BLAG DAHLIA - INTRODUCING RALPH CHAMPAGNE

Trochu o novy LP Blag Dahlia.
Blag of Dwarves punk rock band pisses off all his fans again by going country. Oh well, whatever, maybe it can be good. We have it here on LP. Please buy it here so I can get rid of this crap. Bwahahaha.
Ralph Champagne finds Blag picking and choosing various country genres which allow him to exhibit his skill. One of my personal favorites is “Contraband,” which sits somewhere between ‘70s Waylon Jennings outlaw country and ‘80s pop-country. Much in the country style, the track is a “story” song, which details a down and out trucker who finally makes some bread by humping drugs for Mexican cartels. The track is classic in that it’s built off a timeless rhythm twang fetched from the hillbilly hills somewhere. But, it’s subversive in that it treats a drug smuggler as hero- Johnny Cash and even Waylon would sometime tell tunes about bad guys who get their due or have bad fates, but here, Blag’s character smuggles drugs, shoots and cops, and has a grand ‘ol time. The surprisingly little moralization here. It’s also interesting that in a time where Country has become bizarrely pro-establishment, Blag throws his lot in with the Narcocorrido types, who, of course, are not the type of guys that Big and Rich appear to like.