Rock the Earth, an environment activist group based out of Colorado, has nominated Hot Buttered Rumfor the Planet Defender Award in the “Rocker” category. Hot Buttered Rum has been criss-crossing this god-forsaken in a bio-diesel van playing their own blend of old-time bluegrass and selling merch made from recycled materials. Clamor’s darling reviewer Dave Cantor recently had a listen to the latest from these corn-oil-burning bards:

Hot Buttered Rum
Well-Oiled Machine
Harmonized Records, 2006

Most likely Hot Buttered Rum is referred to as progressive bluegrass. And while playing bluegrass seems less than progressive in the time of electronic production techniques and the mass marketing of hip hop, this band certainly carries on an American tradition. And well at that. A few songs do touch on jazz, but I’ve always maintained that bluegrass, often times, is hillbilly jazz. The band tries their hand at a few slower numbers where the vocals don’t necessarily match the intensity of their instrumentation, but at least they give it a shot. Lyrically, the group creates authentic sounding phrasing, symbolism and vocabulary. My only real complaint is related to the title of the album. This and the track that bears the name “Well-Oiled Machine” references the van that the band travels in, which apparently is fueled by vegetable oil and biodesiel. Frankly, that’s incredible, noteworthy and admirable. However, it makes for a lousy track. A track that falls under the category of forced. The band remains authentic, albeit a bit too hippified for a number of old timey bluegrass aficionados and fans.
-Dave Cantor

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 5:54 pm by Jason Kucsma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.