The Man Who Brought Rap to CKUA

[jon]

Ridley Bent opens for Emerson Drive at Edmonton show
By Tom Murray, edmontonjournal.com
February 24, 2011

EDMONTON - Not to belabour the point, because it really has been belaboured over the past few years, but it’s still strange to see how far Ridley Bent has infiltrated the world of Canadian country music.

Even more than Corb Lund, Bent always seemed like too much of a wild card to fit comfortably on a stage with, say, Rascal Flatts or Paul Brandt. His first album, 2005’s Blam — where he had alchemized an R ‘n’ B, hip-hop and roots sound he dubbed “hick-hop” — pointed him closer to a life of indie slackerdom than to Nashville. Yet here he is, just a year after opening for Lund at Edmonton Event Centre, fulfilling the same function for Emerson Drive on a tour that stops Saturday at the Myer Horowitz Theatre.

“Oh, I don’t know about getting closer to the mainstream,” Bent objects over the phone, where he’s waiting at the tour’s Red Deer stop.

“When I made (2007’s) Buckles and Boots, I wasn’t going for anything close to that. I was trying for that classic country sound, you know?

That’s when I got turned onto George Jones and Lyle Lovett, people like that. But because we had a little radio play with (the single) Heartland Heartbreak, we thought we’d shine the songs up a bit more in the studio and get some more.”

So the long apprenticeship into the comfortable arms of the industry began. With the help of his label, Open Road, Bent has been put to work, cannily placed on bills with many of the country’s best-known acts. Last year, he was backed by a full band for a period; this year he’s whittled it down to a duo with a lead guitarist, both on acoustics.

“It makes sense financially,” Bent admits. “But also, when you’re playing without all of those other people, it gets you right to the heart of the story in the song.”

Bent, who lives in Vancouver, wouldn’t be the first country writer to insist on the importance of the story to his work, but he’s got a stronger case than most when it comes to his lyrics. This could be because of his interest in hip-hop, but it’s even more likely because his musical point of reference is more Tom T. Hall than, say, Toby Keith. In some ways, this makes it tough to find a place on the CISN charts, but Bent notes that he’s been picking up first-time listeners at every stop.

“I feel like we’ve been making a few new fans at these shows. We’ve been averaging crowds of about 500 a night opening for Emerson Drive, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. I’m selling quite a few CDs, and if they haven’t become fans from the five or six acoustic songs we play, the album might just do it.”

Last year’s Rabbit on My Wheel was pure retrenchment for Bent, possibly the most perfectly realized country record he’ll ever make.

It’s full of songs about women (Livin’ With Her Ex, Lovesick), and booze (All the Heat is in the Whiskey, I Can’t Turn My Back on the Bottle), with all of the requisite dropped g’s in the song titles that bespeak a man of the people. He could go further into it, or even run down to Nashville to learn from the technicians how to make his songs more radio-friendly. But Bent has other, more frightening ideas for anyone who thinks he’ll be readily pigeonholed.

“I’ve been really getting into Little Feat lately,” he says, perking up while discussing the legendary cult band, who found much critical but little commercial success with their wilfully changeable style.

“I find it hard to get into the musicality of it, it’s beyond my understanding, but with the help of friends I’ve written about six songs in that style. We’ll hopefully get to recording them in the fall of this year. I don’t think that album will sound anything like the last two.”

Concert preview
Ridley Bent
Opening for: Emerson Drive
When: Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Myer Horowitz Theatre, Students Union Building, U of A
Tickets: $46.75, available from Ticketmaster, 780- 451 8000

ref. - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertai ... story.html

[jon]

Ridley Bent is the man whose music convinced Terry David Mulligan to air Rap on his CKUA weekly show. And he convinced other CKUA staff to eliminate their informal ban on Rap music.

The year was 2005 and the song in question was "David Harley's Son". Ridley even provided a version for CKUA airplay with a single reference to doggie doo-doo replaced by something else.

I couldn't find a YouTube or other copy for you to listen to, of the studio version (there is a live version out there), so I offer this legal 30 second CDUniverse.com clip. It gives a nice taste of the catchy theme, complete with vinyl scratch effect, then a bit of the rap:
http://www.radiowest.ca/sound/ridley.mp3