Goobers Of The Century (so far) and the (Re) Birth of Outlaw Country

Don't ask me how I stumbled upon these trailblazers of the neo-outlaw movement. Is it just me or are there outlaw country/southern rock bands everywhere now? These guys look like the biggest rubes on the circuit. Oh Lord, how did it come to this?

I remember well the day 14 years ago that my buddy Allen approached me one night at The Booth about joining an "outlaw country" band he was forming with my former Orphan idols. At the time, I didn't know WTF outlaw country was and I really didn't expect it to have any effect whatsoever on the music listening public. In fact, I thought Al was a few cards short of a full deck. However, that was the beginning of my whoredom, so I said "Sure, what the hell."

We practiced the songs for nearly a year before our first gig, which was a random night at The Booth in T-town. We sauntered onto the stage, tuned up and looked at each other thinking "What the hell are we getting ourselves into?" While learning the songs, we had never discussed any type of stage show or onstage banter, so there was an awkward moment when we just stood there looking like deer staring at headlights. And believe me, no one and I mean NO ONE was playing anything remotely similar to this stuff. Suddenly, a voice BOOMED into the mic. "HOWDY PEOPLE! HOW THE HELL ARE YA DOIN'? MAKE SOME FUCKIN' NOISE!!" Without warning, at 120 decibels, Shun Jennings was born. And with that, a once dying genre was reborn as well.

Lo and behold, people ate that shit up and for the next 6 years, I immersed myself in a new/old style of music that I had never dared or cared to listen to. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but The Inlaws were at least 5 years ahead of our time. And apparently, we got out at just the right time. Before the term "alt-country" was coined. Before the onslaught of copycats. Before tools like Tumbleweed Junction took over and ruined a good thing.