Independent Country – The True Adventures of Independent Country
Howdy Bab Records – 17 August 2018
Reworking one musical genre in the style of another is nothing new. We’ve had AC/DC and Motorhead done bluegrass, Slipknot given a Lounge makeover, and many more. However, few give songs an unlikely country sheen as well as Independent Country, a Birmingham-based six-piece led by Simon Fox, although none of them use their real names. Produced by inestimable Gavin Monaghan, this is their second collection of indie hits reinterpreted as country, albeit at times taking the liberty of revising the melodies to fit.
They open with one of indie’s biggest sacred cows, The Smiths, twangy Ghost Riders in the Sky guitars and keys, drawled vocals, deep and echoey on the chorus driving a galloping reimagining of William, It Was Really Nothing. Of more recent vintage, the signature descending bass riff of Nancy Sinatra’s classic These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ heralds a version of the Arctic Monkeys debut hit I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor that subsequently marries Boots’ melody line with a Johnny Cash chug. Utterly inspired.
Pulp are up next for Do You Remember The First Time? reworked as a slow keyboards and guitars waltzing ballad with a big chorus rush, the tempo given an adrenaline shot for a suitably good time Nashville frisky lap steel romp through the album’s lead single, The Boo Radleys’ Wake Up Boo!
Further inspirational notes are struck as they take 1991 top ten Jesus Jones alt-dance hit International Bright Young Thing into the rodeo, roping it into a mid-tempo descending chords and harmony vocals barroom line dancer that positively demands you slap thighs and clap hands along with the stomping chorus.
Briefly stepping out of character for the buzzing spacey guitar intro, Come Together swiftly transforms the Primal Scream number into a rowdy southern country rocker before moving on to radio static heralding the big outlaw alt-country guitar chords of You Made Me Realise giving My Bloody Valentine the Gin Blossoms treatment.
Throbbing bass is back in the frame for a bluesy, vocally strung out work out of the Inspiral Carpets’ seminal This Is How It Feels that exchanges the original’s euphoric feel for a slower, downcast mood. Back in 1988, Black Country outfit Pop Will Eat Itself were prime movers in the so-called Grebo movement with their sample driven alt-dance take on hip-hop. All the more fun, then, to hear Def Con One as a fiddle-driven bluegrass stomp belting out the immortal chorus “Big Mac, fries to go”.
A somewhat more obscure choice is midtempo ballad sway The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes from indie underachievers House of Love. It’s the closest number to the original here, showing more Beatles than country colours, although there is a banjo.
Primal Scream gets a second hurrah for the album’s closing remodel, switching the original Stonesy swagger of Rocks for a Southern country blues rock shake it down boogie designed to be sung along to by heavily tattooed redneck truckers in some sweaty packed roadhouse.
It’s fairly easy to apply the tropes of one musical genre to a song from another; it takes real skill and inspiration to make the new versions sound like that’s how they were always meant to be. The True Adventures of Independent Country have both in abundance.