The Groovy Rednecks February 28, 2009

High Desert Music

For over 15 years, Hollywood rowdies the Groovy Rednecks have blazed a wild trail through California’s rock clubs and beer joints, throwing down their unhinged brand of “Ass Grabbin’ Country,” and leaving in their wake at least a million empty beer cans and hordes of satisfied listeners. Carrying on the Golden State’s progressive tradition of offbeat, supercharged country, the Rednecks excel at an idiosyncratic brand of story telling, one that’s almost entirely inspired by the collective experiences of its members, resulting in some extraordinary non-fiction honky tonk statement. It’s gritty stuff, and with titles like “Punch Your Neighbors Lights Out,” “My Wife Got Hit by a Truck,” “Happy Mother’s Day from Prison,” is also clearly not the type of humdrum assembly line heartaches and romance dreck common to the contemporary Music City sound. Put over with a mixture of blast-furnace intensity and a total disregard for convention, the Rednecks songs all unfailingly hit the bulls-eye with a self-evident, ragged but right bite. That kind of consistency and conviction is a rather rare commodity and the fact they manage it all—considering their ferocious dedication to hell-raising and bottle draining—is more than impressive. A glorious anomaly, equal parts atom age folk troubadours and radical shit kickin’ rebels, the Groovy Rednecks are one of the most reliable country music disasters currently shredding PA’s anywhere within the known universe. (Jonny Whiteside)