Red neck tech support

       I tale u whut, y’all might be a little surprised how much we all yahoos know about the computers. If ya need any teck tips, heres the place to be. Ever since Joey John went to the city and started makin money, hes been saving up for a family computer.

       We finally got our hands on it the other day and wouldn’t you guess, the durn thing needs to be plugged in to run! Theres a lotta things that don’t have to be plugged in that work jes’ fine, like my new apple airpods, but of course, this contraption has plugs out the wazoo! Theres a cord for every little thing! Fer the internet, so we can write on are blog, for the screen, for the keyboard, and evern for the little mouse thing (I have confused it with real mice around the house actually). Theres so much setup I cant even get into it right now at the moment.

       But when you get it all set up and all that garbage you have ta go through, there you are. A computer. We can do more with our fone line now than just make calls with it. Oh, and on the topic of the internet over the phone line, please don’t send us any emails with picture attachments because they take a real long time to load up and Brittknee is always tryin to call her friends while we’re on the cmputer.

       But we have some tech tips for those of you who are challenged at making these machines work right.

1. If it doesnt work right, turn it off and on again. This here is the most big answer to all problems. Im not totally sure how ‘lectricity works, but it stands to reason that if the power goin through the machine gets stale and old like droopy lettuce or a moldy block of cheese, you need to refresh that. Get a fresh bit of electricity by unplugging and pluggin it in again.

2. How to set your desktop background: wait for your picture emails to download and then use the right mouse ear on a picture to get into a little menu. If it dont show up, wait a bit for the computer to catch up with ya. These things take time sometimes, when ya consider that these are really just glorified typewriters. They are not ment to do any of the complicated extra stuff like look at pictures and play vidya games (what would we have the atari for then?!?). Then just click the option to set it as a desktop picture, and there yougo. Make sure you chose your picture with care, because it turns out using a computer is not a private experience.

3. If yer computer overheats like ours does all the time just go ahead and put it in an ice box or dont be afraid to open that baby up and fill up the inside with ice cubes. Or yer could try putting a fan on it.

4. How to save document: when you’re using an article writer like this confounded microsoft word, you need to save sometimes to make sure you dont lose all your work. The easiest way to do that is click the thing up at the top of the window and click save, but if this don’t work, you can just try restartin the whole system to get a little bit more fresh power.

Yours truly, Tiberius

Op-Ed

I, Tiberius Spencer, believe that Donny Trump is telling the truth when he says that wire tapping happened via Barack Obama during his campaig. Im not that certain that I can tale u wut a wire tap is--whether that be some kind of beer tap for shindigs or a funny kinda electric tape, but of course I woudnt dare deny what Mr. President said for those people in washington know all about the technology.
On another note, I persnlly dont think it matters that much what the guy at the top says, because hes always sayin crazy stuff on tweeter, and anybodee's actions sohould speek much louder than the things they say--specialy politicians.

The Last Bison - Switzerland

Here's a example of the kinda music in playlist hilight 3;

This didnt make in into the spotify playlist but is a wonderfull example of the romantizisation of rural life and how that plays into modern folk genres.

Redneck Playlist Hilight [Part 3]

So far we have covered Progressive Country--the big, rock side of the jeanre, and Bluegrass--pretty much the opposite of that, music that most reflects the simple, studio-lacking rural south and appalachya. Now the time has come to be talkin about folk music. For this task we got a nice little playlist by spotify user Ryan Thompson, which he has elegantly called "Folk Music".

Ever heard of mumford and his sons? Well, this guy and his male descendents sure aren't country, and they aren't bluegrass. That band represents the pop side of indie folk music. They got real popular and some people dont like their new sound, but surely earlier on Mr. Mumford had a sound reflective of many of those redneck musical qualities we have identified in the past few articles.

Folk is kina like the midwest cousin of bluegrass. As a general rule, people from minnesota play folk and people from tennessee tend to play bluegrass. That's how it works out in my mind any how. It's the western side of country music.

Other well known artists from this sub genra are Bob Dylan, and I'd personally include Johnny Cash in folk as well. The further distance that this music has from its roots--it doesn't exactly have any particular loyalty to a particular goup of people or sichuations--makes it much more accesable to the common man and bridges a little gap between popular music and country music.

You might even listen to folk music, or some kind of blend betwen folk and alt, without even realizing where the sound comes from--the great musical melting pot of rural American culture, most affected by southern roots. Folk and Alternative have been blended together in the age of hipsters, who like to wear handcrafted underwear and drink out of canning jars at weddings.
They think it's cute and real to sit back in their locally screen-printed t-shirts and relax to music that sounds like it could be appreciated on a farm or a porch in the middle of nowhere. But of course, with that kinda appropriation comes change, and that change is the upscaling of the production. Just look at Mr. Mumford.

I'm not sayin I don't like this modern folk. Thats a disision for each person to dicide on their own. It's got a lot of great country hallmarks like intense vocal harmony and steel guitars, somehow wit a whole differnt style.

Please enjoy this here playlist, and weare open to discussion in the comments section. As always, there wasn't too much research put into this and I'm just writing off the top of my head.
Tune in next time for Blues!

Redneck Playlist Hilight [Part 2]

Last time we rambled about big country, the music of the city with the production value matching a lot of pop songs out there today. The next thing on the list is bluegrass, with the playlist "bluegrass" by spotify user ndowell-us. If ya listen to some of the instermentation in these songs, and in some of the songs from last time, you can definitly see a comparison. They're from the same roots--though it would be my belief that bluegrass is closer to those roots than the other.

These kinds of musical numbers are heavy on the banjo, and the plucking of that instrument or of fiddles kinda defines this johnra. They also got a ton of smooth fiddle work too. Did you know a fiddle is just a violin used to play bluegrass or country music? It shore is amazing how different this sounds to some Mozart! Most of this here bluegrass music is also based around a big 1 and 3 beat structure, where the first and third beats are emphatized and the second/fourth are just barely there. Its kind of like a walts, if youve ever been to a posh danse or some occasion in town.

The voices of bluegrass are very different to their pop country cousins. The men are usually higher, less overbearingly manly, and their accents have more blue mountain twang than southern drawl. The appalachians are the backbone of the redneck--underdeveloped, coal mines, and often forgotten about, many little towns're left to themselves to sort out their art and learnin (at least, they were when I read "Christy" by Catherine Marshall, a novel that poignantly explicates the struggles of appalachian towns in the first half of the 20th century). That leads to bluegrass--simpler music, simpler life.

There's also that noteful harmony from the second voice in a lot of these musical ditties that you dont hear anywhere except these kinda songs. Its almost like you can hear how many teeth these guys are missin. Unfortunately, alot of the bluegrass kind of sound is missed out on the interenat and professional records because it comes from front porches and town festivals rather than recording studios and travelling concerts.

Have a little listen to this time's playlist, and take a lil time to think about this often ignored portion of our great wide country. It's been especially relivant in recent politics.