released February 28, 2020

Written by me (Darren Browne).

Recorded on Garage Band in February 2020 in Riofreddo, Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale, Italia as part of the RPM Challenge, under the St. John’s, NL branch ( www.rpmchallenge.com ).

Instruments: I played bouzouki and Fender bass
Virtual drummers: Kyle, Rose and Curtis

Front cover photo: Mathias Kom

Grazie mille to:

George Miminis and Forgotten Bouzouki for all the jams and ouzo; Dave Panting for lending me his bouzouki before I had one myself and showing me some licks; St. John’s Klezmer Ensemble, Clémence Freschard, Stanley Brinks, Kubasonics, Jenina MacGillivray, and the Burning Hell for the travels to lovely lands and having me play my axe with them; My Name is Ian for the perfect-in-more-ways-than-I-can-count jam of January 31st which set off this whole thing; Al, Emily, Lail, JF, Ricky, Laura, Quiet Marauder, Phoebe, Matt, Daniel, Mr. Walker; my pals Maria Cherwick, Duane Andrews, Erin Power and Maria Peddle for the hangs and the Newfoundland/Irish/swing jams, and Elling Lien for suggesting nine years back that a bouzouki album would be cool. I mean, it’s pretty cool, right? Took me a good spell but here she be.

Un mondo di grazie anche alle persone amichevole e bellissime che ho incontrato a Riofreddo- Maria e Nicola (dalla Fruteria); Marilena; Sylvia è Teresa (dall’Alimentari); Cheffa e Luca (della Cucina di Rio); Elena e tutti a Villa Celeste; Stefano del Forno (chi fa la migliore pizza rossa di tutto il mondo). La vostra pazienza con il mio italiano era davvero apprezzata.

Which brings me to: What is hair folk, anyway? It’s what came to mind when I was prompted for a genre by my mp3 maker-machine. I‘ve been playing in a Greek band for a dozen years and am slowly getting there, but I just can’t play like those amazing Greek bouzoukists. Not being from Greece doesn’t help, I suppose. The sound you hear on this album really started developing in 2016, when Mathias of the Burning Hell suggested we try fitting bouzouki into the band. So we would traipse around Europe and between the jigs and the reels I found myself playing it more as if it were a guitar, much to the chagrin of the odd Greek man in the audience who would sternly let me know that “this is not how you play the bouzouki”. Thusly spurring me on even more to draw on my 70’s and 80’s influences- Slash, Lita Ford, Thin Lizzy, Joe Perry, Joan Jett, Heart, Mötley Crüe, Living Colour, Kiss, Cyndi Lauper, AC/DC, Van Halen (yes, you’ll hear a little two-hand tapping in here), and going a little farther back, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. You could say it’s a genre in which one plays a traditional folk instrument in a way that evokes the shred of 80’s hair metal. There are other styles in here, to be sure. It could be a soundtrack, perhaps. But to paraphrase Bill Monroe: Hair folk is wonderful music. I’m glad I originated it.


Credits (plus three photos!) also available as a download in the bonus items bit.
moremando@gmail.com
bouzoukirock.bandcamp.com