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Scott Copeland's producer, The Great Divide's Mike McClure, describes him as "an Okie Todd Snider without the whine." Like Snider, Copeland looks for subtle humor and pathetic oddities in the everyday humdrum of the white trash panorama. Some of his work is very funny, some of it is sophomoric, Beavis-and-Butthead stoner college kid humor that "serious people" will scoff at. But despite frequent references to getting stoned and smoking weed and recovering from hangovers, there is considerable depth to Copeland's work. "Paranoid Schizo Blues," written and sung with McClure, is a country-rocking free-for-all that takes its musical direction from The Great Divide's sound. With a sound that is unmistakably Red Dirt in origin, this is college club Americana rock that is particularly at home currently in Texas and Oklahoma. You're a paranoid schizophrenic Copeland's specialty is antic slacker anthems that will appeal primarily to 20 Somethings. His primary form of musical delivery is wry, flippant, and who-cares-let's-party, but like Snider he can also deliver a wistful, why-is-the-whole-world-against-me tune. In truth, "Rolling Down Hill" has more in common with John Prine's wry slyness and twisted vision than with Snider's and represents Copeland's thoughtful, serious songwriting side. Up this morning at the crack of dawn 'Cause I'm rollin' down hill What Copeland lacks in voice he makes up for in soulful presentation and in skewed vision. In "Upon My Shoulder," Copeland sings about that little alter-ego man sitting on his shoulder that seems to be sending him down the wrong path in life and always demanding his due. I'm getting older, I just know I am He's back in Snider me-against-the-world mode on "St. Peter" as he tries to justify his way into heaven even though he's "taken the road less traveled." And "Alien Weed" is from that Roger Creager school of alt-country, college-appeal comedy school of songwriting that celebrates "free thinking" and substance consumption. During a back porch session with some Martians in which "they smoked up all of my homegrown," we are treated to an unusual intergalactic cultural exchange between the resourceful Mr. Copeland and his alien stoner amigos. Well, Tony, he just had one eye Yes, and I have been abducted Finally deserting Comedy Central, Copeland and McClure take a turn toward the serious in "Livin' Hell," "Roll Your Stone Away," and "Lighthouse Keeper." Just when Copeland wants us to think he is a standup comic with a guitar, he unleashes these tense, insightful, spiritually probing, poetically visual tracks that remind me of Ray Wylie Hubbard. While the first two tracks are folky and thoughtful, with McClure arranging "Lighthouse Keeper" is certainly the most musically interesting track on the album. If this is the direction Mr. Copeland is heading in, we will certainly be hearing much more from him, because this music has more depth and sonic maturity than much of what we are currently hearing on the neo-Texas/Red Dirt circuit. This intense track would fit on any Great Divide or Cross Canadian Ragweed record and will certainly appeal to a more mature audience than some of the other material on the album that aims more at a college crowd. No slouch as a songwriter himself, McClure said, "I knew Scott when I was going to college and playing acoustic in the bars. He was there drunk as balls all the time. I thought he was a raving lunatic...(wasn't too far off), but when he played his songs for me several years later I was blown away." Copeland certainly shows a lot of promise with this first release. Keep an eye out for this guy, because he's definitely a comer. * Check out Scott at http://surf.to/scottcopeland
and purchase Dig Your Deal at www.texasmusicexpress.com |
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