The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! – Music Sounds Better When You’re Stoned
With a vocal application similar to the eccentric Wall of Voodoo vocalist Stan Ridgeway, this effort is actually interesting, a gourmet blend of new wave with an undefinable quality. In a word, nothing like what you hear regularly today, so it defines itself as creatively acute.
The title track, Music Sounds Better When You’re Stoned (Dropped June 19/Independent/35:57), is energetic, bristling & well, accomplished. Produced by New Jersey-based Gary Van Miert (vocals), it’s the psychedelic cowboy’s 4th album. It features cosmic songs about weed, the universe, & mortality. There’s an expressive theme.
Emanating from my home county (Hudson), where I was born (Jersey City, NJ, along with Nancy Sinatra), & where I once worked in the ‘70s at WFMU-FM, this music has an adhesive sound. Mr. Van Miert explores his eccentricities through classic country mediums, blues embodiments, gospel spells, pop & rock sweeteners & despite the psychedelic overtones, Gary doesn’t apply it as a novelty touch but as an artful tokenism & it works with musical competency.
The more countrified explorations have a tinge of Jimmy Dale Gilmore with the Ridgeway quirkiness. However, Gary sharpens his vocals on spacy Strawberry Alarm Clock (“Me & the Township,” “Incense & Peppermints”) stylizations. “Changing of the Guard” has this mystical arrangement with cerebral guitars & Gary possesses so much melodic activity in his compositions that he keeps not only his music interesting, but the momentum.
He doesn’t sound like a whacked-out psychedelic purveyor. He’s actually showing how that genre could’ve developed into a viable pop extreme. “My Doppelganger” is loaded with bright piano, bellowing trombone in an upbeat saloon tradition. Not overwhelmed by synthesizers. Delightful & entertaining.
The playing was provided by session musicians (not listed) & the performances are not stiff, saccharine, or homogenized. It’s all tight, exciting, & colorful. Some songs will run a thin finger across the rim of novelty but are never campy. The seriousness of the subjects is never compromised. Some tunes are so well written that the Grateful Dead could’ve covered some intrinsically. Lyrically, the songs have depth & are decorated with an element of toughness. None of these tunes is presented in a comedic manner. They crawl back to the past, but they bring their musical personality of today with them.
There are some moments of heavy-duty arrangements. “Star Child” has a wall of sound density; the playing is not jivey rock n’ roll with psychedelics added for intensity, like adding milk-soaked white bread to meatballs. The songs need no binding element with Gary’s vocals as the glue. This is dynamic in its simplicity.
Highlights – “Music Sounds Better When You’re Stoned,” “Come Out & Play,” “A Mad Tea Party,” “Changing of the Guards,” “My Doppelganger,” “Harsh Toke,” & “Star Child.”
Color image courtesy of Max Di Biaggio. CD @ Amazon & https://garyvanmiert.com/
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: Video Premiere: The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! “If I Stop Moving, I’ll Fall From the Sky”