Talkin' Honky Blues

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Talkin' Honky Blues
Studio album by Buck 65
Released	2003
Recorded	?
Genre	Hip hop
Length	?
Label	Warner
Producer(s)	?
Buck 65 chronology
Synesthesia {2002)	Honky Blues (2003)	This Right Here is Buck 65 (2004)

Talkin' Honky Blues is a hip-hop album by Buck 65. The title reflects research Buck did into the early 20th-century blues style called the talking blues before recording the album.

This album won the 2004 Juno Award for Best Alternative Album.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Leftfielder" – 2:32
2. "Wicked and Weird" – 3:43
3. "Riverbed 1" – 1:48
4. "Sore" – 4:20
5. "Protest" – 2:51
6. "Riverbed 2" – 2:51
7. "Exes" – 2:51
8. "Roses and Bluejays" – 3:16
9. "Riverbed 3" – 4:04
10. "50 Gallon Drum" – 4:35
11. "Riverbed 4" – 4:27
12. "463" – 4:27
13. "Riverbed 5" – 1:24
14. "Killed by a Horse" – 3:32
15. "Riverbed 6" – 0:45
16. "Tired Out" – 3:30
17. "Craftsmanship" – 4:07
18. "Riverbed 7" – 2:16

[edit] Talkin’ Honky Blues (2003)

2003’s Talkin’ Honky Blues marks a departure for Rich Terfry – a departure of eccentric track divisions, a departure of bedroom-based sound recording and a departure of, ultimately, his old sound. His second major label release, it oozes professionalism and is suggestive of a future increase in popularity for the man himself.

The album starts with Leftfielder, a teasing in-joke sort of track that samples many of Terfry’s old ‘hits’, as it were, including Vertex’s Slow Drama, Sleep Apnea, BSc., Style #386, and Language Arts’ Diesel Treatment. It then moves on to one of the catchiest Buck 65 tracks you are ever likely to hear, Wicked and Weird – a pleasing mix of both folk and hip hop that has instant singalong appeal:

Wicked and weird I’m a roadhog with an old dog

Singing slow songs trying to hold on,

Wicked and weird I’m a ratfish trying to practice

Doing backflips on your mattress.

The song acts as a useful precursor to any further work that Terfry is to produce, and nicely sets the tone for the rest of the actual album.

The next track, Riverbed 1, sets up a series of seven that proceed throughout the album. Generally involving rivers or water of some kind the songs are the nearest thing in the album to Terfry’s earlier work and represent the different kinds of music recording he was employing at the time, such as recording underwater, to create the sounds required for such a series.

Continuing the theme that Terfry initiated in Man Overboard (of involving his personal life within his work), he has no fewer than three tracks devoted to people in his life – notably, an ex in Exes (unsurprisingly), his father in Roses And Bluejays and his girlfriend Sara in Tired Out. These tracks are mostly quite strong and represent Terfry’s pain and frustration in his inability to confront the issues that surround the situations with many of these characters. He’s frustrated with his Dad because he sees himself in him yet still has a failure to communicate with him, and he has a lot of guilt over his relationship with Sara, but can only express this through song.

One of the strongest tracks, production-wise, on the album is 463. Lyrically it is a little obtuse, but there are thematic elements of Terfry’s disassociation with the “youth of today” as explored in Square. The climax of the song is a searing guitar riff that builds the tune to an aggressiveness uncharacteristic of Terfry.