o how i wish my bad heart were true
an album by chipper thompson
a review by grace
i love to think of myself as a snobbish music person. i generally walk into a situation where music is involved with the attitude of “this is going to be a load of pretentious bullshit! i am punk rock! it is my job to say fuck you to all things not punk rock!!!” and back in the day, that was me through and through, but i am older today and my attitude is more a whisper in the back of my mind. i would love to say i have grown up, but i think a more accurate description is that my concept of punk rock has evolved past three chords, safety pins and “what we do is secret”. today, i still stay true to my punk rock lifestyle, but i see the punk rock in music that isn’t so punk rock. i still insist i am going to hate this new shit, so it’s gotta take a badass experience for me to even accept something as “eh…” when i hear music that can make me move and obsess it’s gotta meet some serious old school requirements. i would love to let the world know i found an album that moved me to dancing and crying and laughing at the same time: Chipper Thompson- o how i wish my bad heart was true!!!!
i was introduced to this album by my a family member who has a tendency to make me do things i am not so much wanting to do. and while her methodology might be a bit aggressive there is a lot she’s right about,
and this album happened to fall into the “i’m glad she made me” column. she played me two songs off of the album, “i can talk to crows” and “edge of the earth”, i was sold within the first verse of “i can talk to crows”.
i have a love for appalachian mountain culture, and mr. chipper thompson has captured the truth of mountain music in o how i wish my bad heart was true. the history of the settlers of the appalachians is that of the pariahs, those who settled in that wilderness were not acceptable in proper society so they went into the hills and said fuck it. most of those non-indigenous people who settled this region were irish and scottish immigrants who were not going to lose their lives and traditions to the throne of england, therefore their way of life, culture, music and woodkern (irish outlaw) and highlander (those living in the mountains of scotland) attitudes. there are superstitions and magic. it’s a lifestyle and a code of conduct. when most people think of mountain music, they think of bluegrass, and while, yes, that is a style of music that originated in that region, it came from something more basic, more primal. just as the old spirituals were codes for slaves to tell each other safe passage to freedom, mountain music is bardic, telling stories that are not supposed to be told. o how i wish my bad heart