Looking back now, I realize I was tripping pretty hard when I met Brown Chicken Brown Cow at the Hardly Strictly festival in San Francisco. It was just before Ralph Stanley went on. They were standing around looking cool with their instrument cases, no need to even say “We're a band.” I don't usually shroom in places with so many people but with such a large crowd sometimes it helps get you in the right frame of mind to enjoy the music with all 20,000 of your closest friends. I believe it was Justin Morris, the guitarist, who gave me a CD. The point of the shrooming story is that I would probably have just talked a game of Brown Cow on them, taunting them with my friends till they cried had I been sober but I was feeling mighty happy and wanted to help these musicians any way I could. Ah, the drug induced love for everything. I put it in Martin's bag and forgot about them till now.

As I recall, they looked like that new brand of boy-band springing up around the country carrying fiddles and mandolins, singing about whiskey-stills and the proverbial “old home place”. And the CD cover, an illustration of a naked woman with f-holes on her stomach is just so perfectly man-show. I found their name with it's cheesy farm animals has a deeper meaning... The common reference to that guitar riff from 70's porn:

“Hey, where did Cindy and that pool boy wander off to?” (Brown Chicken, Brown Cow)

Yes, we have ourselves a boy-band.

Their website has a lengthy explanation of what their music is and what the live experience means to both their audience and the band.  These boys seem fun though, moving together to Maui, then spending their summer giggin' across the country till they head back to paradise for the winter.

I am listening to this on my computer so perhaps that's why the mix sounds a little bass-less. The songs are full of fairly interesting chord progressions, have your typical heart-break lyrics on more than a few, and overall the instrumentation is pretty strong. There are sound-bites between songs and before breaks, some sleazy voice from the band propositioning the ladies or encouraging solos. Part of the porn theme? They, like many of these string boy-bands, attempt the different folk genres; the bluesy tune into the Gypsy fiddle number then the title track of the CD 'Gallop On You', an all-over-the-place tribute to jazz-meets-slow, pointless fiddle and mandolin trilling. There is an enthusiasm to their attempted ethnic folk flavors, even if they could take some lessons from musicians that actually study what BCBC seem to be going after. Don't bastardize what you are trying to celebrate too much.

There is a lot of influences shining through the more “hybrid” songs bringing a twist of 70's rock, bluegrass and old-time, even perhaps some Modest Mouse. 'Marmalade' is quite beautiful with lots of great allusions and tasteful instrumentation. 'Flash' could have been written by or for Tenacious D. Their instrumental tunes leave a lot to be desired. They lead me to believe BCBC aren't actually listening to their own music while writing or playing them. And what is the allure of hack gypsy fiddling? In his defense, Xander Hitzig is like Stephane Grappelli in comparison to the Boulder Acoustic Societies' hack gypsy fiddler. They should both go take a lesson from Enion Pelta-Tiller.

Xander writes a pretty good song with a feel for easy, pretty melodies behind lyrics that could be described the same way. The band states they want to be a crowd pleaser and, though I haven't seen them in concert, I'm sure they would go over well in most places. The entire CD may not make it in regular rotation on the I-pod but a few tunes from Gallop On You may make the playlist.