the metafictional blues

Finally got around to pickin’ up something I’d been wanting for a while — that’s right, I said pickin’. As in “Pickin’ on REM: The Bluegrass Tribute”. This actually came out a few years ago, but I’m a little slow sometimes. Essentially this is many of my favorite songs remade as instrumental bluegrass tunes. And let me tell you, if you’ve not heard “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” on mandolin and dobro — well then, I say you just ain’t lived. For REM fans, this is an essential tribute album to add to your collection — for everyone else, this is a great instrumental CD to have for putting on in the background on a rainy day, to use as some work music at your desk or to just lean back and relax to. I’ve also been known to dance to it. Especially moving is the rendition of “Find the River”… Honorable mentions go to the driving, wailing “Half a World Away”. One of my favorite things about REM’s music has been the unusual country-rock jangle and this is perfectly teased out in these bluegrass versions.

Now… as you may know, there is a whole series of these “Pickin’ on…” albums. So when I was in the music store, I happened to also find “Pickin’ on… ZZ Top”. Who knew? Unfortunately, I didn’t bring that one home with me but one can only imagine what a fiddle could do to such tunes as “Legs” or “Sleeping Bag”. In a perfect world, I imagine the long flowing beards of ZZ Top billowing from the porch of some old Kentucky mountain home as the jug band plays a medley of “Dueling Banjos” and “Velcro Fly”. In a perfect, strange, surreal world.