A not-so-hypothetical question: What do you get when you strip away half of Country and Western music’s clichés? A not-so-hypothetical answer: You still get a fucking cliché. The usually solid Deep Elm Records has dropped down a notch on my respect-o-meter with the impending release of Sunshine in a Shot Glass by 500 Miles to Memphis. Initially, Sunshine in a Shot Glass makes for a decent listen. While there’s no denying that it’s definitely country rock, and not the cool Johnny Cash kind, the album isn’t too big of a leap for punk fans already grooving to the resurgence of folk punk currently being propagated by bands like Fake Problems and Defiance, Ohio. In fact, some of the tracks do kind of rock.
“All My Friends are Crazy” follows the C ‘n’ W formula closely, as frontman Ryan Malott relates getting drunk with his buddies and being depressed. It deviates in that he doesn’t mention being American as fuck while driving his 4×4 truck, though, so that’s a point of celebration right there. It’s got a solid hook. The guitars are a little on the castrated side, but the fiddle playing is delicious.
Unfortunately, though, the album is just too much like all of the commercial country fodder 92.5 XTU cranks out every day. The album has a few punk-ish leanings; none of them fully work. Malott’s voice carries a bit of pop punk snottiness in it, but a whole lot of annoying twang too. When the band tries out a breakdown during “Don’t Mislead,” it’s awkwardly awful and awfully awkward.
I’m not saying country and punk can’t mix. Far from it, if you’ve ever heard of a lil band called X, or its offshoot The Knitters. X proved that punkers could slam dance at a hoedown over and over with the brilliant, successive albums Los Angeles, Wild Gift, Under the Big Black Sun, and More Fun in the New World. Now, it might seem unfair to compare 500 Miles to Memphis to a legendary punk band like X, but it’s also unfair for 500 Miles to Memphis to be so annoyingly trite, right?
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