12 Golden Country Greats

8.5/10

  One of the truly great things about Ween is the way in which they often confound expectations and challenge the listener.  After four albums of genre hopping and general weirdness you might have said to yourself now this is a band that might do just about anything.  Even so I, for one, was certainly not expecting them to follow up Chocolate and Cheese by going to Nashville and hiring renowned old school Nashville musicians and making an authentic sounding country album.

  I actually remember making a joke before this album was announced on a radio show I had in college about Ween playing country music.  My roommate had called up my show pretending to be a redneck and asking me to play some country music and I said I'd put on some Ween, seeing as how they were the furthest thing from country I could think of.  The joke turned out to be on me when this was the next album they released.

  Granted you could point towards Drifter in the Dark on Chocolate and Cheese as having a bit of a country vibe, but it doesn't even come close to the assault of fiddles and harmonica honky tonk piano and pedal steel guitar they unleash on this album.  Gene even sings in a normal voice on most of these songs and reveals he has a very nice natural vocal instrument.

  Now at the time this came out country was probably about my least favorite genre, so I had some difficulty getting into this.  I appreciated the audacity of Ween releasing an actual country album and I thought it was funny that they did it, but I had some trouble at first overcoming my own distaste for country music.  Consequently for awhile I would say this was my least liked and least listened to Ween album.

  But gradually I started to notice that I really liked some of the songs.  I Don't Want to Leave You on the Farm is a really pretty song in a straight-forward and not obviously jokey way.  Likewise Japanese Cowboy is a nice tune, even if it bears some melodic resemblance to Chariots of Fire, as Ween themselves have been quick to acknowledge.  I really enjoy I'm Holding You as well and think it really shows off Gene's natural voice.

  You know what else?  This album's pretty damn funny at times.  The random introduction of Mohammed Ali after other members of the band on Powder Blue is pretty hilarious.  I heard they had to remove it from later versions of the album due to legal reasons, which is a shame.  Elsewhere Mr. Richard Smoker and especially Piss Up a Rope provide the vulgar humor that let you know this is, in fact, a Ween album.

  Nowadays I can honestly say I enjoy listening to the whole album.  I also have to give props to Ween for not only doing the unexpected, but forcing me out of my comfort zone in the process.  Country still isn't my favorite genre, but they helped me to realize it's not all Toby Keith and Garth Brooks.  They've made me more appreciative of the old guard of country such as Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and of course the titular golden country greats who served as the musicians on this album.  This is a band that really does love and respect the music that they're ostensibly sending up.  Who would've thought the obnoxious stoners responsible for God Ween Satan had it in them?  But even looking back at that album it becomes obvious that they really do like a wide range of music and that's why they genre hop so much.  They're not putting stuff down, they're celebrating it.  This is part of why I dig this band so much.