Too On-the-Nose, Too Bluegrass, Too Much Fun

An awful lot of bands have tried to play classic rock on bluegrass instruments. They usually fail. Recently, one bluegrass band, in describing their efforts to do justice to classic rock, sneered at the fundamental idea of mimicking a drum track on mandolin. The implication was that only squares would be so literal.

On a musical level, their project failed, too. Even so, they keep trotting it out at festivals, and audiences seem to have absorbed the idea that a song is "bluegrass" -- whether the band changes the arrangement or not -- simply by virtue of being played on bluegrass instruments.

Awhile back, The Punch Brothers stepped into the arena at the behest of The A.V. Club, and their efforts were a smashing success. Why? Because they weren’t worried about being square, "bluegrass", too on-the-nose, or insufficiently-ironic to please all you hipsters out there.

Instead, they served the genre, served the song, and had … fun!

Go ahead and listen. Just make sure no one sees you enjoying The Punch Brothers’ doing The Cars’ “Just What I Needed”.

Oh, and music geeks, check out the tremolo on Pickles. Who does tremolo on the banjo? His control is mind-boggling.