Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Love Their Country

Quite some time a go I was channel surfing on my XM radio, and I stumbled upon this punk band playing cover songs. And they were running the full gamut from "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" to "Nobody Does It Better." I love cover songs. I have long collected any odd cover I could find. The band was Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. They call themselves the world's greatest cover band, and if not for Richard Cheese I would agree. They're made up of punk musicians from various bands, and they're obviously just doing it for fun. Now, I'm not really a punk fan, but this is some fun music.

There's twelve songs on this album, and they're all about two to three minutes long. It's probably just as well cause the joke can get stale pretty fast, so twenty five minutes of it is just right.

The album opens up with "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)". Oh, did I mention all the songs they're covering are country? And what better way to kick off a country cover album than with the great Garth Brooks. I've never gotten too much into that Nashville country sound, but Garth is a Oklahoma State graduate. And he added enough pop to his music to make it work for me. Anyway, the song starts out sounding slightly country, then suddenly the band lets out an expletive and the song starts punk rocking.

"Desperado" is almost not even recognizable, with the frantic pace Me First and the Gimme Gimmes give it. Maybe even the Dude from The Big Lebowski could enjoy this version. Or maybe not, might be too punk for his laid-back tastes.

My favorite cover on the album is of John Denver's Annie's Song. This has got to be the sappiest piece of crap Denver ever wrote, and he wrote some crappy stuff. But the band plows through it with no reverence.

I don't really like the Dixie Chicks. And it's not their politics, I like their politics. It's their music. But "Goodbye Earl" has lyrics that make me laugh. And the Gimme Gimmes give it the right angry touch. Earl had to die. So why not make a punk song out of his demise?

You really can't make a good country cover album without "East Bound and Down." OK, maybe you can, but then Smokey and the Bandit come after you, and maybe Jerry Reed as well. "Why do you always get to be the Bandit, Earl?" "I have a mustache and you don't, Randy."

The album also includes a Kenny Rogers cover, without the pine tar. Oh, wait. The OTHER Kenny Rogers. You know, the fat bearded one. Anyway, the cover is "She Believes In Me."

Finally, the band finds a country song that shares something with punk rock: drugs. Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down" made famous by Johnny Cash. It's not a bad version either. It rocks, but not too hard.

For further reading:
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' homepage
All Music Guide's Me First and the Gimme Gimmes entry
Wikipedia's Me First and the Gimme Gimmes entry