Iron Horse, Pickin On Nirvana (album)
*This is a story I did in my former life as a journalist.
Over the past 14 years, Iron Horse has never backed down from a musical challenge. As part of CMH Record’s “Pickin’ On” series, Lauderdale County natives Tony Robertson, Vance Henry, Ricky Rogers and Andy Richardson have created bluegrass tributes to artists such as Ozzy Osborne, Metallica, Modest Mouse and Kanye West.
Iron Horse has once again put their unique bluegrass spin on iconic rock music. This time, the four lifelong musicians have worked their genre-bending magic on selections from Nirvana’s alternative/grunge catalog.
“Pickin’ On Nirvana” will be released on vinyl April 22, Record Store Day, with a digital release scheduled for April 28. The band, which mostly tours nationally and internationally, has a rare local performance Saturday at Singin’ River Brewing Company.
Robertson, mandolin player for the band, said making “Pickin’ On Nirvana” was a little different from their previous experiences because they got to express themselves a little more. He said the process was similar to when they made their first “Pickin’ On” tribute in 2003.
“It had been such a long time since we had done one,” Robertson said. “Most of the time, we have to get into groove. But, this one was more like doing the Metallica project. It was fun. We didn’t have a huge time constraint on this one.”
Robertson hopes “Pickin’ On Nirvana’ will expose a new generation to bluegrass like their Metallica tribute, “Fade to Bluegrass,” did in the beginning when they started working with CMH.
“They’re probably the biggest group we’ve covered in a while,” he said. “We did the Shins and the Goo Goo Dolls – they were big for a while – but I think Nirvana is more iconic.”
As with most of their other tributes, the band members didn’t go into the project as fans of the music they were reimagining as bluegrass but gained respect for the artists along the way.
Henry said for him, working with Nirvana material was special because they were a band that changed the music scene.
“They turned the big ship of music into a new direction,” he said. “He (Cobain) had some neat riffs that he came up with. What he created was interesting. And again, it seems like every one of these groups we do, there are chord combinations that they put together that I wouldn’t have gone there. It does make sense, though. I think it shows the genius in them.”
At first, when they were trying to peel back the layers of Nirvana’s music so they could rebuild it as bluegrass, Robertson said they had trouble understanding and relating to Kurt Cobain’s lyrics.
“It was a little bit of a twisted web,” he said. “He was looking at life through a different prism than the rest of us. It was different from anything we’ve covered. When you understand it, it’s pretty straight ahead.”
Richardson said they made a conscious effort to challenge themselves with this project.
“You have to be careful to not fall back on your laurels,” Richardson said. “It would be real easy to make something cookie cutter. We don’t want that. This was a physical challenge. We pushed ourselves to do more than we thought we could do. In order for it to really be special, we’ve all found out that we have to push ourselves.”
As Robertson, Henry, Rogers and Richardson explored ways to present Nirvana’s music as bluegrass in the best way possible, they were faced with a dilemma unique to the project. The wondered if their four-piece band – mandolin, guitar, banjo and standup bass – needed to expand.
“The drums were added on four cuts,” Henry said. “Tony’s son, Brian, played percussion and did a fantastic job. Everything Brian does, he does well. He’s one of the guys in our support network, and boy it just helps. I appreciate him.”
Brian Robertson’s presence is apparent in the YouTube video the band released in March for “All Apologies.”
“Thinking outside the box like that helped us along,” Tony Robertson said. “Adding the drums helped us refocus. We could look at the track in a different way. An interesting thing about that is, when CMH first heard those tracks, they weren’t sure if they wanted the drums. But we thought they made the songs. We went back and forth over it a little bit, but we finally got our way.”
Robertson said it wasn’t a big stretch to include the drums because they are an important part of acoustic music. But, more importantly, the band felt drums were a big part of Nirvana’s music. He said including those sounds helped integrate Nirvana’s alternative rock with bluegrass.
Henry said adding percussion to four tracks opened the entire project for them.
“It was a musical voice we had not featured before,” he said. “I think it’s a good ear wash. CMH was good about it. They didn’t grab something there and twist our arm. They told us if we felt strongly about it then it would stay in.”
“Pickin’ On Nirvana” is a good mix of hits such as “All Apologies,” “In Bloom” and “Come As You Are,” fan favorites such as “About A Girl,” “Polly,” “Dumb,” “Pennyroyal Tea,” “Drain You” and “On a Plain,” and it even has two deep cuts, “Sappy” and “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle.”
There is one notable song absence – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is not on the “Pickin’ On Nirvana” album.
Band members agree that doing a hometown show is special. With the upcoming show Saturday at Singin’ River, they hope to include a few new songs in their set list, but they’re somewhat limited by their record label until the album is released.
“We want people to come out and hear our new stuff,” Rogers said. “We don’t play around here too often and when we do, it’s stuff people have already heard. We think this will really turn some heads."
Comments