from the band:
County Rock

"A man must be willing to die for his county."
- Col. Bruce Hampton, retired (paraphrase)

One thing that plagues musicians in general - and bands in particular - is when people ask, "What kind of music do y'all play?" It's an honest, harmless question that is asked for the simple purpose of finding out more about your band. It could even be considered a thoughtful question because it may express genuine interest. But I think most artists struggle to classify their art. There is the fear of being pigeon-holed into one particular category…classifications can often-times be limiting or misleading. After all, if I tell you that Tishamingo is a Rock band, does that help you in determining what we sound like if you've never heard us? AC/DC is a rock band. So is Soundgarden. So are Styx, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, and REO Speedwagon. There are thousands of Rock bands that cover a wide range of sounds, styles, and influences. So the classifications became more specific- particularly the Rock classifications - in an effort to be more precise about what "style" of music a band plays.

One such classification is Southern Rock. Bands such as the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Marshall Tucker Band were the poster boys of this genre. Greg Allman was asked about the term Southern Rock, and he cleverly pointed out that rock-and-roll started in the South, so the moniker "Southern Rock" is pointless - it's like saying "Rock Rock."

A more recent classification (I wonder what Greg would say about this one) is the Jam Band. I guess bands that are called Jam Bands do just that - they "jam." You'll often see descriptions like "explorations in rock/blues/jazz/reggae/funk" to describe a jam band. I wonder what would disqualify a band from being a Jam Band. Short songs? Meaningful lyrics? Cameron and I were in a band back in middle school and we would get together once or twice a week to jam. I guess that means we were in a jam band when we were twelve years old (that is if the term "Jam Band" is retroactive).

I have mentioned these two particular classifications - Southern Rock and Jam Band - because they have been used to describe the type of music we play. For lack of better terms, these are honest and probably accurate attempts of describing our music, and heck, I'll be the first one tell you how much the Allmans and Skynyrd changed my life. And in June I'll be at Bonnaroo - jamming out to the Jam Bands at the Jam Band festival of all Jam Band festivals. But we don't like calling ourselves a Southern Rock band or a Jam Band. People request songs like Freebird and Coconuts if they think you play Southern Rock or Jam music.

One day Cameron came home with a solution to our classification predicament. He said, "Proc, I've got it. I know what kind of music we play." I said, "Really…what is it?" He said, "County Rock." It's perfect. That's exactly what we play - County Rock.

Being in a County Rock band brings with it a great deal of responsibility. The question Jess, Spivey, Cameron, and I are faced with every day is "Are you willing to die for your county?" If not, we're all headed to Splitsville.
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