American Evolution Volume 1 - Jefferson Pepper Album Review
Jefferson Pepper
Album Review
While America tends to set the trends in terms of musical fashion, there's one genre which has incredible popularity Stateside but has failed to make any serious in-roads anywhere else in the road. The country genre is, according to the press release accompanying this album,
Sappy, cliche, inane, jingoistic, insipid lyrical content with formulaic chord progressions and instrumentation.
American country musician Jefferson Pepper has decided to counter this by building upon the critical success 2006's protest album, Christmas in Fallujah, with this ambitious project of covering the majority of American history over three albums - red, white and blue. The first, the red album and the one reviewed here is built on the period from 1492 to 1940, and this is matched by the musical accompaniment, which is awash with fiddles and banjo backing. For those that don't like any kind of country music, this isn't the kind of album that's going to change their mind anytime soon, despite the press release's promise that Jefferson Pepper
sings country music for people who hate country music.
What really sets Pepper apart from the much maligned mainstream genre is the quality of the lyrics. They're sharp, succinct, to the point and objective. When Pepper is on form he is inspired, and he's at his best when railing against right wing republican values with lyrics such as:
I can pretend that we're always on the moral side, charging at them fuelled with jingoistic pride.
...referring to Gettysburg. Pepper doesn't stop there though, and rails equally against religious indoctrination in 'Dam in the River':
Why would we rebel against rational thought when it contradicts what we've been taught, and why is science the enemy of everything good in the land of the free?
Unfortunately, when the lyrics aren't present, the instrumentals often feel a bit flat and unoriginal, and when his lyrics lose their ascorbic punch, they have a tendency to turn to the saccharine and meandering. Take 'Paperback Romance' for example: a slushy tale of an orphaned girl getting together with a boy who was picked on at school for having a stutter, when all she expected from life was "a paperback romance from the second hand store". As soon as Pepper's lyrics lose their bite, it becomes apparent that the music can be a little drab, predictable and repetitive in places - completely at odds with Pepper's promise to do away with the aspects of country music that so many hate.
For all this, it's a fascinating project that Pepper has taken on, and his insightful and often angry lyrics provide some thought-provoking sentiment. It'll be interesting to hear his views on more contemporary issues on the American dream over the next two volumes, both due for release before the end of the year.
