Redneck Noir on Darrin Bradbury’s Motel Oatmeal (Ear to the Ground Review)
About a month ago, Darrin Bradbury sent me some songs he was thinking about releasing and wanted to know my opinion. So, I listened because when it comes to music, that is what I do. When I was done I told him what I thought. He ended up releasing the album Motel Oatmeal on August 5, some seriously cool folks had good things to say about it, and it was trending as a bestselling “folk” record on Bandcamp for a time. Darrin told me a few weeks back that my comments help convince him to release the record. I said that I should tidy up those comments and post them as a review of the record. So, in my usual approach, I offer up what will serve as an official E2TG review of Motel Oatmeal — still the most current release from Bradbury.
Here (slightly edited) are my original comments:
What I love about this collection of songs is the way it really pulled me into the situations. It struck me — particularly the first four songs — like a collection of well-crafted short stories. In a short time, I knew the characters and the settings… Then, damn if he didn’t write a straight-up country song (in the best sense of the term). I’m not a musician, but I think, when you live in Nashville for 20 years, it becomes ingrained in you to recognize a bridge when you hear it. “Bad Habits” is a cool, fun summation of the whole thing.
The first four songs — “Motel Oatmeal,” “Zoey,” “Sophie’s Apartment,” and “Modela” — are well-crafted stories that drew me in right away. I think Sam Shepard could listen to these songs and write plays based on these characters. I think Joe Wolfe-Mazeres could hear these songs and write short stories based on these characters, and maybe he should.
“Good Friends, Cheap Beer, and You” has become the “theme song” for Fran’s Eastside in Nashville. “Bad Habits” is a wonderfully fun country song. It’s been amazing and wonderful to hear Bradbury and Tim Carroll do this song together at Fran’s Wednesday nights (not-so-subtle plug for Nashville folks).