This week The Siskiyou had the pleasure of hearing folk singer Kris Gruen’s new single entitled Company Man. This song fits well with the Ashland music scene. The music blends a hint of bluegrass, a hint of punk, a bit of country and a bit of rockabilly, all combining in a way that actually fits and makes sense. The rhythm of the song is pretty danceable but not in a modern hip hop way, instead it makes a listener want to start jiving to the 50’s reminiscent drum beat. The song has a pretty solid, intelligent message which takes jabs at the capitalist culture that we live in. This song’s first verse has a message dedicated toward corporate workers, while the bridge and 2nd verse’s words are directed toward consumers. It seems that singer Kris Gruen intentionally formatted the song so that even if a listener didn’t hear a word of the verses they still could get the message through catchy chorus “no matter what you say or do, the company will never care about you.” The words of the chorus are needed in 21st century America where the average person views thousands of advertisements a day; the majority of which containing the lie that “this multinational corporation cares about you personally.”
If you like music that doesn’t fit neatly into a specific genre, but can make you dance and think at the same time I’d suggest checking out Company Man. You can hear more music from Kris Gruen at www.krisgruen.com
