The Alchemist, May 13th, 2008, Vol.1, No. 20
Deep Fried Hillbilly, Vol. 1, No. 20, Page 3
Vol. 1, No. 20
Deep Fried Hillbilly
A Hillbilly for all Occasions
by Robin Canfield
Deep Fried Hillbilly is a local band that fits in almost anywhere. In the year that the group has been together they’ve played everywhere from graduation, birthday, camping and wedding parties to benefits, the Calapooia Brewing Company in Albany and The Fox & Firkin downtown. This Friday at 6 PM the band makes their second appearance on Locals Live, a KBVR production in Snell Hall at OSU.
“Someone forgot to press record,” drummer Danny Rawson explained about the band’s first Local’s Live appearance.
The band came away with no video recording last time, and an audio recording missing almost a minute of their first song. This second attempt should correct the problem and give fans a second chance to listen in or stop by the studio to watch.
The recordings should also get the band one step closer to a completed demo tape, an important step for a band that listens, and re-listens, to almost every show they play. Armed with a quality digital recorder, Deep Fried Hillbilly records themselves constantly.
A big chunk of the band’s twice-weekly practices goes to collectively listening to those recordings so each member, Billy Renz on lead guitar and vocals, Justin Richter on bass, Alex Cooper on keys, and Rawson, can listen to what they’ve done. The group discusses the music as they listen, passing suggestions and encouraging emphasis on the parts that sound good. The sessions also serve as a good chance for each member to critically appraise his own performance. The music, however, is not as serious as all this sounds.
“Mostly we play feel good, blue collar music that people like to dance to,” said Renz.
The blues and funk influenced jam band vibe of Deep Fried Hillbilly is certainly a product of refined natural ability, and it’s catching on. The band recently passed the one-year mark around the time they played at a local May Day celebration, the third straight May Day performance for Renz and Rawson, both of whom previously played May Day with the band Milk.
The pair can trace their collaborative roots to one drunken night with a guitar and a hand drum, much the same way that Cooper joined later. The happy, friendly tones of both how the members met, and how they still interact today, shows in their music.
“Our music has lots of emotion,” Renz said, “It carries through the highs and lows.”
You may recognize some of the bands chosen cover songs like The Grateful Dead’s “Behind the Mountain,” or Van Morrison’s “Moon Dance,” though if you tune in to Locals Live all you will hear are all originals, such as “Better Off in Space,” a funk-pop song with solid progression, and “Fish and Famine,” a mellow song with some dark undertones. Each song averages about seven minutes, though breaks may be hard to hear as the band often tries to blend one song into the next.
“We play vaguely political music,” explained Rawson.
“None of us are using the music as a soap box,” added Cooper.
You can check out the sound of Deep Fried Hillbilly on Myspace or on Locals Live. On Thursday, May 22, you can also catch Renz and Rawson playing an acoustic set on the rooftop of the Downtown American Dream Pizza.
