plorentz's Full Review: The Boys Are Back by The Oak Ridge Boys
When I was a little kid in the 80s, the end times seemed like they were just around the bend. The imminence of the apocalypse was brutally evident in just about everything as far as I was concerned, not just from Reagan’s obliviously on-mic stand-up routine about bombing Russia out of existence to movies like War Games and The Day After, to books like Stephen King’s The Stand and Robert R. McCammon’s gloriously terrifying Swan Song, even down to a Duran Duran lyric in which your love is about as easy as a nuclear war. And though a lot of the music I listened to didn’t specifically address the end-of-the-world per se, much of it had an abstractly bleak, futuristic undertone. There was a hint of armageddon in both the whispered choruses of “Fade to Grey” by Visage, as well as the lazer beam guitar lines and teletyping rhythms of A Flock of Seagulls’ “Telecommunication”. (Of course, there was an even bigger hint of armageddon in A Flock’s hairdos.)
But, on the radio, at the same time – and I loved it as much as anything by Culture Club or Men at Work – was “Elvira”, by the Oak Ridge Boys. The contemporary manifestation of a country gospel musical institution dating back (at least) to 1940s Georgia, the 80s line-up of the quartet had formed around baritone William Lee Golden and lead singer Duane Allen in the mid-60s and solidified with the additions of the group’s two most distinctive voices, tenor Joe Bonsall and bass Richard Sterban (both former members of the Keystone Quartet), in the early 70s. By the end of the 70s, the Boys had begun to embrace a more pop radio oriented (and, it should be noted, decidedly secular) country sound which placed them in the company of artists like Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle and Alabama on the American Top 40. Though they’d scored a number of fine hits on the pop charts by the early 80s, “Elvira”, a hillbilly ode to red-blooded lust, with its signature giddy-up-a-oom-bop-a-oom-bop-a-mow-mow became a ubiquitous Top 5 hit on the radio, turning the group into pop stars (and transforming Mr. Sterban into an unlikely sex symbol among the Grand Ole Opry crowd).
There was nothing at all end-times about “Elvira.” It was just a big fat country-pop novelty, that everybody loved. (Or hated.) A lot. The Oak Ridge Boys followed this success with similar-minded (but decreasingly successful) tracks like the 50s doo-woppy “Bobbie Sue” before jumping the shark when a lyrically-rejiggered version of their hit “American Made” showed up in beer commercial. Not only did this not sit well with their country/gospel core demographic, but it made their overexposure to a pop audience complete. Label woes and internal problems (which led to the departure of William Lee Golden - and his mountain man Dumbledore beard - in the late 80s) stymied the band for most of the 90s, but with Golden’s return to the fold, the group’s renewed focus on their gospel roots, and a sympathetic partnership with the Spring Hill record label, the group (who never lost their sense of showmanship and remain a very in-demand live act) have been revitalized in recent years. Thus, The Boys Are Back.
And so is Armageddon.
It would be very easy to read the group’s cover of a White Stripes song as a novelty gimmick – like Pat Boone doing heavy metal or Paul Anka singing Nirvana – but, in fact, the Boys deliver “Seven Nation Army” with a pentecostal fervor that sounds entirely convincing as an Oak Ridge Boys song. Over the sparest backing – just drums and a piano whose pounded chords are allowed to ring until they become ghostly and dissonant – Duane Allen gruffly sings Jack White’s verses as if reading from one of Paul’s letters to an audience of listless, apathetic sinners before the whole thing erupts and the group’s harmonies exponentiate over that portentous, doom-laden piano line. Take that, atheists! But, “Seven Nation Army” is no one-night-tent-revival, and almost as if to ensure that they mean what they preach, the album’s opening Shooter Jennings-penned title track, each of the four guys – in what, by now, has become a signature arrangement (best known from their fantastic single “Leaving Louisians in the Broad Daylight”) – take turns at the mic, each one delivering his own personal gospel, taking swipes at politicians and other church-state separation-mongers, while announcing that they’ll know where they stand on judgment day, the backing harmonies growing part-by-part behind the verses before these four showmen of the apocalypse finally unleash a ferocious, southern-rock chorus tailor made for raised fists and stomping boots. (Show me the way to that Health Care Reform Town Hall Meeting! We’re having Democrats for dinner!)
Can I just pause for a moment and say that I personally find the politics of the Oak Ridge Boys troublesome; I am also not a Christian. Can I also just add: Elvira who? This sh*t… rawks!
Would that I could say as much for the rest of the album, but though there are a couple of great, soulful ballads here, including a cover of Ray LaMontagne’s “Hold You In My Arms”, and a stirring rendition of the traditional “Troublin’ Mind”, the group’s take on John Lee Hooker’s iconic “Boom Boom”, which is essentially a star vehicle for Sterban, is just unforgivably ridiculous, and “Mama’s Table” gags me with a Mayberry spoon. Though the album ends on a high note with a rootsy take on Paul Kennerley’s contemporary Christian anthem “Live With Jesus”, the second half of the album generally feels tame, anticlimactic, and largely forgettable. Nevertheless, these guys all still sound great – Duane Allen’s voice, especially, has gotten deeper and more expressive with age, while losing none of his everyguy charm – and when they’re all singing in harmony, there’s simply no better vocal blend out there right now, on or off country radio. It’s great to see a group like the Oak Ridge Boys, nearly half a century into their careers, embracing contemporary songs by contemporary (and even edgy) songwriters without descending into parody. And though on much of this new album, the come across as a really fantastic country-gospel singing group serving up serviceable but unmemorable country-gospel songs, at their best here, they are a musical Act of God.
- - - - - BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"The Boys Are Back" by The Oak Ridge Boys Spring Hill Records Released 5/19/09
Produced by Dave Cobb 39 min.
SONGS: The Boys Are Back - Hold Me Closely - Hold You In My Arms - Seven Nation Army - Mama's Table - Boom Boom - You Ain't Gonna Blow My House Down - Beautiful Bluebird - God's Gonna Easy My Troublin' Mind - Live With Jesus
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