How Often Do You Run Into An Artist You Can Call 'Decrooner' | Not often enought.
Find It...
Rodney Decroo
w/ Carolyn Mark, Ayla Brook. Oct. 10 (9:30pm). The Pawn Shop (10551-82 Ave).
“I think we’re living in completely absurd and ridiculous times, very dangerous times. The American economy is about to collapse. We think Bush was bad, but if McCain gets in, it’s going to get really bad — like, insane.”
It seems that no matter how exhausted they claim to be, folksingers are persistently energetic in their opinions. The travel-weary Rodney DeCroo continues with a resigned fervour: “America is falling apart and a cornered animal gets really angry. I think North America needs a real good shakeup. I think we’re going to enter into a period of shortages. I think the economy is going to go down the shitter, but maybe that’s a good thing.”
It’s hard to match such impassioned words and activist past with the sombre tones and apolitical content of DeCroo’s latest album, Mockingbird Bible.
The conventional wisdom among music critics regarding Rodney DeCroo is that his music is a mix of Dylanesque syntax and Neil Young timbres. DeCroo isn’t surprised by the comparisons: “Within the Americana roots rock thing that I’m doing,” he says, “you’re gonna hear Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Steve Earle. These references are really easy to make because it’s a specific genre. It has its sound, but I feel like I’ve found my own voice within that.
“It’s a big joke in the band,” he continues, “because I constantly get the Dylan thing and everybody just laughs. When we were in Victoria, Carolyn [Mark] does her hootenanny, and there was a guy on the list called Dylan and she put me after him on the list so I was coming after Dylan.” He chuckles warmly.
Despite the similarities, DeCroo differs from Dylan in at least one important way: instead of going from acoustic to electric as Dylan did, DeCroo has taken a step back from the bluesy folk-rock of his previous album, War Torn Man, and settled into a more subdued acoustic style. This change can be explained away by the albums’ different inspirations — War Torn Man, which was recorded live at Edmonton’s Sidetrack Café, was inspired by DeCroo’s father and his struggles during the Vietnam War, while Mockingbird Bible was motivated by even more solemn issues. “I think one of the reasons why the songs are so quiet on Mockingbird Bible is that, well, my dad, my grandma, and my grandpa passed away, so in the course of that year I lost three family members and that was really on my mind. I went out to Montreal and just hid out for, like, five months and wrote songs, and they kind of just came out quieter because I was in a different space.”
Regarding the title, DeCroo explains: “it’s based on a quote from To Kill a Mockingbird, where one of the central characters says that the only point of a mockingbird is to sing for us. It’s a symbol of innocence and innocence lost at the same time. And Bible... well, this is kind of like my Bible, because the songs are coming right out of my life.”
So what does the rest of Rodney DeCroo’s life hold for him? “I don’t plan anything,” he says, “because I just get disappointed. I’m 41 now and life is short. I just want to do what I love to do.”
