More Hoedown Than Ho...

A few year's back Jaz was in an old motorised junkyard chugging around the small North Carolinian college town of Chapel Hill when the passenger with iPod discretion stopped scrolling at a moment-perfect soundtrack. Though unaware in that car, this song would later come to sum up my experience of spending a semester on exchange in Hicksville, USA: a bewildering, often bizarre but nonetheless weirdly endearing time. The nightmare scenario of suffering my own miniature version of Deliverance thankfully never came to pass.

The Gourds (the men responsible for said track) are from Texas, mainly play bluegrass, share one member with alt.countrymen Wilco, and have albums with titles which include, Cow Fish Fowl or Pig and Haymaker! With that in mind, consider what would happen if some farmer-tanned NASCAR enthusiast triple-dared them to rap along to a jam of his choice if they couldn't stay on the mechanical bull for ten seconds. Imagine what it would sound like were that rap to be gangsta ladykiller Snoop Dogg (then Snoop Doggy Dogg)'s second single, Gin & Juice. We're not in Long Beach anymore, Toto. Described by one commenting YouTube-r as "EPIC", it must be heard to be believed. Below is the full countrified apple pie version - bitchin' and "funky ass shit" included:




The Doggfather is currently awaiting a decision on whether he will ever be allowed re-entry to the UK following his outburst at Heathrow Airport four years ago. Let's hope it's a good outcome. Snoop Dogg topping the bill at T In The Park is definitely more enticing than today's news that Eminem will be 'doing a Jay-Z' in Scotland this summer.

Jaz x