Bob Denim WSOW
I don’t have to tell you that was “The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me.” Oh, my. That’s the real thing. Yes, sir.
They may not make ‘em like that anymore, but they still make ‘em.
Now, those of you who think it all ended with Hank and Loretta, well you better grab Granny and head for the root cellar, ‘cause we’ve got a couple of boys here that are bound to bunch your shorts.
You may have heard of them in the magazines. Nashville took out a restraining order against these two as a public nuisance. We’ll ask them about that. By now you’ve probably figured out I’m talking about the urban country duo Rappalachia.
That’s the group but their names are, let me get this right, “MC Holler” and “DuTel.” Is that right?
OK. Now you boys take old mountain songs, perfectly good songs, and you jazz ‘em all up like the rappers on the TV. The magazines are saying y’all are part of a new movement they’re calling Hick Hop.
DuTel
That’s cold, man– but Yeah.
MC Holler
Yeah.
WSOW
Well, boys I’d like to say it’s great to have you here in the studio. But all I can do is try to be civil and let you explain just what in Sam Hill you think you’re doing with some of the sweetest music this country ever made.
DuTel
Uh, thanks, Bob, I guess. Well, we’re like trying to keep the music new, you know. I mean we respect the music that went before. Me and DuTel grew up on the old-timey ballads and such when we were boys around Beagle Lick Gap.
WSOW
Before we go too far, I gotta ask, did your mamas really name you that?
MC Holler
Well, no. Those are our professional names.
DuTel
Our street names.
MC Holler
Yeah. My home name is really Dan Hartsfield.
WSOW
That’s MC Holler for you listening in.
DuTel
And my family calls me Clete Frasier.
WSOW
And how did you two come to form up your group?
MC Holler
Well, we used to walk to school together and we’d sing the stuff that we’d been sneaking on the radio at night.
DuTel
Yeah. When the wind was strong outta the northwest we’d pull in the soul stations and like that.
MC Holler
Then for fun, we started sticking in the words of the front porch songs we used to hear when we were little.
WSOW
So you really do come from mountain stock?
DuTel
Oh, yeah. My Memaw used to hum the fiddle tunes, and she’d even sing a few if she’d had a thimble of her ague medicine.
WSOW
That’s all real homey, “homeys,” but I gotta tell you I listened to a couple of your songs and if those traditional ballad writers were alive today they’d be spinning in their graves. I know after a verse or two I felt my collar getting tight.
MC Holler
Yo, we’re trying to keep it new. See all my friends are listening to city music. And we know why. Those songs are about what’s happening now. They tell it like it is, not like it used to be in 1492 or whenever.
DuTel
Like, nobody pines away anymore. You ever heard of anybody pining away? You sing that anywhere outside a 4H jamboree, they’ll laugh in your face and take your hubcaps, too.
MC Holler
Who cares if we make the cover of Bumpkin Beat magazine anyway?
DuTel
Yeah, we were tired of being dissed and having the old music dissed.
WSOW
Now hold on. You mean to tell me you’re trying to protect traditional mountain music?
MC Holler
Bob, have you ever listened to some of those real old songs? I mean got down into the words? You got people killin’ other people like they were chopping wood. They’ve got women watching good men kinda slough off and die, and hearts are breaking. And they’re not just sad, they’re croaking for good.
DuTel
Yeah and you got people giving each other venereal diseases…
MC Holler
STDs.
DuTel
Yeah, whatever…
MC Holler
Can we say that on the air?
WSOW
Well, I don’t…
DuTel
You been saying it every time you play Tom Dooley. That’s why he stabbed her with a knife. No really. You can look it up. So like when people get all hissy about that innocent music, I point ‘em to the footnotes.
MC Holler
Yeah, I mean these things are full of ghosts and shallow graves and girls holding out, saying they’re not gonna give it up until some guy gives ‘em a boneless chicken or something.
DuTel
Right. And you know a lot of guys can relate to that. So, like the heart is there but it needs a little street cred, you know? So we just take what’s true in them and bring on the beat.
MC Holler
That’s right.
DuTel
Am I right?
MC Holler
That’s right!
WSOW
Well I’m gonna give you some rope and see if you can hang yourselves on the radio.
Folks, this is their latest single and this is what we’re talking about. I sure don’t want to get this wrong so why don’t you tell me what it’s called.
DuTel
This is one we wrote back in the day.
MC Holler
About 5 years ago.
Dutel
It’s called “I’m Down with the Greenwood Sidie, Yo!”
DuTel and MC Holler
I was talkin’ real sweet
saying come on honey baby
But she was holdin’ out
and all she said was maybe.
I say parsley and sage?
I ain’t got the time.
Let’s go down to the water
and I’ll bust a rhyme.
But she said first
I gotta ask her daddy.
So I cruised up to meet him
in my low-rider Caddy.
Her daddy asks me Son
what is your intention?
I said I got no ring
but I’m big on prevention.
He said are you a prince
or maybe some kind of king?
I say a crown don’t mean a thing
if it ain’t got that bling.
Then her old man dissed me
so I stabbed him with a dagger.
The blade was made of silver
and I watched him stagger.
The girl starts “Heavens,
what have you done?”
I say, how else I gonna do him
if I don’t have a gun?
She says “Oh, Lord
what will become of me?”
Let’s take a little walk
and maybe then we’ll see.
She asks “You gonna pop me?”
and I say, Yo
And I buried her bootie by the O-hi-o.
WSOW
I’m speechless.
MC Holler
Yeah, we get that a lot.
DuTel
We wanted to put in the usual ballad stuff about killing a baby and the flames of hell and like that but our lawyer said we’d have to use our fifth amendment for our first amendment, or something. So it was going to be a major hassle.
WSOW
I think all different groups of folks are gonna have trouble with that last ditty of yours. You boys gonna be all right after you leave the studio?
MC Holler
Oh, yeah. It’s cool.
DuTel
Yeah, we don’t announce our tour dates or anything. But like we gotta make our statement, man.
WSOW
Well. We’ll cut to a word from a current sponsor and you can slip out the back. Folks, you heard it here. But this station and Les Tibbet Motors would be glad if you forgot you did.
MC Holler
Yo, peace out.
DuTel
And like, fare thee well, my brothers.
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