Jack White of the White Stripes has always shown appreciation for country music; after emerging from the Detroit garage rock scene in the late 90s, White went on to produce Loretta Lynn’s comeback album and moved to Nashville, where he now serves on an advisory council to the Mayor.
Videos by American Songwriter
Now the country music world is giving back, in the guise of the Oak Ridge Boys, who cover the Stripes’ iconic “Seven Nation Army” on their new album, The Boys Are Back. The Boys “bleed right before the Lord” just as Jack did, but add vocal harmonies where multi-tracked guitars once stood.
The results are mildly bizarre, but are they bizarre-good, or bizarre-crazy?
You decide.
Oak Ridge Boy Joe Bonsall tells The Tennessean:
” ‘Seven Nation Army’ was [producer] Dave Cobb’s first idea out of the shoot. He said he wanted to take the song and where The White Stripes and Jack White do the instrumental parts, he heard the Oak Ridge Boys singing those parts vocally. So we get in the studio and he’s thinking we’re either crazy and going to kill him or he thinks we’re going to say, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ And we said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Here recently we’ve been putting it onstage, and we’re tearing places up with it. It’s just so doggone different.”
The Boys Are Back is out May 19. The title track was written for the band by Shooter Jennings. Read the back story behind the album here.
Horrible, Awful, Putrid. I HATE it! Wow, I love the Oak Ridge Boys, but that was terrible.
I don’t know what DJ is talking about, I thought that was awesome. The bass singer is really good, and the whole concept of replacing the guitar part with voices worked really well. I’ve been an Oaks fan for years and I’m excited to see them reinvent themselves once again, as they’ve done so many times before.