ORIGINALLY POSTED ON VARIOUS DATES
Aug 20, 2022
Aug 19, 2022
Mixed Music Action, Vol. 1 No. 5
By Kevin Broughton and Jeremy Pinnell
The Ultimate Fighting Championship takes its pay-per-view show on the road – to Salt Lake City, not a city typically associated with legalized violence – this weekend, so your humble correspondents are back to talk fightin’, singin’, and maybe other stuff. Let’s go…
KB: So, we’ve got UFC 278 this weekend, and I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s not an electrifying card. I think Leon Edwards has earned his shot at the belt, but it’s not a compelling main event. You don’t like doing predictions, but I will squeeze you for one pick: In which round do Luke Rockhold and his glass jaw go to sleep?
JP: The card isn’t super exciting, but Edwards and Usman are elite fighters. I guarantee it’ll be a good fight. And I’ll take Costa over Rockhold.
KB: Hmm. I don’t think Luke makes it to Round 2.
There are a couple of non-UFC 278 stories brewing below the surface, though. The Nigerian Nightmare – with Leon Edwards on his calendar this weekend – is already talking about a move up two weight classes, to 205. (He says he has no interest in fighting his buddy Adesanya at middleweight; understandable.) Here’s a hypothetical for you: It’s been obvious for a while now that the 205 division isn’t exactly loaded. If Usman were to jump to 205 and win that belt, isn’t he in the all-time GOAT conversation, if not the one himself? Thoughts?
JP: Kamaru Usman would be a monster at 205. He’s already a spectacle in the octagon, but he lacks charisma. He’s not really likeable, which in unfortunate. Edwards, however, has the story: Overcoming a tough upbringing to find mixed martial arts, and rising to become an elite UFC star. If you’re boring, no one cares.
KB: I’m not saying he’s the reason Usman might move up to light heavyweight, but there’s this a beast working his way up the 170 ladder right now, Khazmat Chimaev. He’s kind of scary, and by kind of, I mean terrifying.
I think his only fight that’s been out of the first round was a unanimous decision over Gilbert Burns, himself a monster.
So what does Dana White do? Matches him with Nate Diaz at UCF 279 next month…on the last fight of Nate’s current UFC contract. I hope Nate gets paid; why do you think Dana White wants him dead?
JP: Chimaev’s first real fight was Burns, and it was a brawl; probably his first real challenging fight in the UFC. Nate was the money fight. As an entertainment aspect, it was a solid choice. Nate has the tank and Chimaev has energy, but how long can he last? Gonna be entertaining.
KB: Back in the Spring, you sang the National Anthem before a Reds game. My choir does it every summer at (whatever the Braves' park is currently called.)
We have a dude on the front row who turns around and blows a pitch pipe, so we start off on-key.
(a) Were you nervous?
(b) You were on-pitch the entire time; had you practiced, and was there a key you were doing it in?
(c) Was that your first time doing the Anthem in a big setting? And,
(d) For Kentucky musicians, I’d guess “the Anthem at a Reds game” would fall just below “the Anthem at Rupp,” which has to trail only “My Old Kentucky Home at The Derby.” Do I have that right?
JP: I was very nervous. I get nervous whenever I’m playing -- because I care -- but that nervousness is different. My throat went dry (ha ha.) I was shaking. It wasn’t pleasant, but it made my family really happy and that’s why I did it. And I don’t know if I’d want to do it again unless it was Rupp or the derby.
KB: As we close things out…I’ve been begging you to listen to some new music for a while now. I was delighted when you sent me a Spotify link to a band I’d never heard of, Goose Creek Symphony.
Which is odd, because they were formed in 1968. It’s like a different version of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The album you sent (“Welcome To Goose Creek”) debuted just a quarter-century ago. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” What drew you to this “new” old band? Do you know any of these dudes? I know there’s a Kentucky contingent. Have you played with them?
JP: So, my buddy Arlo sent me that record a few months back and it reminded me of The Band a little. I dig it, and no, I don’t know these motherfuckers but I dig their sound. And Kevin, I didn’t want to tell you, but I’ve been diving back in the music. So maybe next card we can talk a little about it?
KB: Sounds like a plan.
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Band Plays Pop-Country Pre-Show Music So They’ll Sound Good in Comparison
“It works like a charm,” laughed bassist Pete “Pal” Wasserstein. “We irritate the hell out of the fans with 20 minutes of Walker Hayes and Florida-Georgia Line before we come on stage, so that our admittedly ‘just okay’ musicianship and songs blow them away.”
“They were awesome!” said a fan walking out of King Planter’s recent Mobile show. “I don’t know what it was, but their sufficient musical abilities and reasonably passable songwriting just sounded on a whole new level tonight; I don’t know what it was!”
The four-piece update the “Lowered Expectations” Spotify playlist weekly, adding anything that’s the latest snap-beat sappy song hitting the country charts or the most annoying viral country-rap song on TikTok. This week they added David Morris’ “Carrying Your Love,” a rap song which features an interpolation of the similarly named George Strait hit.
“Oh God, they hate it!” laughed vocalist Jay Henderson. “But after that shit, I sound like Otis Redding or Chris Stapleton compared to that dude, when I’m really just a C- on a good night.”
King Planter, who list The Band and David Allan Coe as their primary influences, have failed to catch on in ‘the scene’ in three years of existence. According to the blog Bama Mericana, King Planter “look the part and check off all the requisite topics in their music, but the lyrics can be best described as reasonable and their playing is ehhh… fair to middling. No offense because it pays better than being in a band, but they’ll be hanging sheetrock in 9 months.”
All this might be so, but crowds are growing lately thanks to their unique modus operandi. “Word of mouth, baby!” said an excited Wasserstein, surveying the tens of fans in attendance at their Big Star Tavern show in Montgomery last night.
At press time, King Planter was about 8 months from disbanding.
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