a Drunk Country Ramble with a Drunk Country Gent
Long before The Waiting Room radio show became the fully formed sinking ship we know today, the ninny-mouthed host one half of Drunk Country home-recorded a handful of test fraudcasts.
These recordings formed part of ½DC’s self-indoctrination into radio broadcasting & were to serve, so he thought, as practice in order to shape & hone his hosting chops, technical prowess & general radio wherewhithal.
However, on this evidence & the evidence of current shows, he still has a very long way to go before he reaches the outskirts of Professionalville.
In this first test recording you will find ½DC bimbling about randomly selected cover versions under the umbrella of the now extemely popular Drunk Covers series. Call this #1, if you must, although he & Ms Hope Eternal (the founder of, but now departed from, TWR) did broadcast a proper inaugural Drunk Covers a few weeks previous. Unfortunately, technology & its potential as it was back then (+ their understanding thereof), there exists no recording of this joyous event.
Instead, clasp your headholes around this lot & re-visit what was when all were innocent & everso slimmer.
Drunk Covers #1 Playlist
01. We’re Going To Be Friends (Bree Sharp/The White Stripes)
02. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up (Petra Haden & Bill Frisell/Tom Waits)
03. HIgh & Dry (Jorge Drexler/Radiohead)
04. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On our Grieviences (Clem Snide/Daniel Johnston)
05. Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (Bongwater/The Weavers)
06. Into My Arms (David Fridlund/Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
07. Modern Love (Last Town Chorus/David Bowie)
08. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Lancaster Orchestra/The Smiths)
09. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (The Staple Singers/Bob Dylan)
10. God Only Knows (Mandy Moore & Michael Stipe/The Beach Boys)
Shimmy Disk Special
Here, then, be the 2nd test Drunk Country Gent fraudcasts, brought to life by one half of Drunk Country, your erstwhile tongue-fat captain of the flippantly bipolar The Waiting Room Radio Show.
This time around one half of Drunk Country celebrates the seminal & legendary record label Shimmy Disc & its genius-in chief Mark Kramer — or, simply, Kramer.
The incorrect formation of words, the inconvenience of concrete fact vs. partially remembered detail divided by guesswork, jetlag, Kentucky Bourbon, & the onset of a no doubt debilitating man-flu, all ably contributed to an elephantine sized effort of enjoyable shambolism & general mouth-minus-brain gibbery.
Welcome, then, to another Drunk Country Ramble with a Drunk Country Gent.
Shimmy Disc Special Playlist
01. California (Jad Fair & Kramer; Roll Out The Barrell, Shimmy 012)
02. I Must Be In Love (Syd Straw & Marc Ribot; Rutles Highway Revisted, Shimmy 041)
03. Whizz Kid (Daniel Johnston; Laurie EP, Seminal Twang 13)
04. Sensitive Artist (King Missile; Fluting On The Hump, Shimmy 003)
05. Love Bomb (Dogbowl; Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain, Shimmy 043)
06. Fourth Of July (Galaxie 500; This is Our Music, Rough 156, 1990)
07. Hard Acid Rain (Rebby Sharp; In One Mouth & Out The Other, Shimmy 032)
08. Companion (Milksop Holly; Milkweeds, Shimmy 094)
09. Burn & Rob (Paleface; What Else Do You Do? Shimmy 034)
10. Folk Song (Bongwater; The Power Of Pussy, Shimmy 040)
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Who’s the theme song by? It’s lovely.
Thank you, um, Uncle Fester, for the question.
We’re fairly sure the track is mentioned in one of the episodes but, for the sake of repitition, here’s a brief historicalisation.
The strangled twang in question is a rough as arseholes semi-demo (hence length, hisses, pops & clicks) & has been lovingly committed by we, the titular Drunk Country (one half of + the other half of’s musi-pursuit).
Its actual birth name is
aiming for the lights out at sea
& is about a year old. Bless.
It was rescued from the Audacity cutting room floor when a Drunk Country Ramble with a Drunk Country Gent was conceived & in some need of a musi-intro theme.
Stripped of slo-hand claps & various melody meanders, the track was shortened from about 3mins to approx. 1min to fit the need.
It was originally intended as a ’round’ — i.e. in the tradition of such Musical Round Songs (like Alouette, Gentille Alouette), where a verse starts then repeats after the first or second bar & creates an overlapping, progressive build. Ambitions aside, we now quite like it as a stripped bare acoustic piece.
A new mix (albeit containing the same crackling, shoddy demo source), replete with a vinyl/record player hiss pop swish & glockenspiel accompaniment, can be found as the opening & closing theme for The Waiting Room’s Drunk Covers series.
We hope that answers far more questions than your original, single-stringed enquiry warranted.
½DC