Jefferson Pepper
American Evolution Vol II - Jefferson Pepper Album Review
Album Review
It is highly fashionable to give America a good shoeing - and of course it should be. Like Britain, the place is full of stereotypes who can utter the word "duh" on a good day and complain bitterly when they don't get their way, even at the most petty of things. Enter Jefferson. He has an axe to grind with his homeland and proceeds to disguise his venom in quaint and pretty Country (for people who hate country says his website) songs that wouldn't sound out of place on Mike Harding's Radio 2 roots programme. "On & On" reminds me of that one-hit wonder song, "I Don't Mind At All" by Bourgeois Tagg from 1988 which is fitting since this album is part of a trilogy covering American history spanning 500 years. This one, "Volume 2" (the white album) covers 1941 - 1989, a seemingly busy period of Vietnam, the economy, poverty and alcoholism as well as drugs. Bit like the few hundred years before and the 20 or so after. Musically it sits in the country periods of Neil Young, James Taylor and Dylan and tells some tales inspired by Pepper's home state.
I can't see many people going for this over here but it is worth your time if you like your good ole boys blessed with a brain and a pedal steel guitar.
