Showing posts with label Gary Floater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gary Floater. Show all posts

Jul 17, 2014

Album Review: Gary Floater - Who Cares


By C.M. Wilcox of Country California

Folk hero and, per his own Twitter bio, "country singer/songwirter man" (sic) Gary Floater released a third tribute album to himself earlier this year. Who Cares finds Floater staring down his demons and battling for control of his own musical destiny. Things seldom go according to plan: Even on his own tribute album, he has trouble quieting the bar to start, fails to get the crowd involved in a singalong, finds that nothing happens when he yells for a solo, and can't get his band to quit playing at the end.

Still, he's willing to try just about anything. Environmental song about being gay for nature ("Nature Song"), check. Country love duet with female singer ("Two Boring Losers in Love"), check. Legend of an Irish ancestor sung with fake Irish accent ("Seamus Was a Hero"), check. Dramatic story song about falling in love with a mysterious late-night grocery shopper in a pink muumuu whose "make-up made her look surprised" ("Midnight at the Grocery Store"), check. Shoehorning as many bits of cliched wisdom as possible into one song ("Whatever Man," where he offers "you can lead a gift horse to water, but it's either sink or swim"), check. Numerous songs about a comically down-on-his-luck country singer/songwirter man trying to buoy himself up enough to face another apathetic band and sparse crowd ("Who Cares," "Let's Get This Over With," "Thanks Me"), check.

As a side project by someone not actually named Gary Floater, Who Cares is about having an outlet for some silly songs. But within its own little world, it's also about the indignity, endured by all artists at some point and most artists on an almost continual basis, of laying one's soul bare and being met with indifference. In that respect, Gary Floater is more than just a fiction and a lark. He's a survivor. An honest-to-God inspiration, pink muumuus and all.

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Who Cares is available on iTunes, Amazon, and probably some other places.

Jun 26, 2011

Top 10 Country Songs Most Soccer Moms Would Not Be Fond Of

Here's a countdown of 10 country songs that would not weigh easily on the sensibilities of most mainstream country radio listeners (now anyway - the Wagoner song made it to #2 in 1967). Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Can you imagine this playing on the radio after Taylor Swift's latest ditty? Me neither.

Hank and pals scream in honor of a "music artist" who frequently took a dump on stage and played in it (to put it nicely) and was also known for wallowing in self-drawn blood (to put it nicely again).

08. "Holding On So Tight" - Gary Floater (portion of the song at this link)
This ode to "punching the clown" might not rest easy on radio programmers' palates.

Lucinda has never been bashful about middle-aged sex. "Now I've got your sweetness all up in my hair"... TMI Lucy!

Unreasonable figures?

Pink champagne, candlelight, surprising the wife (and her lover ...with a knife!!)

Rodney's a born romantic, huh ladies?

03. "Delia's Gone" - Johnny Cash
This shockingly cold and violent song from the Man in Black is all the more disturbing because of who it's from.

I guess if you're as ugly as Coe, you've got to lay on the charm thick.

Hank returns to the countdown with this wordy-durd filled rant against Nashville, offering to put male and female sexual organs back into country music (were they ever there in the first place?) The D-word and the C-word get ample airtime.

Mar 22, 2011

Floater Rising

Hell, what is there to say about Gary Floater that hasn't already been said? He's an American icon, a country visionary and a lover of lot lizards. There's not another Texas country singer who's had a greater influence on the art of contemporary song. Gary started out singing for love of money, but soon found a true outlet for the soul in his music.

Floater Rising is new tribute to the legend.

Or as his website puts it, a new tribute album, Floater Rising, is in the can and it drops April 1st, 2011.

Pre-order "Floater Rising" now and, as a bonus, Gary will include
random objects from his trailer in your package!


I have been deemed worthy of hearing the second tribute to Mr. Floater before you, and I'm here to say that out of all the albums I've heard this year, it certainly ranks among the top 50! From the poignant country philosophies of "That's What I'm Gonna Do" to the culinary poetry of "Pull Over (I Want to Eat That)," you'll be treated to Gary's homespun wisdom and his mastery of songwriting.

"Coach's Song" is every bit the powerful ode to high school football that Chesney's "The Boys of Fall" never was. And that's not a threat, it's a fact.

The coup d'étit of this collection is "Americana Me," a manifesto of Gary's alt-country credibility and a love song to the sub-genre he loves most. If you doubt it, I guarantee he'll punch you right in the mouth.

Buy this album. It's Sh*thead Dam good!

Maybe if enough FTM readers buy the CD, Gary will grant me that ever elusive interview someday. Here's to hoping!


Jun 12, 2009

Reintroducing Gary Floater

I don't know how I missed mention of legendary country singer Gary Floater on The 9513 and other bastions of country news in the past. I only found out about him this week when someone entered the search "maple syrup can't stop freedom" (the lyric is actually "maple syrup can't stop eagles" but I'll give 'em a pass since their curiousity led to my discovery) on FTM. I twittered (I will not say tweeted) that lyric to find out what these cryptic but moving words meant and lo' and behold, Mr. Kennedy (Drew, that is, not the wrestler) replied "Gary Floater, look it up." My next few minutes were a journey into destiny. My ears beheld the glory of Mr. Floater's nuggets of wisdom. My days pre-Gary had a vast emptiness I didn't even feel, an unknown longing that has now been satisfied. If Farce the Music had a house band/artist, it would surely be Gary... now it's time for you to discover him too.



And a free download of the tribute album is here: http://www.garyfloater.com/tribute.html

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