It’s telling that Zach Cowie, who produced the intriguingly titled compilation, Country Funk: 1969-1975, describes himself as “possibly the only person on Earth who has a tattoo of hip-hop producer J Dilla on one wrist and a Waylon Jennings tattoo on the other.”
Why? Because country funk is the perfect balance of funk ’n’ twang, grand grooves, great storytelling and heavenly harmonies.
And there’s a reason you haven’t heard of this obscure genre.++
“It's something me and my friends made up in stinky tour buses and vans,” Cowie says, laughing. “This sound started to take shape when I was on the road with artists like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Vashti Bunyan. We’re all mega record weirdos, so we'd spend any free time on tour digging for records, and one of our favourite pastimes was inventing genres for obscure artists we found records by who had a similar sound. “I think it was Chris Smith from the Espers who first came up with the tag country funk.”
Gritz, Link Wray and Tony Joe White – just three of 16 artists who appear on this essential compilation – didn’t set out to create a new genre. Sticking to one definitive style wasn’t part of the program for them; they were all about experimenting and collaborating.
“I Walk on Guilded Splinters,” which features a guitarist by the name of Johnny Jenkins backed by members of the Allman Brothers, is a great example of this collaborative spirit.
Cowie, a.k.a. DJ Turquoise Wisdom, sensed an appetite for the music when he slipped in some funky country tracks in his sets.
“The best and most trusted barometer in the world for me is when a little line forms in front of the DJ booth to ask about something I just played,” he says. “I kept noticing more and more people asking about these records whenever I'd spin them, so I thought I should talk to somebody about putting a little compilation together, and Light in the Attic was the obvious choice.”
The Seattle-based independent label, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has developed a solid reputation for releasing obscure but fantastic collections like Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motown’s Mowest Story 1971-73.
Asked how much of the music on Country Funk was made between 1969 and 1975, and, more important, if we can look forward to hearing more, label head Matt Sullivan says, “Loads! Volume 2 may just be around the corner.”
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