Rock-tober 18, 2018

One of the original rules of Rock-tober was an emphatic "no music created past 1989 shall impinge upon these pages". This was a severe (over)reaction on my part to my distaste of a music scene awash with prepubescent boy bands and diva wannabees so prevalent in the 90's. It seemed a travesty that the heir apparent of songs like "Carry on Wayward Son", whose profound lyrics were a trove of symbolism waiting to be unpacked, was an inane "Mbop, ba duba dop".

This statute has been relaxed, if not rescinded, for a couple of reasons. For one, the music scene itself underwent its own self correction as boy bands grew up and aged out and divas in training imploded.

For another, over five years of Rock-tober posts equate to more than 155 songs. This far outstripped the content of my typical playlist. If this project was to continue, I'd need to find new material. This has been a surprisingly satisfying burden and launched me on a continuing 5 year quest of musical discovery. Along the way I encountered old classics that were new to me as well as new tunes that were worthy successors to the tracks of GWC's Most Awesome Mix Tape, Volume I.

Besides, I don't want to be the caricatured old guy cloistered in his home and caught in a musical time capsule listening to nothing but Lawrence Welk and Mantovani records while everyone moved on to the grooviness of Woodstock's alumni. I'd still like to be flicking my Bic and flashing the "rock on" sign well into my 90's.

Blackberry Smoke is part of the new generation donning the Southern Rock mantle as the torch is passed from such giants as the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their southern pedigree started with their formation in Atlanta in 2000 and they proved the veracity of this lineage by headlining for none other than Skynrd themselves as well as my watering hole buds, ZZ Top.

To date they've released six studio albums. Four, including their most recent released this year, cracked the top 10 list, and two of these peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Country chart. "Ain't Much Left of Me" is off 2012's Whippoorwill. It takes the familiar country music trope of being friendless and penniless and turns it into, by the group's own description, a musical opus. From its opening line, "Well my fall from grace was a sight to see," I was hooked. Its refrain, "Well I've been rained on, rode hard, and put up wet," was a succinct summation of past episodes in my own life. The total relatability of "Ain't Much Left of Me" earned it a spot and constant playtime on GWC's Most Awesome Mix Tape, Volume II.