Country Artist Spotlight: Paul Cauthen
Now for something completely different
You may have noticed a decidedly traditional bent to the music if you have followed along with my Country Artist Spotlight series. I am not a big fan of most of the newer country music styles indistinguishable from pop and modern hip hop.
I have a lot of sympathy for the “if there’s no steel guitar I don’t want it” crowd. I’m not far from that myself. However, I do appreciate it when people do something different and unique. And if you listen to Paul Cauthen’s body of work, it’s hard to say he’s not doing something different.
And if outlaw country is about not following the rules and not doing what everyone else is doing because that’s what get’s you on the radio, then there may be no bigger outlaw on the current scene than Paul Cauthen.
My vocabulary here is limited because I’m a fan and not a professional critic, so I have difficulty describing what type of music Cauthen does. Overall, there are a lot of dance club elements to it. It’s redneck music you can dance to.
Unsurprisingly, his first solo album, My Gospel, has a very church choir quality to a lot of it. When he really opens his voice up and brings in the piano, there’s almost an orchestral quality.
His newer material — which I haven’t heard much of — seems to be straying deeper into hip-hop/hick-hop with more heavy bass lines and less guitar.
In my opinion, Cauthen’s middle albums, Country Coming Down and Room 41, are really where he’s at his best. There are heavy doses of Motown funk, fun bass lines, and rhythm you can groove to along with some undeniable country elements like honky-tonk piano and clear country guitar picking.
It really is a unique sound of his own.
If you don’t believe me, he’ll tell you about it in his song Country as F*ck (NSFW Language Warning).
Granted, this is a self-referential, list-type song that, done poorly, can be a bucket of cringe. But there are no hokey dirt roads or beat-up old guitar references here.
To do one of these songs well, it has to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating. And I think Cauthen hits the mark with fun lyrics that capture his redneck background in his own style.
I go to Piggly Wiggly
Call out on my CB
Steal a VCR and jimmy-rig it to my TV
Hot dog holly golly dagnabbit
I was two years old when I shot my first rabbit
And, of course, you can’t even call yourself Outlaw unless you take a shot at a major pop country star:
NASCAR, dive bar, fireworks, guitar
Riding mower, landowner, 83 Texoma
I was driving tractors before it got sexy
Real cowboys don’t rock to Kenny Chesney
Speaking of Outlaw, Cauthen is racking up a criminal record to match his image. Arrested in high school for selling marijuana and sent to prison for a parole violation in college, he turned 20 in prison, which is pretty Merle Haggard of him. He lived the lyrics to his song Freak.
Out there in east Texas
You get pulled over and have that devils lettuce on ya
You get thrown behind the big wall
Cauthen recently added to this record with a more serious drug arrest in South Carolina. The Cauthen camp has focused on the marijuana possession and the fact the charges contain the word manufacture in addition to possession. According to news reports, however, there was more than marijuana on the bus. Also found were cocaine, heroin, diazepam, and Xanax.
Cauthen has admitted to much more drug use and dealing than he has been charged with, which shouldn’t be surprising for a guy whose most famous song might be Cocaine Country Dancing. While I obviously don’t condone hard drug use, the song is fantastic, and if you don’t find yourself at least head bobbing along, I’m not sure you have a soul.
Despite his drug issues, Cauthen grew up in the church and still considers himself Christian; much of his music reflects that. While the My Gospel album mentioned above might make it obvious, it also runs through his other albums. Room 41’s “Holy Ghost Fire,” for instance.
While I have a hard time categorizing him, and he has some songs and lyrics I’m not really a fan of, I give Cauthen a lot of credit for being unique. Certainly, his voice and talent could propel him into mainstream stardom if he chose to focus on a more commercial style of music. Instead, he’s chosen to be himself, and I tip my cap to Big Velvet for that.
For other independent artists I think deserve more attention, please see here:
