The Tone Room in Oxford, MS has just released a fun video. "Rattle On" is basically a country song--and the first such song I've written. Chance Moore is a 100% country boy from Okolona, Mississippi. When I heard him sing this song for the first time, about two years ago in the Tone Room studios as I strummed chords behind him, it was all over. He took the vocal melody I'd come up with and made it his.
The song as produced, though, isn't really country, and it's not really blues. It's basically a rockabilly groove with Jerry Reed attitude. I hope you like it.
If you sample the other tracks on the album--hit the links above--you'll hear country music. This one track is different from the rest. The difference is in the bluesy harmonica, the two-beat cocktail drums, and the thumping upright bass. It's jumped-up country mixed with rhythm & blues. It's twang and blues. That's my definition of rockabilly. But everybody is welcome to call it what they want. It certainly doesn't sound like the stuff played on contemporary country radio. Or at least that's what the folks in Nashville told the producer.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jan 02, 2016 6:54 PM
Adam, you may be right, but I think that there is an area where rockabilly and country converge. It is all labels anyway...
I liked your song and just to add confusion about labels, here is a song that I always thought of as country, though maybe I should say "jumped-up country mixed with rhythm and blues."
Adam, you wrote a good song, it is well sung, and as usual, your harp is great! I like the video. Who cares if it is what they call "country" these days! ----------
I'd call the music more into the Outlaw country genre of the 70's-80's .. listened to most of the samples and Merle Haggard , Waylon Jennings come to mind, cause it certainly isn't the traditional country music of Hank Sr. , Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff , Chet Atkins etc .. imo
I like it : ) !
Last Edited by mastercaster on Jan 03, 2016 12:03 AM
I think we're all hearing the same thing. When I called it rockabilly, I certainly wasn't suggesting that it sounded like Gene Vincent or The Stray Cats. (It certainly doesn't have that kind of heavily reverbed guitar sound.) I was talking about a certain kind of heavy two-beat, propelled by acoustic guitar (a la early Elvis) and a snare, that is characteristic of rockabilly, along with the substitution of blues harmonica and piano where country would tend to supply fiddle, banjo, and/or pedal steel guitar. The raw, stripped-down production makes it veer somewhat away from today's radio-friendly country sounds. The rest of the album, on the other hand, is reasonably close to the contemporary country pocket. This song is an audible outlier on the album. My initial hope, in fact, was that we might convince blues DJs to give it a while. (Early Elvis, for what it's worth, feel into precisely this programming gap. His first Sun sides, including "Blue Moon of Kentucky," were played mostly on black radio and were taken as black R&B.)
The producer wanted me in the video, despite my objections, because he heard the song as a sort of meeting ground between country and blues. That's why I'm dressed in my usual gigging black, rather than denim (although with a little play on the "hayseed" hat): blues guy in the truck.
The strange thing about the lyrics is that they are also a hybrid of blues and country. The song references the devil, mojo, poverty, a broken heart, and the word "blue." It's got so much bad stuff falling down on the singer that it's supposed to be laughable. Laughing to keep from crying: that is the blues ethos, through and through But it's also got God, and Chance's deep country twang saying "doggone," and a truck.
As for the harmonies on the bridge: you'd flunk if you did that in music school. I just wasn't very good in music school. :)
Rattle On
You’ve just lost your job, and your heart is breakin’ down You’ve just lost your baby and you’re feeling blue Your..mojo’s gone and the fat lady just sang her song There’s only one thing that you-oo-oo can do
CHORUS: Rattle on, my brother….keep on truckin’ along Rattle on little sister too…. Rattle on, everybody…don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause one of these days…the winner’s gonna be you
You try to be a good man, but you keep on messin’ up You try to get it right but you get it wrong You’ve…lost your touch, but you’re too damn mean to give it up There’s only one thing that you-oo-oo can do
CHORUS: Rattle on, my brother….keep on truckin’ along Rattle on little sister too…. Rattle on, everybody…don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause one of these days…the winner’s gonna be you
BRIDGE: IV………………………………………. You can say I’m just a…..doggone fool I………………………………………… Well I don’t give a damn if you do ……III7………………..VI7 The good lord knows….he messed up and it shows II7 #V7…V7………#V7..V7………II...bIII.. And the devil doesn’t want my kind of….heart-wrecked….ship-wrecked….wheels- III..IV..bV……….V7#9……. falling-off kind of loo-oo-zer.
HARMONICA SOLO
Seems like the bad guy….always gets the girl Seems like the good guy just gets screwed It…ain’t no fair, but if you wanna keep from crackin’ up There’s only one thing that you-oo-oo can do
CHORUS: Rattle on, my brother….keep on truckin’ along Rattle on little sister too…. Rattle on, everybody…don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause one of these days…the winner’s gonna be you
OUTRO [repeat “one of these day, the winner’s gonna be you” 3x??]
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jan 03, 2016 6:10 AM
