Monday, October 31, 2005

yippee... and allsorts

November's galloping in with its full force. Up on these latitudes it means short dull gray days and long, cold, rainy nights - the suicide season at its best. But no worries, we're all in good spirits.
Had another go last Thursday with Pat E, the drummer (not related to Sheila), who is actually the guy behind the whole C & W-project idea. Now, Pat E is a big strong man, who likes to play his drums loud. Meaning LOUD. Well, he did bring two pairs of rodsticks with him, which was a mercyful gesture from his side. It is amazing how LOUD one can be, even when using those things.
Enough with teasing the poor fellow, he is the nicest of persons. Couple of sessions to come to find out whether he likes our new, more acoustic & vocal- oriented approach to the material. Let's keep the thumbs up for that.
AaHiiJ is out there playing pop for the masses again. So before Nov 10th there is not much to do but to check out the music of Rodney Crowell, who has another refreshing angle to the music.
T-Rox , All-U and SaM had the pleasure of meeting mr Jason Ringenberg the other day at Club Tavastia here in Helsinki. What a guy: nice, polite, intelligent, fun. Also excellent songwriter and a charismatic performer. Touring solo just with a guitar (at least in Europe) does not seem to be a problem: The bigger the stage, the bigger the act... Fun, crazy stuff... Strongly recommended to anybody foolish enough to read this blog. =)
Take care now...
SaM

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

der countrü-wagen

Achtung! Achtung!
Der Blogschpotfzl seemsch to have schomething againstz publisching picturesch of T-Rox wünderschön Countrü-Wagen. Hier ist one more try. (Hope it will funkzion better than the previousch.)
T-Rox hasch our becoming Tour-Busch in approximately zwei million piezesch in another zecret locazion. He has schworn an oath to have the vehicle running by 2009. So, all you Ingrids, Helgas, Gertas (Reinhardts und Helmuts, perhapsch?) You schtill have to hold on before you can try to get a ride on this beauty ...and with all the hairy, sweaty, schmelling hippie Lederhosen-Cowboüs it containsch.

Auf WiederSchmeisser!
Der SaMpfhzl

Monday, October 24, 2005

name competition, once more...

The name competition for our lovely logo-person here has four entries for the time being:

1.
Bubba Ray
2.
Kalmala

3.
Earlberg
4.
Pekka

Bubba Ray seems to be the favorite for now. There is still plenty of room for new suggestions as the competition time ends on the 31st December.
As you remember, the prize for the winning suggestion is two almost free tickets to the first Country & Westerinen show ever!
So Carpe Diem!

SaM

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

but if one prefers these guys...


Hmmm... allsorts of moral & political questions this activity wakes in ones mind. Is country music political? Does one accept the dumbest one-eyed American values, when going Jii-Haa!? What if one has preferred these guys to cowboys when a kid, and still does? Any ideas, anyone?
Btw. The reahearsal was good last Thursday. The new hideout needs a bit of lighting design - among other things - but it its surely gonna be fine, too. Hooka-Hey! SaM

Thursday, October 13, 2005

right, could have guessed...

We are proud ...well ..ish to present the product which some of us anticipated appearing to this forum already yesterday.
Terrible. Well, luckily there is a rehearsal tonight. One gets to do something real instead of writing bs to this blog. There has been two weeks since the last session, since AaHiiJ was out there playing music to make a living.
Report on current proceedings can be expected tomorrow!

Meanwhile, keep on... eh... Jii-Haa-ing?

SaM

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

counterattack...

T-Rox - as a passionate smoker - got carried away with the picture in the previous post. 30 seconds spent with photoshop and - voilá - the first item in Country & Westerinen -merchandise catalogue sees the daylight. If it starts with a pack of cigarrettes, one is already scared of where it could lead to... own whiskey-label, herbal collection, condoms, whips and all sorts of intimate gadgets... NO! HELP! STOP THE MAN!
Now, T-Rox is the lead character in the groups public image. The idea of making him look a bit dangerous, suspicious, bad, reckless, bohéme and all that came from our cunning marketing department. In real life he is the nicest, most polite guy, with charming table manners and with a steady job. Always eager to help grandmas and such over the street. He is. Really, he is... No bullshit... Absolutely... I guess... In a way... Sort of... Kinda.. =)

SaM

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

why do covers?

"Why do yoy guys play covers?
Why don´t you do your own music?

The questions have been asked in couple of occasions. Eh. Umm. There are couple of practical answers to this:
The music we play is music we like, and the set is full of such great songs that an average songwriter hardly can put one of those together in a lifetime.
If one thinks of band not only as a group of players but an instrument in itself, it takes time to create a sound that really works with this style of music. Having something already made to chew on (and compare to) is not such a bad way to begin with. Once the instrument is "in tune" it does not matter where the performed material comes from.
For the same reasons we have not seriously thought about translating these songs into Finnish. At least not when sober. It would really not make any sense, since the "mental soil" these songs breed from is completely different to ours. And again, Finnish as a language works so differently in lyrics that it is more likely to end up with a bad translation that does not work as a song either. And there would be some legal issues to deal with as well.
So, for the time being, it is more a matter of getting this thing together. Who knows, if we do not kill each other doing this, a Country & Westerinen original song might appear.
Now the general uproar has landed to the U.K. - and on a bit more official level, as you can see on the left.

SaM

Monday, October 10, 2005

neighbours upset...

Yep. In Russia they seem to be fed up with the wait. Come on, guys! Give us a wee bit of time still. If it eases your minds any, we can reveal that Country & Westerinen is going to the studio on Thursday this week. But only to do some more rehearsing. When we finally get on stage you´ll be the first to know.

Oh My... news bulletin: Somebody has made an bluegrass-cover album out of HIM-material. Guess what is it called? Haha. "Heartagrass", naturally.

SaM

footwear dilemma...


The boot on the left here is a traditional
Finnish "lapikas". The one on the right is
what you are supposed to wear when playing country music. Should one be faithful to ones heritage, and go for lapikas? Or shoud one try to imitate the "real" American style?
Man... This is difficult...
Help!
SaM

Friday, October 07, 2005

are we european cowpersons... no!

To be politically correct, one ought to at least take in consideration the possibility of doing the country-thing in an European way. Us Finns being representatives of the "top-of-the-class" -member state of the EU. That would mean that before the Turks join in th EU, there is 27 nations and at least as many languages to cover.
Then there´s the fact of gender politics. In modern European democracies it is close to blasphemy to call somebody "cowBOY" by occupation. No way, for example a "cowboy hat" is:
"domestic bovine animal regardless of sex or age -persons hat".
At the moment there is about 20 songs in the set we are rehearsing. There needs to be more. Lot of translation to be done as well. One to each EU-language.
Like... eh..
Um das nicht Country ist, Ich weiss nicht was ist...
(If that ain´t country, I don´t know what is)
Från Södertelje, ner till Mjölby, Vätterns vatten smakar härrligt...
(From Carolina, down to Georgia, open arms are waiting for ya)
How about it?
SaM

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

next summer...

Once the PANIK ÜBER FRANKFURT -TOUR 2006 is done, some of the bagfuls of money earned are to be spent on this (t.b.c.): Couple of weeks driving thru the scenery some of the material originates from. Meeting people, listening to some good music. Occasional beer,even a shot of rye might be in place.
How come such an attack of foolish romanticism? Can not help it. Listening to wonderful bluegrass/country dobro-player Jerry Douglas on his solo album Look Out For Hope will do the trick for anybody.
If our guitarman All-U is going to go too, there is no question about the ride.
It is here. Mustang Mach I -73.

Have a nice day, everybody.

SaM

Monday, October 03, 2005

reminder... name competition

A name competition for this lovely character on the right has been declared, closing 31st Dec 05. The winner will get almost free tickets for 2 to the first ever Country & Westerinen gig in Finland (t.b.a).

He can not be Eddie, thats taken already...
How about Maisie, Reinhardt, Ulysses, Olivia?

C´mon now. Give us Your best shot!

Cheers,

SaM

tour production trucks??

While our lead singer T-Rox is still working on getting the tour bus into one piece (1957 VW-Microbus, its adventures in Finnish at poikakerho.blogspot.com) another challenge here...
There´s no way that a band with our status & self-esteem would travel with the gear, or the crew ("which crew?", some might ask), so we need a truck for our production.
Here in the picture you can find a reasonably sized vehicle for our purposes. Does anyone know, if these are still in the market? Or where they can be bought?
I tried to label the trailer with the logo of the upcoming tour. Unfortunately I did not remember the name of the tour correctly, neither could I get the false title off the picture. What we are - naturally - talking about is the
"PANIK ÜBER FRANKFURT 2006" -TOUR
Yours truly,
SaM

Saturday, October 01, 2005

speculations...

Somehow- from a 40-year-old persons point of view - it seems that rock and pop music does not renew itself, it does not develop to any direction. Most of the groovy melody-combinations in that field have been played in for numerous times.

It it refreshing to hear that new melodies and fresh approaches can still be found. The direction where they come from is somewhat surprising. One would not think that anything related to country music would be renewing anything, just vice versa.

To a player / musician getting involved with this
material, there is plenty of things to fuss around with.
Lots of stylish licks and hooks
combined to unquestionnable skill.

Otherwise playing country-music does not make any kind
of sense - at least not in Finland. There is an approximate
potential audience of three. Of course friends
and relatives not included.
So the catch - or the (corn) beef - is somewhere else.
Definitely not in the commercial value of the activity.
Just wondering, what the catch might be...
By the way, a solution for the appearance-issue in the
previous post revealed itself:
In the excellent Coen-brothers movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" the great band - Soggy Bottom Boys - is very much hillbilly- both in music and appearance. Now - theres an idea...

SaM