Whitey Morgan & The 78s bring Classic Country to Culture Clash
Published: 10/14/2010 7:00 am By: Ryan A. Bunch
At the core of country music is
not-quite geography, but economy. It's bad times that cause good
country songs. After all, before it became over-popped and
commercialized, it was the white man's blues. So, it's no surprise
that a band from Flint, Michigan is making some of the most sincere,
traditional country music out there.
Recalling the hey-day of the best of the classic '70s outlaws - Hank Jr., Waylon, Willie, David Allan Coe, Johnny Paycheck - Whitey Morgan & the 78s (signed to Bloodshot Records, home of all things cool) make badass, rugged country the way it was meant to be heard, loud and raw perched atop a bar stool with a cold beer in your hand. A little achin' in your heart certainly ain't gonna hurt neither.
Playing a select few covers - including a great country-fried version of Runnin' With the Devil, which translates surprisingly well - and a vintage-ready mix of bar room brawl originals, Whitey Morgan and the boys seem to prove show after show that genuine honky-tonk music ain't dead, that in fact, it's alive and well where the social-economic conditions are right. That happens to be 100 miles north of the Mason-Dixon, in a town that out-poors the poorest of the south.
If you've got an itch for a new version of that classic, outlaw country sound, crack a Pabst and tell your ol' lady or yer ol' man that you "ain't gonna be drunk, just drinkin'" on the afternoon of Saturday, October 16, because Whitey Morgan & The 78s are playing a free in-store at Culture Clash Records (4020 Secor) at 3 p.m. before they edge on down to Columbus, OH for a show later that evening. www.thecultureclash.com
