Garrett T. Capps – Born In San Antone

10th March 2022 · 2010s, 2016, Country, Music

If you’d ever wondered what Lou Reed might have sounded like if he’d chosen a career in country music* Garrett T. Capps provides the answer.

I’m not normally a fan of comedy country, a niche genre that might include Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through The Goal Posts Of Life), How Can I Miss You (When You Won’t Go Away) and Kinky Friedman’s timeless They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Any More.

But it’s got a long history, right back to old-timey music from the early 20th century, when performers in medicine shows often combined comedy routines and music to keep an audience entertained.

Capps, a former drummer in a rock’n’roll band, puts a modern spin on it with this heartfelt homage to his hometown in Texas.

It’s just a shame that, like so many of his fellow Americans, who often seem to struggle with the correct use of “wanker” and “mate”, he doesn’t know how to use the word “bloke” (around 1:55).

Never mind, it’s an epic tune, a kind of country music take on Sister Ray, with the organ and guitar giving it a strong feeling of The Modern Lovers channelling The Velvet Underground.

*He might have been the archetypal New Yorker but a few of Lou’s songs had a bit of a country twang about them, like Some Kinda Love by the Velvets and Crazy Feeling on Coney Island Baby.