Jack Of Arts

March 10, 2012 – Saturday 12 nn. – Nabla Observer – West Ouigab

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[Tom] This is Tom Klein.

[Charlie] And I'm Charlie Hunt

[Charlie and Tom] Welcome to Music Lab.

[Tom] Why do certain genres seem to sort of just slip across borders?

[Charlie] From places you would not expect. From Tennessee to China, or to the Philippines. You have a song, from a genre you think that is all American, that strangely moves around the world. Some love it, some don't. And when we exploring this question a few years ago, it was an idea we first heard from this man.

(Phil) I'm Phil Jane, musicology professor at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. And I'm a great guitar player.

(Tom) Country music is a genre we usually relate to Texas

(Phil) NASHVILLE!

(Charlie) Or West V.i.r.g.i.nia.

[Tom] Any part of America really. Talks about things like cowboys,

[Charlie] Beer, pick-up trucks. You get the idea.

[Tom] Yep. It has become popular to some of the most unusual places in the world.

(Phil) One good example of that is the popularity of Country Music or Western music over the last 50 or 60 years with certain ethnic groups in the mountains of Northern Philippines.

(Tom) You mean, Lee Baker would be recognizable to somewhere in Northern Philippines?

(Phil) Certainly.

(Tom) Really?...

(Phil) Annabelle Moore is another famous one.

(Tom) Annabelle Moore?

(Phil) Yes. THE Annabelle Moore, the country empress of the 70s to 90s. That Annabelle Moore. She's especially among aboriginal Australians, she's revered like a saint of music.

(Tom) You know, Phil, this is hard to believe.

(Phil) Yes, but it's true. They love Annabelle Moore. You can fill a hall and have a band play Annabelle Moore songs and everybody will know the lyrics. AND. One more artist, who is universally known even more than Lee Baker and Annabelle Moore.

(Tom) Who is it? (Phil) Don Graham. Cue "Tulsa Mountains"

(Tom) So, what if Don Graham were to go to Dar es Salaam or to Zanzibar or to Kenya or someplace and book a concert venue?

(Phil) Don Graham has actually gone to Zimbabwe. In '76 and '83, he filled a soccer stadium with 40,000 people, both times.

(Tom) WHOAW! I just wonder what they hear from country music?

(Phil) I have asked different people; Jamaicans, Germans, Chinese, Aboriginal Australians, Filipinos, Thais "Why do you like country music?" And their answers will be something like "The stories!"

[Charlie] Like, what? The stories that the lyrics tell? (Phil) "I was drunk the day my woman got out of prison. I went to pick her up in the rain, but before I arrived at the station station in my pickup truck, she got run over by some train" or something.

[Charlie] Huh. that doesn't sound very foreign to me.

[Tom] What he's saying is, you ignore the details and listen to the wider story. Migration, regrets, home, industrial work, and your first love. You're missing something. You miss something like…

(Phil) You know, the foggy mountains of home. The expanse of green grass in your backyard.

[Tom] Phil says you can break down country music to just these emotions. You long, you miss for something you left behind.

(Phil) Let's say, Little Old Log Cabin by the Brook, performed by Roger Carson. ~cue music~

[Tom] The song was recorded in 1920s, and that happens to be the time...

(Phil) when America crossed the doorway of agrarian to urban. Before the 1920s, more than 50 percent of Americans were farmers or from the countryside. In the mid-20s, the US Census recorded that 50 percent of Americans became city dwellers

[Tom] This means that it's not an accident. Country music really did burst into popularity when most people no longer lived in the country.

(Phil) Country music is born when the countryside become an idea of nostalgia.

[Tom] So, in America at least, the countryside became a nostalgic escape that was born in Americans' minds when the real countryside slowly disappeared. So if that happens with Americans, then it should be obvious that people who move from the country to the city in Asia, in Africa and Australia might have exactly the same experience.

[Charlie] Okay. But these songs are in English. It's safe to assume that these people from places very very far away from America, don't speak English, so what exactly are they hearing?

[Tom] Well, it's important to understand English, and the hardcore fans of country music do speak English in these places.

[Charlie] But I'm pre~tty sure that many of these country fans don't speak English.

[Tom] Okay. Good point. According to Phil, in people that don't understand the lyrics of country music, the message is actually in the music itself. The vocalization of the singers, the way they play the instruments.

(Phil) One of the most iconic vocal techniques in country music singers call a 'cry break'. A great example of this technique is what you hear throughout yodeling. If such technique was used outside yodeling, they would sound sad. In addition to the voice, is the instrument; the steel guitar, or slide guitar. It is the iconic instrumental representation of a crying human voice. That's why it's also called the 'crying steel'

[Tom] You can hear the longing from the vocal techniques and the crying guitar. With country songs, you can feel that things simply aren't the way they were before. All over the world where large chunks of the population migrate from the country side to the cities, country music's story is something all these people can relate to.

[Charlie] So when Phil said that Don Graham filled a stadium in Zimbabwe, you can say that he was singing their stories?

(Phil) Exactly. This is not just Country Music that is named after the "country side" but a story of all literal countries. We're all going through the same thing.

{{{{{Commercial Break}}}}}

[Tom] We're back and we've just heard a story about country music that traveled across the world in patches. That story is actually connected to our main story tonight.

[Charlie] And that story is what I covered about a mysterious young man from Teungeb who left his mark in Nashville during his one month stay in the city.

(Henry) I first met him when he came one night in my bar to attend the bar's open mic night. [Charlie] This is Henry Spencer, the manager of the famous Blackbird Café.

(Henry) I recognized immediately the musician in him when he showed me a video of his on the internet.

[Charlie] and this is the video that Henry was referring to ~ cue monna park busking ~

[Tom] Hmm. So he's a … foreign musician? Why come all the way to Nashville?

[Charlie] That… that would come later. So from the video, what genre of music was he playing? [Tom] I don't know. Some folk rock, acoustic. My music vocabulary isn't vast enough.

[Charlie] Yes but that's just the surface.

*Ding Dong*(Bobby) May I help you?

(Charlie) Hello. I'm Charlie Hunt from WTEN. We talked on the phone?

(Bobby) Oh. Hello. Come in. Sorry it's a mess here, we were just practicing. This is Rez…

[Charlie] That is Bobby Elliot from the recently famous Strawberry Front

[Tom] W-what?! Ha-ha! You managed to talk to him?

[Charlie] Yes. Not just him, but the whole band, but Bobby is like their spokesperson. This interview was also done before they just released their recent album.

[Tom] I see. [Charlie] So, anyway…

(Bobby) Where were we? Oh. Isaac. Yeah. Well, I don't really know much about him aside from some of the stories he told us about his home and his music. All we know is that he's the type of musician and singer who can make and perform music of different genres.

(Rez) Not everyone can do that…

[Charlie] That's the lead guitar of the band.

(Charlie) So, when did you notice he started becoming popular?

(Bobby) Well. He started playing in last week of November last year at Blackbird Café. At first, the audience was not used to a Pacific Islander playing country, but once they heard him play, they were all blown away. Not only the patrons of the bars, but also the other musicians who play on the same night as him.

[Charlie] So, Tom, do you have any idea who we're talking about?

[Tom] I have no clue. But this is getting interesting.

[Charlie] Good, let's continue.

(Bobby) At first, he was able to earn a niche group of fans that became regular customers during the nights he played. But his fame really started growing after playing as the first musician for Red Abbey Sessions.

[Charlie] He's referring to the YouTube Channel of Red Abbey Lager.

[Tom] Oohh.. hohoho. I think I have an idea now.

[Charlie] Can you tell us your guess then?

[Tom]It's Isaac! You've chosen a good topic this episode, Charlie.

[Charlie] Well, thank you, Tom! Anyway…

(Rez) It's actually a funny situation …

[Charlie] That's Rez again, the guitarist of Strawberry Front

(Rez) He was practically unknown when he was staying here, but when he left, that's where he started becoming really popular. His videos exactly are viewed hundreds of thousands of times ~cue Tayaw's song in Red Abbey~

[Charlie] but currently; the videos are now viewed in the millions.

[Tom] Hmm. I've listened to this many times. I still can't believe it's written just recently. So, what happened to him? Where is he now?