Pinmonkey
Speak No Evil
Drifter's Church

by William Michael Smith

Nashville's Pinmonkey has something few bands can manage these days but many are attempting. The Pinmonkey sound is grounded on the chops of two wings of traditional country music, bluegrass and honky tonk, but it contains an updated, modern element that, with superb recording and production, actually makes it palatable to commercial country radio in a way that the Oh, Brother soundtrack will never be despite monster sales figures and multiple Grammys. In other words, Pinmonkey has developed that magic Silver Bullet Nashville is desperately seeking: a sound that will appeal to mainstream country listeners without making the fans of traditional and alt.country who have essentially turned country radio off scream "sell outs!"

Pinmonkey has a lot in common with the sound that took Ricky Skaggs from being the bluegrass heir apparent early in his career to mainstream country superstar when he expanded outside the traditional bluegrass sound in 1981. Given Nashville's frequent recent admissions that the country sound has been narrowed so much that they've lost significant segments of their former market, particularly men and fans of traditional country music, Pinmonkey seems to be exactly the type of act that solves several sticky problems for record companies. They've got an overcrowded field of Tim McGraws and Toby Keiths and Kenny Chesneys. What they need are acts with roots credibilty, something they can tout as being "true to the roots of country music" but that McGraw/Keith/Chesney fans won't run in horror from and that dispossessed fans who loath the McGraw/Keith/Chesney set will buy. Even before the independent release Speak No Evil was on the shelves, the band had a huge buzz around it. It comes as no surprise that RCA has made Pinmonkey an offer it couldn't refuse.

Lead singer Michael Reynolds' high, crisp, clear tenor is similar to Skaggs' and Pinmonkey's music compares to the music Skaggs made that rapidly took him from bluegrass sideman to the top of commercial country music in the mid-80s. Like Skaggs, Pinmonkey mixes elements of bluegrass and conventional country music in interesting and appealing ways. On the opening track, the Carter Family's "Lonesome Pine Special," Chad Jeffers' overdriven dobro lead hot-picking is backed by a solid rhythm section consisting of one of East Nashville's top drummers, Rick Schell (Duane Jarvis, Allison Moorer), and bassist Michael Jeffers, who give the track plenty of energetic kick. But the Pinmonkey hook is the sophisticated yodel-augmented harmonies that come from the bluegrass tradition but have been infused with uncommon vigor and spot-on tightness. When combined with the straight-from-the-hollows-and-hills lyric, the track comes across as both timeless and modern. There's plenty of bluegrass sound, but my instinct tells me that people who turn their noses up at bluegrass will find this acceptable, even likeable.

Speak No Evil is split between tasty covers of the best of left-side-of-Nashville songwriting and some promising originals by Reynolds. One reason I am drawn to Pinmonkey in spite of some of the slickness (exemplified by their rock-solid version of Gwil Owen's "Augusta") is that they've selected songs from true modern Americana artists like Gillian Welch, Joy Lynn White, and Duane Jarvis rather than primarily sticking with material from the well known Nashville songwriting quantities as so many other new acts hoping for the big break and commercial success tend to do. (It bears watching to see how much Americana and left-side-of-Nashville material RCA's A&R executives will allow Pinmonkey to include on the first major label release.) The band delivers a smooth, soulful version of Welch's "Two Days from Knowing," and their twanging version of the Joy Lynn White/Duane Jarvis tune, "Love Sometimes," has country hit written all over it. Reynolds' singing has the roughest bluegrass edges smoothed off without losing any country edge, the harmonies are again ear-hooking, and Jeffers' guitar work on the track is the equal of any coming out of the radio these days while avoiding all the cliché licks that have become so standardized on most country hits as to sound as though they are programmed.

The other reason to like Pinmonkey besides the fact that they are so talented they could sing and play an Al Gore speech and make it sound great is that Reynolds' originals have more an Americana flavor than a Nashville formula-for-hits structure. Three of the four Reynolds originals are stellar efforts. "Black Train" comes straight from a long line of bluegrass constructs, although with Schell and Mike Jeffers weighing in heavily the track takes on a modern honky tonk/country radio veneer over the high, wistful wail of Reynolds' vocal.

The two tracks that most grab me are the road band cheating song, "Cheap Motel," and the Nashville old-timer's lament, "Nothing But Livin'." "Motel," with Jeffers' smooth slide guitar and the rhythm section giving a rock feel to this cheater's confession, is another Pinmonkey song we are liable to hear on smartly stocked jukeboxes.

A stark naked light bulb in a room with no view
This coffee tastes bitter, this whiskey tastes new
I lied when I told you my dreams all came true
And it's a helluva ride, leaves me empty inside
And livin' in cheap motel rooms

Another big city, one more face with no name
And it's miles to the edge of the bed where I lay
The cracks in the ceiling spell out all my shame
And it's a helluva ride, leaves me empty inside
And livin' in cheap motel rooms

"Nothing But Livin'" is one Pinmonkey song we certainly won't be hearing on the radio or quite probably on any of their major label releases. It's just a little too lyrically salty, a bit too sardonic in its sampling of reality for the country music gatekeepers or the record label moneymen who are surely planning to exercise some control of Pinmonkey's future repertoire. With its false jauntiness and mammoth harmonies, this track compares to songs like Waylon Jennings' "Nashville Bum," Tom T. Hall's "The Year Clayton Delaney Died," and Houston Marchman's "Hank's Angels," and may well be Pinmonkey's last completely honest musical statement before RCA explains the fine print realities of major label deals to them. Typically, this is one of my favorite Pinmonkey tracks.

Young man, young man, you don't know who I am
But I used to be just like you
Well I'd dance and I'd sing, I was the prettiest thing
With nothing but livin' to do
Around and around, through every juke joint in town
The high life was all that I knew
But I thought life was fine, I had my friends, my dope, my wine
And nothing but livin' to do

Now everywhere I'd go, I'd walk high and proud
Anything on my mind, well, I spoke it right out loud
I was king of the world, oh, but still just a fool
With nothing but livin' to do

It will be interesting to see how Pinmonkey fares with the critics and their natural fan base in Americana going forward, particularly after they've had their sound analyzed and focus-grouped umpteen times by hard-eyed major label money men with country radio airplay and the attendant record sales as their top priority. With a traditional-based sound that distinctly sets it apart from the assembly line country-rock or country-pop sounds that dominate the charts today, the band certainly seems to offer the attributes necessary to counter the saccharine blandness that country music radio and record executives are so heavily blamed for currently. On the other hand, although still well within the bounds of the genre, the Pinmonkey sound is already slick by Americana standards and will likely be found wanting by some music writers as well as by traditional and alt.country fans.

Whatever happens, it will certainly be a shame if this becomes another band with mega-talent and potential that is steered toward the musical tastes of 18-35-year old housewives (not that it won't be an improvement in the listening habits of this market segment that has an abnormally high influence on the country music gatekeepers). In fact, if RCA can get that segment to listen to Pinmonkey, who knows, maybe Oh, Brother might get to be on mainstream radio some day. Meanwhile as we await Pinmonkey's first major label release, we have their smooth listening Speak No Evil that seems to hold a promise of good things to come. We can only hope that there will be no need to speak evil of them in the future and that their intriguing mixture of traditional and modern won't be recast by the commercial forces that will soon swirl around it like sharks after a tasty mullet.

* Pinmonkey will play its first Houston engagement at the Firehouse Saloon May 10. Check out the band at www.pinmonkey.net

© William Michael Smith 2002


Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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