‘We were young punk rocker kids, sitting up late nights singing Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.’ – Baby Genius
As long as times change and we change with time, it is high times for ‘New American Roots’ – a set of musical styles reflecting on today’s change of perception, rhythm and language.
Listen to unplugged Punk, Heavy Metal, Hardcore, Bluegrass, Country and Rap performed by banjo, mandolin and string bass players wearing Slayer and Mötörhead shirts!
‘The songs themselves reflect a lot of the North American roots and farming background. And the struggle of blue collar and lower income.’ – possessed by Paul James.
America’s cultural evolution and diversity is most palpable in folk music and roots music. ‘New Roots Music’, as it’s called lately, examines the madness, cruelty and beauty of the 21st century. Folk music has always been more than just a chronicle of life in a particular time or region. It was always an expressive vehicle for understanding and processing fundamental questions of human existence. These days, it talks about rampant capitalism, increasing social isolation, unemployment, drugs, war and, of course, about god and love, about life and death.
‘This is becoming the new punk music. And thereby it´s becoming the new folk music.’ – Jayke Orvis
The term ‘Roots Music’ began to be used since the mid-1970s to draw the line at the commercialized folk music of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Recently, a wild and vibrant subculture of punk-inspired musicians has begun to fuse the musical styles of their ancestors with the sounds and the language of the 21st century. The result is pretty melancholic, with raw and restrained voices, more screamed than sung, sometimes played at a breathtaking tempo, always unamplified and ready to be performed anytime, anywhere.
‘We´re back to being strolling minstrels and working for ale and grub and room and board.’
This kind of music evolved from the search for the origins and the wish for taking a new path which is actually a very old one. On top of the musical expression, the intent is to give dignity to the forgotten and the disenfranchised from the American Dream. Independent is no longer an empty word or a helpless attempt to describe another music genre – it gives voice to the rejection of the commercialization of music, to the desire for independence and freedom.
Fotos © S.Weidenbach