you, you would be able to appreicate the talents of all six musicians on this recording, but most-especially burke. But I must remember, you may be British, which would explain a lot. Keep sending over the New Castle and keep your ignorant, snarky drivel to yourself loser.
Who’s angry? Who’s lonely? If there are any losers around here, then it must be good old fashioned horse-sense. So the reviewer doesn’t like the record? That is their right to say that.
As it is, I thought the review was quite generous considering the fact that the reviewer was clearly having problems with the record in question. And this is nothing to do with ignorance. Music transcends knowledge and background – it’s why it’s so popular. This just comes down to personal opinions, and feelings which are to be considered and treated as such. If these opinions and feeligns disagree with your own opinions and feelings, then that is the nature of art, surely, and perhaps this even says something about our differences as human beings.
Interesting that you bring nationality into it. You should be pleased that C&W reaches across national borders. I mean America has to export something during these hard times. Anyway, I think it’s healthy that we have these differences – they are to be celebrated rather than used as a source of hurt. So someone, somewhere doesn’t like a record. And someone, somewhere else, does like a record. Why get so mad about it? It’s not like you made the record. And even then, doesn’t the Good Lord tell us to take the rough with the smooth? Well, no, He doesn’t, but He should, because more people would listen to Him if he did. In summary: don’t be so precious and turn the other cheek, Elisa.