BeijingDazeTales of Live Music From Beijing's Mostly Underground Rock Scene..

Jun
4thDouble Take on The Redbucks: All That Glitters! It’s mighty fine Bluegrass made FROM China

Between gigs, meals, and a day job, it’s been tough finding time to sit down and talk about CD/Record from Beijing or China in General but with the string of album releases coming up, I figured it was about time to get started! Thing is I can be a bit of a fanboy sometimes and I wouldn’t want that clouding my judgement. Enter the great equalizer: Ruby! While we have a lot of tastes in common, we still have different opinions on a few bands/musicians/records and that’s a good way to balance out the field.
So… What’s better than one voice on album reviews? 2 voices!
We take the first stab at The Redbucks’ album to be released tomorrow: All that Glitters

Daze on All that Glitters:

To quote a song: “we all got a hillbilly bone“, myself more than most and The ‘Bucks are pretty much the only ice cream shop selling that flavor in China.. I’ve been lucky enough to get an advance preview of their CD and spent most of this week listening to it. It freaking rocks!
We got 13 songs of mixed backgrounds, bastards of sorts with a deep blugrass roots but plenty of country/appalachian/hick/folk flavor to make it their own brand! The band members take turns at lead on a few songs with Uncle Luke and Miss Daisy doing the bulk of it. I’m slowly warming up to the lead single and album namesake “All That Glitters” after an initial chilly reception. The intro to “Spring Rain” reminds me so much of one of my favorite Mike West songs that I have to like it.. I love the duet! My favorites so far are “Low Tide” and “Never Get Another Love Song“… just two great songs any way you put it. Listening to Miss Daisy sing the later makes me wanna get on a shiny white horse and beat up whoever the song was written for… it’s painfully beautiful in a way that makes me think: “she should never have to sing those words to anyone“… yeah, I’m a fanboy with a huge crush, deal with it!

Ruby on All That Glitters:

From the first time I heard the Redbucks crammed into the tiny Jiangjinjiu Bar, I’ve fallen in love with their foot stomping, brand of bluegrass goodness. I’m not what you’d call a huge country fan, well outside of the Man in Black of course. But these guys are doing something different, combining bluegrass with other forms of country and dash of whiskey fueled attitude to create their own blend. I think most men in the city have a secret crush on Daisy Sweetgrass and I’m sure they’ll all be swooning at her soulful voice on Never Get Another Love Song. Luke’s banjo picking on the title track All That Glitters almost makes me want to learn the banjo myself, although I think BD has beaten me to that! But my favourite track right now is the beautiful ballad The News. I’m loving this album so much, can’t wait to hear it live at Yugong Yishan tomorrow night! To quote the guys themselves – “f’ bolton, june 5 is buck day.”

There you got it! Unanimous agreement that this record rocks, the band is the genuine article and y’all better get off your rear ends tomorrow and come down to Yugong Yishan! In the meantime, grab a copy of the lead single, All that Glitters, below!

Download All That Glitters single for free (right-click, then save as)

Cheers and see y’all on saturday! I’ll be the one stomping mad in the center