June 2002
Alt.country (or Americana or No Depression) has been around for about ten years now and, while it hasn’t transformed American pop music, it seems to have settled in for a long run. The movement’s progenitors, Uncle Tupelo, had an edge of discovery and freshness. But, as with all things in art that begin new and then become too clearly defined, alt.country can be restrictive. It has for many musicians and critics become more about the appearance of authenticity than about real music. Because of its semi-underground status, alt.country gives bands an aura of hipness and, at the same time, outlaw status. It’s an image a band can wrap itself in. J-200 is a group of capable players, but I think they’re trying this image on for size. The band’s previous experience is described in their bio as "hardcore rockers," "DIY punk," and "avant-pop." Another former band is described as "country toughs." I was going to try to find out what that meant, but I decided the experience would be too dispiriting. I just can’t imagine anyone in the band owning an album by Hank Williams or Merle Haggard. If they do own records by any of the giants of country music, they haven’t listened to them carefully enough to internalize what they heard. Listening to most of Trip From Grace reminded me of Sonny Boy Williamson’s description of his experience with the Yardbirds, "Those British boys want to play the blues real bad. And that’s how they play them." Vocalist Renee A. Giron’s strong voice reminds me of Natalie Merchant’s. She also has Merchant’s unfortunate tendency to sing from her throat on occasion. She’s set at full throttle throughout most of Trip From Grace, but she may not be able to help that -- everyone in the band seems to have his amp cranked to ten. The best tunes are the quietest -- "Caste Away," "If I Slip," and "Slowly" -- because Giron sings with less effort and she gets to express an emotion other than fatigue from trying to stay out of the band’s way. The biggest problem with the disc, aside from the band’s sledgehammer approach, is that the songs aren’t really arranged. The guitarists play in unison instead of reacting to each other, providing harmonic or rhythmic counterpoint. They also seem to use the same tone settings for every tune. A wall of trebly, jangly guitars comes at you for most of the disc’s 34 minutes. Halfway through it I felt punch drunk. Producer Mark Hallman has worked as a recording engineer or producer with a number of artists, including Carole King, Iain Matthews, and Ani DiFranco. His contributions to Eliza Gilkyson’s Lost and Found are among that disc’s high points. Maybe he was giving the band the sound they wanted. He should have tried harder to talk them out of it. What’s so frustrating about Trip From Grace is that it does contain some glimmers of promise. "Slowly," the tune that closes the disc is uncharacteristically subtle. Giron strums an acoustic guitar and sings a beautifully controlled opening while guitarist Jacque Judy plays an occasional chord or arpeggio behind her. Steve Thomas joins them on the second verse, playing pedal steel. When Suzanne Ecklund begins singing harmony on verse three, you can hear how well her voice meshes with Giron’s and how unique this band could sound if the musicians would play in support of these two vocalists instead of over them. There are other hints here that this band may have potential. Giron’s sassy vocal , and Steve Thomas’s slap-back guitar solo on "Broke," suggest that two members of the band, at least, have a feel for Western swing (unfortunately, the drummer doesn’t). "Not Just Now" is a strong country-rock song that has the guitarists playing off each other for once. In fact, the songwriting on the disc shows real promise and a few of these tunes, properly arranged, might have come off more successfully. We don’t need a song called "Big Guitars," however. I suspect J-200 took a talent for writing perfectly good pop songs and tried to shoehorn it into an alt.country sound. They should have taken time to understand the roots of the music first. Listen to Uncle Tupelo’s version of the Carter Family’s "No Depression in Heaven" (available on 89:93: An Anthology, an excellent new compilation on Sony/Legacy) and you won’t doubt for a minute that they loved and respected that music. More important, they were able to take their love for country and folk music and combine it with their similar affection for punk rock and remain true to all. Next time, J-200 ought to work on more than looking cool in cowboy boots. GO BACK TO: |
J-200 - Trip From Grace
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J-200
is an alt.country band from Chicago, where they are part of what their website calls
"the city's white-hot Americana scene." The six-piece band takes its name from
the large-bodied Gibson acoustic guitar favored by, among others, Emmylou Harris. Trip
From Grace is their second disc on what appears to be their own label, Loose Booty
Records. They’re obviously hoping this will be their breakthrough disc. They recorded
it in Austin with a name producer and they’ve given it a nice, expensive-looking
jewel case.