The Austrian Alps are not, perhaps, the first mountains you tend to think of in relation to Americana, but that’s where you’ll find Prinz Grizzley, aka Chris Comper. He’s a musician who is happy to swap genres, as he forthrightly says “It’s all about the songs – I like writing songs. It’s just which dress you put on them. If it works on acoustic guitar, it’s a good song, and if it doesn’t work on acoustic guitar, it’s a shit song. And then when you go into production, if there’s a synthesizer or pedal steel, if the song asks for it, give it to him.” Comper’s forays into Americana are under the Prinz Grizzley guise, and it’s one that has seen him record with Erin Rae, and share bills with the likes of Yola, Tyler Childers, and Molly Tuttle.
Today’s song has a stompin’ bluesy swamp-rock feel, as Prinz Grizzley told Americana UK: “I am pretty sure I wrote this song while I was deep into Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. It started out as just a delta blues kind of song but after I heard The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions, I thought why not try and do it like the Rolling Stones did, take a blues song and lean it more into a rock n roll direction. I wanted this to sound like Richards and Jones on guitars with the rhythm section of AC/DC and Prinz Grizzley turning the wolf up in my singing.
It’s really about the overall feeling of revenge or the need to revenge some wrong that’s happened, but I left it open if the person in the song is strong enough to fulfill their revenge or if they’re just dreamin’ about it. Sometimes it’s better to take a step back and revisit the action that caused the feeling for revenge. Maybe it was you yourself who’s done wrong to the other person in the first place, but you’re too proud to admit that.”
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Sure, I could climb high in a tree, or go to Skye on my holiday. I could be happy. All I really want is the excitement of first hearing The Byrds, the amazement of decades of Dylan’s music, or the thrill of seeing a band like The Long Ryders live. That’s not much to ask, is it?
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