Brian Charles Tischleder’s single blasts out like a bang, with upfront
horns and downhome organ driving its soulful groove. It’s titled “Paul
and Babe,” and it’s a real barnburner – to say the least. Taken from the
album Mississippi Call, it’s a song that reaches out and grabs you by
the collar. Don’t worry, though, you’re sure to go with it willingly.
It’s just that powerful.
At only 2:48 in length, it’s also a relatively short song. It’s shorter
than most pop songs. Just when you think it’s going to rev up and last
for the long haul, it’s over before you even know it. Tischleder sings
its lyrics fast, so it may be difficult to pick up on exactly what he’s
saying. However, we can probably deduce from the title that it was
inspired by Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox stories. Bunyan was that
large lumberjack, who usually had Babe the Blue Ox with him. If you look
up Paul Bunyan on Wikipedia, he’s listed under the specie of giant, with
the occupation of lumberjack. And that’s okay.
While the song may have been inspired by a few tall tales, the music
itself is simply wonderful. It has traces of the blues, but it also
contains a whole lot of R&B, soul, and gospel in it, too. Maybe this
isn’t the most authentic comparison, but it sounds a lot like what the
Blues Brothers did with their recordings and film. These actors (playing
musicians) were fans of American music, so they threw everything
together into kind of one big mixed bag. It contained a lot of different
elements, yet all came from the same basic roots. And it was all good.
STREAMING:
VIDEO:
The song is fast and strong, like a hurricane. It starts with rattling
drums, right before honking horns and swinging piano and organ take
their places. Tischleder sings it as though he were huffing and puffing,
like the big, bad wolf. As mentioned before, he rattles off the lyrics
nearly as fast as an auctioneer. If you’re thinking about teaching young
ones about the legend of Paul Bunyan, this may not exactly be the best
vehicle for that.
It may move faster than a locomotive, but it sure is fun. It doesn’t
even build up to speed, though. It bursts out of the speakers like a
cannonball shot out of a cannon. It’s fun to hear Bunyan’s actions
described with such an informal tone. It’s presented as though the
massive dude was actually a real person. If you didn’t already know
about Bunyan’s legend, you might be a little taken aback by Tischleder’s
descriptive lyrics. Bunyan would have been one really scary guy, had he
actually been real.
ONLINE:
This track makes Tischleder’s album Mississippi Call sound even more
intriguing. Are there more tracks based upon legends like Paul Bunyan
contained on the album? If so, this could be a truly creative and
interesting collection of songs. For now, though, we have this small
slice of the pie. The sort of tasty piece that may make you want to
gobble down the whole darn thing – like a hungry giant, in fact.
Comments