An eclectic collection showcasing the original spirit of folk and rock & roll music.

12 MP3 Songs
ROCK: 60's Rock, FOLK: Folk Blues



Details:
A bio of âThe Resophonicsâ by Bobby Snappapazza

âRock and roll,â answers Rob Campbell with a sip of whiskey from a crystal highball. I am sitting in the main recording room of a home studio belonging to Robâs songwriting partner and fellow bandmate, Elliott James. Elliott sits next to Rob, staring into his own highball, and I perceive only the slightest nod of agreement from him.
The question I have just put to them is, âWhat style of music would you say The Resophonics play?â I ask this question because I have just listened through their new self-titled album, âThe Resophonics,â and I donât trust myself to label adequately the genre in which this band fits. Rob seems to have easily solved this problem for me. Too easily? This seems entirely possible. After all, the album kicks off with a couple numbers that I, an avid listener of all musics, would call folk rock. From here the band transitionsââsurprisingly smoothly, I should addââinto a tune reminiscent of 1980s Tom Petty, before launching into an instrumental surf song and a blues number. Ukuleles, mandolins, banjos, and electric sitars make agreeable appearances. One song, âSystem,â ends with an impressively tumultuous clamor of no less than twelve voices, by themselves. The record is capped off by a raucous âMove Fast,â a driving rocker that conjures memories of⦠well, every rock and roll band of the sixties.
One can understand my line of questioning.
Elliott seems to recognize my perplexity and says, âNot rock. We donât play rock. We play rock and roll.â
My ego demands that I nod as if I understandââOh, I see what youâre getting atââbut my duties, in this case, outweigh self-consciousness. I tell him I donât know what he means.
âRock,â he says, straightening in his chair, âis a modern invention of music. That termââârockâââitâs a very definable thing nowadays, and itâs a slim little genre. If you turn your guitar up a little more, youâre âhard rock,â or âpunk rockâ.â If you turn that guitar down a bit, slow the tempo up a bit, youâre something more like âemoâ or you might even get tagged with something really abstract and stupid like âindie rock.â If you play an acoustic instead, youâre âfolkâ.â
Elliott starts drinking, so Rob interjects. âThere didnât used to be all these different sub-genres. There used to be rock and roll, and it covered a lot of bases. Thatâs why guys like Eric Clapton and Neil Young have albums that are all acoustic, albums that are all loud and rocking, albums that are blues or surf music or Motown-ish. But itâs all still rock and roll, because that term ârock and rollâ can cover all those bases without the artist seeming scatterbrained.â
All this talk about the âold daysâ of music makes me wonder just how old these two are. Elliott is twenty-four, Rob is twenty-seven. Yet, through more musical discussion, I can see that these two are more knowledgeable on the music of the sixties and seventies than the average baby boomer.
Elliott picks up a cream-colored guitar and starts picking. He tells me this is a 1957 Fender Telecaster, all original. I donât know exactly what that means. Apparently it means the guitar is near priceless. I begin to wonder why the guitar hasnât been sold for the staggering sum it is worth, why Elliott is wearing a brown suede sport jacket, why Rob is wearing sunglasses, and why these two are drinking whiskey at noon.
When I inquire, Rob finishes his highball and answers, âRock and roll.â