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Extremist Carl Klang. CD,
17 tracks; playing time 72 minutes. Boadicea
Music, BCM Box 6368, London WC1N 3XX. £12.00stg
or US$22.00. I
REGARDED this CD with a little trepidation, fearing that it might be something
similar to the awful pro-paramilitary loyalist music tapes that circulate in
many parts of Ulster. Most of
these, with the notable exception of The Platoon, are
truly dire! I had never heard of
Carl Klang, let alone his music. Still,
duty calls, so I put this CD in my ghetto blaster, gritted my teeth and prepared
for the worst.
So, what's the verdict then? Simply
that this CD is very good indeed. It's
well-mixed and professionally presented although there are a lot of irritating
misprints in the cover booklet That's
only a niggle, though. Klang is an
American country-folk singer with a talent for catchy tunes and lyrics that you
just can't get out of your head. Woody
Guthrie has been reborn but it is unlikely that his successor will get too much
airplay. Unlike Guthrie, Klang
challenges too many received orthodoxies for comfort. With a mixture of humour and pathos, he articulates his view
that his country is in the hands of 'illuminated ones' who seek to rob ordinary decent Americans -
now reduced to the status of 'indentured, servitudal slaves' - of their
God-given rights.
My favourite tracks are Wheresoever
Eagles Gather, a tribute to Randy Weaver whose wife and son were slain by US
federal agents; Seventeen Little Children,
a moving indictment of the Feds'
assault on a Waco church building
in April 1993 and Hang 'em High, a
hilarious parody of the old standard Ghost
Riders in the Sky which suggests 'old-fashioned justice' for the
bureaucrats, congressmen and senators who are selling their people out.
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