omophagia's Full Review: Horse of a Different Color by Big & Rich
"Brothers and sisters, we're here for one reason, and one reason alone: to share our love of music. We present to you, Country Music Without Prejudice."
Thus the duo Big & Rich announce themselves to the world, immediately and simultaneously baiting and distorting a veritable host of difficult questions that they incorrectly assume their debut album, Horse of a Different Color, can either answer or resolve. Given the neo-con zeitgeist that has held a death-grip on country music in the wake of 9/11-- the knee-jerk reactionary "You're either with us or against us" brand of "patriotism" brandied about by Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry, Darryl Worley, and their pals-- there's certainly justifiable cause to explore the sources of and the long-standing traditions behind an entire genre of music that seems to grow increasingly exclusive with every new gold record certification. Something's decidedly rotten in the state of Tennessee, but the lightbulb has burned out in Big & Rich's fridge.
Few albums-- outside of The Dixie Chicks' Home, anyway- open with an intended mission statement that essentially overpowers the album itself, and that's precisely the problem Big & Rich (former Lonestar vocalist John Rich and "Big Kenny" Alphin) create for themselves. A diminished, minor key chord from a Hammond organ kicks in on the downbeat, and then "Big" affects his best holy-roller, pew-jumping preacher voice to deliver a message to his congregation. And that message, Country Music Without Prejudice simply couldn't be more loaded with pretext.
Without Prejudice against whom or what exactly, Big?
If Big & Rich's press releases and interviews are to be believed, they're attempting to appeal to a demographic that they feel has heretofore gone unrepresented by the music industry: the "country" music fans who also happen to enjoy OutKast. The crossroads between Fiddy and Kenny Chesney, where Kid Rock's long-spoiled garbage meets Uncle Kracker's just-starting-to-turn garbage.
To their credit, it isn't an unfounded idea. If nothing else, my own album collection gives Big the witness he's calling for, with OutKast's Stankonia filed adjacent to Dolly Parton's Little Sparrow in my cd wallet. But it's in the use of the word "prejudice" that the problems develop, and not purely from a semantics standpoint. It implies an almost impossibly tricky sociopolitical critique of the two genres, country and hip-hop, they're attempting to combine and to reconcile.
At their absolute artistic peaks (hear Patty Loveless' astonishing Mountain Soul and Public Enemy's still-incendiary Fear of a Black Planet), country and hip-hop share a similar cultural drive as voices of protest for those who've been systematically, institutionally disenfranchised. Historically, country music has served as that voice for the rural poor, while hip-hop, though a far more "recent" development, has been just as powerful a voice for the urban poor. No other mainstream "pop" genres offer material so consistently challenging, and no other mainstream genres have been so irrevocably damaged by the demands of major-label commercial viability. The current multiplatinum exemplars for each genre-- Keith, Chesney, and Martina McBride for country, and 50 Cent, Nelly, and Black-Eyed Peas for hip-hop-- find perhaps their greatest sources of support in the same place: the suburbs. When wondering what's become of the passion in these two essential genres, it's difficult to deny that a big chunk of their "soul" has been diluted to make them more palatable to the rhetorical "Middle Americans"- the soccer moms who cried to Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" and bought their kids a copy of Chingy's Jackpot.
Which isn't to say that music fans outside of the coalmines of Eastern Kentucky aren't allowed to enjoy country music or that people outside of major metropolitan housing projects aren't allowed to enjoy rap. Instead, it's simply important to recognize how utterly non-threatening mainstream country and rap have become in an effort to increase their sales figures. And it's equally important to recognize how the elements of the most challenging country music might sound entirely alien to fans of the most challenging hip-hop. It certainly isn't impossible to like or to understand both genres, but doing so demands a degree of informed perspective with regard to their larger cultural functions. And that's one of the ways that Big & Rich's Horse of a Different Color is a failure. In attempting to "combine" country and hip-hop, they've managed to ignore the inherent social ramifications of an action they've treated as little more than a novelty.
And, again, the questions of "prejudice" come into play because of unavoidable issues of race in discussions of country and hip-hop. Are Big & Rich saying that, because country music and hip-hop appeal to two very different audiences-- one rural, one urban-- country music not made by them is inherently "prejudiced" against an African-American audience, and that hip-hop music similarly excludes a "white" audience? That's a question I couldn't hope to answer in full, and to which Big & Rich respond with something bordering on outright hypocrisy and an ignorance of popular music. But there are three specific examples that bring the problems of what Big & Rich claim they're doing into sharp relief:
(1) One of the absolute best, most artistically rich albums in the genre's history, Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, was recorded by an African-American, the late Ray Charles, all the way back in 1962.
(2) The most viable analytical route for hip-hop's premiere Caucasian artist, Eminem, is as a unique voice of suburban protest, making him an anomaly, functioning independent of the same context as the vast majority of hip-hop.
(3) Another hip-hop artist, Bubba Sparxxx, also Caucasian, has already recorded what amounts to a hybrid of rap and country, 2003's Deliverance, which, if not quite the best recording of a generally weak year for country music, ranks as irrefutably the most important and most interesting country album of its year.
To try to clarify: To say that blending country music and hip-hop results in Country Music Without Prejudice implies a degree of prejudice in both country and hip-hop, and Big & Rich comprehensively fail to define what that prejudice might be. Is it a mere question of location, of urban vs. rural? Or is it a question of race, a comment on the already blindingly obvious point that the numeric majority of country artists are white, while the numeric majority of hip-hop artists are black? And, perhaps more importantly, why do Big & Rich seem to think of the differences in these two genres, so crucially linked by their sociocultural imperatives, in terms of prejudice? And why are they acting like what they're trying to accomplish hasn't been done before?
If Big & Rich had absolutely anything interesting or coherent to say about any of the questions that they, themselves, have chosen to raise, then their debut album would most certainly rank among the select few albums that blur another important line: the one between "pop art" and "art." Given how fascinating the polemic they define is and how it is inseparable from their music, it's all the more tragic that Horse of a Different Color only manages to complicate the situation further.
"Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)," the opening track, which builds out of Big Kenny's would-be call-to-arms, is a distillation of the entire album's problems. It shares a title with a single from another high profile act who borrowed heavily from elements of hip-hop, the ever-reprehensible Limp Bizkit, and its bridge consists of a rap courtesy of Big & Rich's collaborator / third member, Cowboy Troy, a 6'4" black man decked in full cowboy gear who raps about as well as Fred Durst and who throws in some embarrassing "Spanglish" because he apparently feels that the whole affair isn't already sufficiently messy. The self-conscious manner in which Cowboy Troy is introduced and costumed places him somewhere just slightly north of a minstrel show.
See? We can't be prejudiced: we have a black guy on our payroll, and boy can that fella dance!
The fact that Troy raps (terribly) notwithstanding, "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" boasts precious little of the hip-hop that Big & Rich so adamantly insist they're trying to incorporate into their country sound. And that's a problem encountered elsewhere on Horse of a Different Color. For an album supposedly aiming for OutKast's fans, the songs sure sound a lot like Aerosmith. Aerosmith with some killer banjo work, but Aerosmith all the same.
The hooks aren't derived from rhythm samples- they're built around some excellent electric guitar riffs and Big & Rich's spectacular two-part harmonies. In terms of their vocal arrangements, Big & Rich recall, of all people, The Indigo Girls, and that's about as far from hip-hop as you could hope to get. Both men are impressive singers, and Rich's plaintive tenor is supported by Big's distinctive baritone. That the duo sing dual leads on every track-- as opposed to, say, Brooks & Dunn, who leave nearly exclusive lead vocal duties to Ronnie Dunn, with Kix Brooks chiming in for harmony on the chorus-- actually gives them a unique sound compared to other contemporary country acts. That their songs are so heavily reliant on electric instruments, rather than the more traditional acoustic instruments (banjo, mandolin, upright bass) that usually turn up whenever major Nashville labels try to give a pop-country band some additional credibility (Rascal Flatts, SheDaisy), also gives Big & Rich a sound that's more "edgy," but still very much spit-polished and studio produced, than many of their peers on country radio.
Again, it's a pity that Horse of a Different Color can't be evaluated exclusively in terms of its music. Because the music itself is awfully good, one of the most accomplished major label debuts to come out of Nashville in quite some time.
But the songs can't escape the album's greater context. "Wild West Show," for instance, causes Big & Rich to come off as hypocrites just two songs into the album, unless, of course, the concept of Country Music Without Prejudice doesn't extend to Native Americans, since the song trots out every tired stereotype-- teepees, peace pipes, Tonto-- that has been applied to the Native American population for decades. This, moreover, raises even more questions about what Big & Rich are trying to do with country music, which has long been associated with the "Western" genre that first perpetuated those stereotypes of Native Americans. And, not surprisingly, the song itself doesn't offer much of a resolution to that conflict, either.
Oh, and its chorus is the phrase "Hey Ya!" set to a war-cry.
That's also indicative of the manner in which hip-hop is ultimately employed throughout the album-- less a stylistic influence than a source of post-modern pop cultural references. Current single "Save a Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" scores winking novelty points for sarcastically dropping "bling-blingin'" and "Escalade" into its verses. Which, yet again, brings the sincerity of their Without Prejudice credo into question.
And, at a certain point, calling that credo into question simply makes the album tiresome to engage. None of the issues raised are ever resolved. Under even the most passing scrutiny, they either collapse or reveal one onion-like layer of conflict upon another. That Big & Rich can offer such undeniable enthusiasm for their material-- just ask The Dixie Chicks how much difference a little swagger makes-- and such unassailable musicianship serves as a much-needed diversion. Turn your brain off, and Horse of a Different Color sure is a great, hard-rocking country album filled with exceptional hooks and polished production values that guarantee broad appeal. "Save a Horse (Ride A Cowboy)," for instance, isn't just the high point of the album, it's easily one of the year's best-produced singles from any genre. And for Big & Rich even to begin to justify themselves, considering their internal politics, it would pretty well have to be.
The music itself isn't flawless-- the aforementioned "Wild West Show" is revolting, as is the insincere "Love Train" (if ever there were an album that couldn't support the lyric "The whole color thing's never made sense to me / Who gives a hoot if you're red, yellow, purple, or pink", it's this one), and the human uplift treacle of "Live This Life," about "a girl in a chair with wheels" surprises absolutely no one when Martina McBride turns up, shrieking in her patented all-volume, no-soul manner in the background as a kid contemplates suicide.
There's also the concern of false advertising, since Horse of a Different Color so rarely includes actual elements of hip-hop and, at times, sounds uncannily like late 80s hair metal. Which more or less positions Big & Rich as the Van Halen to Lonestar's Journey. Artistically, it's not an awful position to be in, but it isn't a position that makes a whole lot of literal sense for a band marketing (because it hasn't been said enough) Country Music Without Prejudice.
So Big & Rich get quite a lot of mileage out of their enthusiasm and their braggadocio. Were they not creating for themselves an artistic persona so riddled with inconsistencies and a fundamental lack of perspective on their own genre(s), Big & Rich would simply rate as one of the more interesting new artists to emerge in 2004. Though they have a clearly distorted take on their own appeal-- the only hip-hop fans likely to be impressed by Cowboy Troy's rhyming skills are hip-hop fans with exceedingly low standards, but, thankfully, he only shows up twice on the album-- Big & Rich have delivered a debut album that, strictly in terms of its music, breathes a certain tangible promise. They are a good band. I enjoy listening to them... so long as I'm not really thinking.
And Horse of a Different Color-- even the title smacks of race-baiting!-- grudgingly earns a degree of respect simply because it demands such difficult and ultimately confounding and confounded discussion at a time when American Idol has spawned commercially successful acts across three genres. Were its context not so misguided and irreconcilable, Horse of a Different Color would surely stand alongside many of 2004's best albums-- Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, Morrissey's You Are the Quarry, Dizzee Rascal's Boy In Da Corner, PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her-- as powerful testaments to the value, the necessity of music as a tool of broad cultural discourse. Instead, it's an album that works exclusively as escapism, and, even then, troubles for the thought of how horrifying the inevitable knock-off acts might be.
That Kenny Chesney - Uncle Kracker duet rightfully should've made every country radio station implode into their all-encompassing talent vortex, but, thanks to Big & Rich, things are only going to get worse from here on in with the genre-blurring. After all, Nelly has a much thicker southern drawl than Tim McGraw.
With so many people either incapable of or unwilling to attempt to engage the material set before them-- I, Robot presents a similarly inept, stultifying bit of commentary on race that no one but me seems to find disturbing-- it's all the more irresponsible and dangerous for artists who position themselves as vehicles for positive change to fail so spectacularly as Big & Rich have on Horse of a Different Color. If the present is but a prelude, I shudder to think of how the undeniable politics of exclusion of Nashville's Boys' Club might use Big & Rich to shroud themselves in the guise of liberal guilt. Save a horse? Save us all.
Album Specs: Horse of a Different Color, Big & Rich.
Warner Brothers, WB48520.
5/04/2004.
For Fans Of: Garth Brooks' first three albums, Aerosmith, The Eagles, 80s hair metal, Drive-By Truckers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shania Twain (no, seriously), Southern Culture on the Skids.
Big & Rich are throwing a party, and everybody is invited. With their genrehopping, fence-busting debut album, Horse Of A Different Color, the duo bri...More at Buy.com
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