Where Is The Honky Tonk Music ?

By: Esther Berlanga-Ryan
Date: October 2006
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  Honky Tonk music is a thing of the past, says the one-track-minded sadly so-called Country Music Industry nowadays. Thank God not everybody is trying to please the white collar lawyers in charge of the big influencial record labels in Nashville. And there are still young artists that care about doing their homework, who listen to the music of those who actually built up that same Industry, while learning what the one time called Hillbilly Music really is all about. They are the ones that can proudly proclaim to be indeed the legitimate living legacy of Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams. After all, Country Music used to be made by and for the common blue collar hard- working men and women in America. And it sure feels good to keep it where it belongs.
As his debut album cries out loud, Columbus, Georgia's native Joey Allcorn was physically born at least fifty years too late. But his soul might as well have been born back when the good old ones did. Just listen to his nasal twang yodelling hard-core Country voice. You will think you went back to 1947. Long before Elvis, the New Country Era and the "everything sells as Country" misconception. But just in time to be able to soak in Ernest Tubb's electric Honky Tonk guitar and Hank Williams' welcome to the Rockabilly Era's "Move it on Over". What a blessing, my friends.

  Aware of the importance of Hank Williams' music since age 14, this young 25 year old man wants nothing more than to carry on the Hillbilly Poet's sound. And even asked Hank III to record with him a song: the first time the most famous grandson in Country Music has actually sung about his grandfather ("This ain't Montgomery"). But do not misunderstand him: he is his own artist. Influenced by the biggest Country voices, song writers and musicians of our mistreated Country past, Allcorn has also learned to be himself and managed to listen to all kinds of music. He is leaving his own legacy around. Somewhere between Nirvana and Faron Young you will find Joey Allcorn's amazing Honky Tonk music.

  Thirteen songs written by Allcorn fill this very much ellaborated debut album. From the self-defense Honky Tonk cut "Fifty Years Too Late", to the irresistible classic yodelling exercise of "I Just Don't Know", and the painful "The Execution" (a dark recitation following the purest old Country Music tradition of songs like "The Long Black Veil"), including some arrangements that Kurt Cobain himself would have loved as a rare form of Grunge Country, this album is a gold treasure.

Thirteen songs that deserve to be considered as some of the best Country songs released in 2006.

 

E.B-R - What's Country Music to you?

Joey Allcorn - Oh, it's the story of life, love and death&ldots;It used to be about the experiences of their lives. You know, raising the kids, cooking dinner&ldots;Momma songs, and cheatin' songs. Things are different today. "Whiskey bent and hell bound" wouldn't even be recorded in Nashville today&ldots; "I got a good woman at home who thinks I do no wrong/ But sometimes Lord, she ain't always around/ And you know that's when I fall, I can't help myself at all/ and I get Whiskey bent and hell bound". Men can't sing about cheating anymore.The biggest Country song of all times is probably "Your cheating heart", and it would have never made it to the audience today.They target an audience of sucker moms. They have nice lives and stuff, and so do their kids. Everything is perfect and nobody has problems. It is not like it used to be. Nashville is where the money is, but they are doing what they think people wanna hear&ldots;But what kind of people? Not me, not you&ldots;That ain't real life.

E.B-R - What's Honky tonk to you?

J.A. - Real honest to God music&ldots;What Ernest Tubb recorded. Living and drinking, songs about cheating and things like that, but it was more about life. I think he wrote the line that said that he was ahead of his time. He sung about things that nobody really was singing about. And he used an electric guitar. That was quite a talent. Country music today is being made for people that think that Country is just about fishing and having a good time&ldots;And it is so much more than that!

E. B-R - Are you a real Honky Tonkin' ramblin' man?

J.A. - I can be. (laughs). I am right now, as a matter of fact. We are with a friend's of Hank III in Knoxville, and we are having a good time (laughs).

E.B-R - What does the music of Hank Williams mean to you?

J.A. - Oh&ldots;personally..to me he is the guy that got me started doing this. I was 14 years old and I heard "Cold Cold heart" and "My cheating heart", and all that stuff really got to me. I felt it. And then I got to know his family and all of that. I listened to his music and I loved it so much that I wanted to carry on what he started. He will always be around. You can walk in any Wal Mart in this country and will find a Hank CD . He don't need to be played on the radio anymore. I would be ashamed of hearing his songs coming after Shania or something like that anyhow. There is something about Hank&ldots;He is still bringing people in. Hell, he is one of the main attractions for the state of Alabama. He was just one of those guys that was there at the right place, at the right time. And made it happen, just like Elvis. Elvis was the first person that they modeled into a star and into what they wanted him to be. Hank was Hank. Another story. Too pure to be ruined.

E.B-R - Tell me about your heroes.

J.A. - Hmmm..Well there are a lot of them. Hank and Cash, for starters. Faron Young, I think he was the best Country vocalist. Lefty Frizzell doesn't get enough credit. Buck Owens, revolutionary. Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff&ldots;And then Kurt Cobain, he came along and changed things too, with his faded jeans and his long hair that he wouldn't wash for a week. And John Lennon, he broke a lot of molds and he was a great songwriter. And of course I worship people like Dale Watson too. He is the real deal in Country Music today.

E.B-R - Who's Joey Allcorn?

J.A. I don't know yet&ldots;(laughs) I'm still finding it out. All I wanna do is carry on the old Country Music. Another thing I love about what I do is that some people that come to my gigs have never heard of the old guys, and when they hear their music, the old stuff I play, they like it so much that they go out and buy their records&ldots; Cash, Faron Young, Webb Pierce..That's pretty cool. (laughs)

E.B-R - How did you learn to play guitar?

J.A. - I was sittting around and listening to Hank Williams when I started getting interested in playing guitar. My grandma bought me a guitar when Iwas 14. And I sat down and started figuring it out. When I was in school I played a little fiddle, I can do that too. And Upright bass..That's about all I can do..I never play fiddle on stage though, I just mess around with it myself.

E.B-R - Why are you fifty years too late?

J.A. - It's an excellent question&ldots;(laughs). If I was born fifty years ago I would be playing at the Opry (laughs). Today things are different. I think my style belongs fifty years ago..but at the same time it is a good thing that I was born now too. I listen to all my heroes, and I learn from them. When people listen to this song ("Fifty Years Too Late"), they tend to hear an anti Nashville song, but I didn't want it to be an angry song, I am being kind. It is simply remembering the style of music that I love&ldots;

E.B-R - Tell me about your upcoming release.

J.A. - I'm real proud of it, and glad we had it done after three years working on it! Hank III is there singing about Hank Sr for the first time. It is important to me, and it has been very special to him. All the times he has heard "oh, you sound so much like your grandfather&ldots;". He ain't Hank Sr. "This ain't Montgomery", you know? We are who we are today, and we are trying to do it the best we can. But our way. Johnny and everybody else did things their way, and we gotta do things our own way too. But the song kinda uses the refference of Hank Sr to get the message across, and people that are our heroes are working on this album. Guys from the alternative ground. As far as the songs, it is kinda a representation of the music the way it used to be years ago, and towards to the end we have some guitar and stuff&ldots;A little bit of the Nirvana influence (laughs). Hank Williams meets Nirvana (laughs). Part of it was recorded it in Nashville, and I wrote everything on the record.

E.B-R - What can you tell me about Hank III ?

J.A. - Oh&ldots;I met him probably about five or six years ago. We used to video game a lot (laughs). He is a real nice guy, and I really like what he is doing. Like I said, he ain't his grandfather, but that's what's in his heart, and he's got some pretty damn good stuff, on both the Country anf the Rock side. People need to let him be himself. He is awesome! (laughs)

E.B-R - What are you trying to tell us with "This ain't Montgomery"?

J.A. - Well, like I said I am using Hank Sr as a reference. For as long as I have been doing his music, people have said Hank or Johnny would have not done this or that. Well, we are not them, so we have to make it our way. Hank made everything perfect to make it work for him&ldots;Of course, with Hank III singing it, well, it has been a wonderful chance for me to have his grandson with me. And for him to say what he wants to say. I don't know where the music is going, but I know where it has been. What makes something real country is what the song is about and the production of the song&ldots;Country is such a broad thing. It can absorve anything. If I hear a song that I can't imagine Faron Young or Hank Williams singing, then it is probably not country. You can't really relate to the songs they are doing today, so it might be something else, but not Country.

E.B-R - Tell me about your previous EP "Sex, drugs and Yodelling".

J.A. - Oh, It was just some pre-poduction stuff for "Fifty years too late". I just got five songs ready then, and they put 'em together as an EP.

E.B-R- - What would be your biggest mistake?

J.A. - I don't know&ldots;I think everything happens when it is supposed to happen, and if something doesn't work out, it wasn't supposed to happen. Everything makes you who you are in the end.

E.B-R - What would you ask for your future?

J.A. - Stay on the road as much as possible, keep playing, meeting a lot of people&ldots;I don't really care about getting rich and being very famous. Maybe some years from now somebody will look back and will think I did some good records.

E.B-R - And what wouldn't you ask for your future?

J.A. - Oh&ldots;A regular job, a boring life. That's about it. Everything else would probably be okay. To be alive and to be healthy. Don't ask for too much. (laughs)

Joey Allcorn's debut CD "Fifty Years too Late" will be available in stores in October 3rd 2006.

 

www.JoeyAllcorn.com

www.MySpace.com/JoeyAllcorn