Review Summary: blue-grass re-hash
Trouble is the third album from Trampled by Turtles, a Duluth, Minnesota outfit. Trouble features notable improvements on the genre of bluegrass music despite its being billed as “traditional bluegrass.”
Traditional bluegrass music features the best of gospel music and folk music, and its influences can be seen in early rock and roll. Despite similarities to other genres, bluegrass music is unique and separate.
A typical bluegrass outfit features five instruments – fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and banjo. The center piece of the bluegrass band – aside from the vocalist – is the mandolin. The mandolin player is generally the band leader (after Bill Monroe's example), though each instrument has its own niche. Responsibilities for vocals are shared, and more than one member of the band is expected to vocalize with the rest of the group and on their own depending on the song choice.
Among the more traditional bluegrass numbers are “Valley” “Arming of Infants” "Like An Empty House" and “Stranger.” “Valley” directly references a favorite theme of bluegrass music, the valley. (The significance of the valley is different in different bluegrass songs, but the valley motif itself is present in many different generations of bluegrass music.)
Trouble features three instrumental pieces “Ceiling Slide” “Tap the Kitchen Floor” and “Spoiler,” all of which are in the style of the traditional bluegrass classics “Old Mountaineering Man” and “The Orange Blossom.” These songs feature banjo and fiddle solos as well as a solo by the mandolin, but the mandolin figures most prominently in each of these songs for its “singing,” almost ringing, bell-like qualities.
Trouble is different from traditional bluegrass music (in places) in that it features 1) slowed down tempo 2) less prominent mandolin instrumentation in favor of a more prominent male lead vocal part 3) drum percussion in place of slapped upright bass and 4) electric guitar and bass on a few songs. “Who’s Calling?” is an example of how Trampled by Turtles has updated the genre to fit into the 21st century using this formula. “Never Again” is a satirical song for the 21st century schizoid man in all of us, with lyrics like:
I’ll never write another song again
‘Cause they all sound the same
And I should be ashamed
And I’m breaking my guitar
As soon as I get home
I’ll never have another drink again
Because I woke up on the floor
I can’t remember anymore
And it’s going down the drain
As soon as I get home
Never again
Never again
I’ll never smoke another cigarette
‘Cause it smells like ***
I can’t afford to pay for it
And I’ll break ‘em in half
As soon as I get home
I’m never gonna fall in love again
‘Cause they’ll break you in two
And there ain’t nothing you can do
And I’m unplugging my phone
As soon as I get home
Never again
Never again
So on and so forth… Trouble (album) is simultaneously a rehash, an update, and an improvement on traditional bluegrass. Its name-sake song “Trouble” is perhaps the best here, though it is markedly different from traditional bluegrass in many respects (see the list above for clarification of these differences).
Though bluegrass originated elsewhere by its father Bill Monroe, bluegrass has found a home in Minnesota. To illustrate this point, consider that in their movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Joel and Ethan Coen featured bluegrass music as a central part of the plot line, in addition to “Man of Constant Sorrow” popularized by the Minnesota artist Bob Dylan. Trampled by Turtles is another Duluth, Minnesota artist that has popularized the genre, again.
I need to jam this too though
