Entertainment
Kick Ass Punk-Grass
These days there seems to be a trend of punk rockers finding themselves enamored with country and American roots music, so it should come as no surprise that at least one group of them would try their hands at bluegrass. Though many wouldn’t expect for bluegrass and punk rock to weave together very well, Old Man Markley proves that the two genres can be blended seamlessly. Since 2007, the band has been delivering its explosive and ferocious take on a genre that tends to be more associated with rural American traditions, to roaring audiences far and wide. After a trio of successful, self-released EPs the band found itself signed to Fat Wreck Chords, owned by Fat Mike of NOFX, and has so far released two widely heralded albums, as well as an EP, and three 7” singles, the most recent of which is entitled Stupid Today and was released early last month. Singer and guitarist Johnny Carey and auto harpist and singer Annie DeTemple were kind enough to sit down and catch CULTURE up on their recent endeavors, life on the road and of course, their thoughts on cannabis.
You all are in the beginning of a lot of tour dates, how have the shows been going so far?
Johnny Carey: The shows have been great! Old Man Markley has definitely built an awesome fan base and there’s, pretty much, support wherever we go. Lately, we’ve just been working on getting everywhere we can get to, so we’re getting to the point where we’re trying to hit cities that are smaller places.
Annie DeTemple: We always figure, if we’ve never been someplace, we might as well go and try it out.
What do you think about the whole cannabis legalization movement that’s going on at the moment?
Carey: Actually, I’m a cardholder myself. I think it works for people and I think it makes sense to legalize it, because it can and should be regulated. It’s just a matter of time now, too. We were in Colorado the day it became legal.
DeTemple: And there were lines so long that poor Johnny and Joey, they tried to go buy some but couldn’t. There were people coming from out of state and camping out.
Old Man Markley just released a new 7” called Stupid Today, can you tell me a bit about it?
Carey: Yeah! I thought we were due for a release, because we like to put things out pretty consistently, and we were talking about what was going to be our next punk rock cover song for a B-side. Joey, our bass player, and Todd Fenton wrote the song “Stupid Today” which became the A-side and we recorded it. I just loved the song. It all happened pretty fast, we were home from tour, we had a window of opportunity to do it, and it seemed like an easy, fun thing to do. So then, Joey and I started working on the cover, and we bounced around from a few different bands.
DeTemple: We were back and forth on a few different things for a little bit.
A lot of punk rockers over the years have found themselves drawn to country, bluegrass, and American roots music, what do you see as the commonalities between the genres?
Carey: Well, I think we’re looking at two different colors of folk music, you know? Country music is a pretty big genre, and obviously we fall a bit under that umbrella. We’re more bluegrass, and bluegrass though, I think has always been really connected to the people, it’s never really gone mainstream like some country has. So much of it is about playing with other musicians and jamming old tunes, and isn’t that what punk rock is kind of? Musically it’s the same in the sense that it’s relentless, it’s fast, and it’s exciting.
