Country Metal. That’s a two word phrase that would likely seem like an oxymoron to most people. What two genres could be (seemingly) more diametrically opposed?
That’s what I thought when I first read it off the front of Cody’s trucker cap. What the hell is country metal? If you ask Cody Parks (and I did) it’s a little like ‘Def Leppard on corn bread’.
And you know what? That’s a pretty damn good descriptor.
I had to see it for myself, though.
I’m not sure when my first Filthy Friday was, but I’ve been a nearly permanent fixture ever since.
Maybe it was the plunger beer caddy. Maybe it was the fog machines. Maybe it was the snakeskin boots. It’s wild, it’s a little trashy, its kinda silly, it’s FUN. Whatever it was that grabbed me, it sure as hell grabbed me.
You see, here’s the thing about country metal; it is 100% unequivocally, balls to the wall, backwoods, in your face rock. And it’s 100% Cody Parks.
You might be like me.
Country Metal?
…what?
Nervous laugh, side eye, right?
But the ability, willingness, and audacity to combine the two genres is frankly what makes it badass.
It shouldn’t rock as hard as it does. But it does.
I’m a country metal evangelical. I want everyone to check. it. out.
This latest single “Dirt I’m From” marries the two genres seamlessly.
There’s just something about flesh shredding guitar being paired with lyrics like
If you leave those lights in the rear view
concrete runs out turns into kudzu
that IMMEDIATELY makes me want to act up.
And I promise you, if you come out to one of these shows, you’re gonna be hollering YES SIR, YES MA’AM just like the rest of us.
For me, the thing that makes this band, and Country Metal in general so appealing is not necessarily the music itself, (which KICKS ASS by the way) it’s creation of something unique the encompasses every part of the personality, even those that seem at odds with one another.
I’m no stranger to cowpunk and “y’allternative”. Bands like Wilco, Old 97’s, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and American Aquarium are permanent fixtures on my playlists. Country Metal hits a little different, though.
Maybe it’s my red dirt roots speaking here, but country metal kinda resonates with me on a spiritual level. It’s the sitting the the KMart parking lot listening to Ride The Lightning, because there’s nowhere else to hang out. It’s the tearing up backroads with the windows down wearing out the CD that your buddy burned titled “songs that fuckin’ ROCK ”. It’s the Pantera posters peeling off the double wide bedroom walls. It’s loving something SO MUCH despite being a part of a culture and a geographical area that typically opposes it, and STILL weaving in that culture from your hometown. It’s loving Willie Nelson AND Van Halen.
It’s just learning to love every part of yourself and your background and throwing it back in the faces of everyone who says any part of it sucks. It’s just badass.
“Dirt I’m From” is all of that.
You don’t have to take my word for it. The next Filthy Friday is Jan 14th at Live Oak on Demonbruen. Come out and taste some country metal for yourself.
And if you can’t make it out to Nashville, catch Cody Parks and the Dirty South on December 16th for How Banded Stole Christmas, live on our IG.