Mrs. bumper and I went to the Broken Spoke tonight to see Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys -of whom one is our neighbor. I know this is probably one of those things that people just don’t say, but I feel like I have to warn you: that’s not the best chicken fried steak in Texas. I’m pretty certain of this. The band, however was great.
I have been taking in quite a bit of both kinds of music lately and I have got to comment that The Nashville Sound has got to be the worst thing to happen to any genre of music. Worse than keyboards to rock and roll, worse than Kenny G. to jazz.
A country band should have no more than one bowed instrument and that instrument should be a violin. a band can add an additional violin, but it needs to be made clear that it’s a twin fiddle show so people can avoid it if they want. There are some things that should go without saying about appropriate instrumentation and arrangement. (I’m pretty sure I heard an oboe in a Glen Campbell song) In fact the word “arrangement” probably shouldn’t come up.