Writing and performing in these modern times while being drawn to a bygone era of folk and country music, Mice and Rifles is heavily influenced by the grit of such recording artists as Johnny Cash, Son Volt, Old 97′s, Jimmy Rodgers, Murder By Death, The Carter Family and Lead Belly.
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Feel free to visit Bandcamp for a free download of “Carefree Americans” from Beginner’s Luck.
Review of Carefree Americans
Austinsound.net
If you’ve caught any of Mice and Rifles’ outstanding live shows in the past few months, you’ve likely heard their acerbic nostalgia pounding out on “Carefree Americans.” The song, which will be part of their next release slated for release early next year, is a scathing critique of contemporary politics and society in line with the songs on their excellent debut EP All Kites Up, yet as filtered through their persistent glorification of the past, the song seems to open itself up to several different interpretations. The nostalgic longing cuts both ways.
While couched in the yearning for a time of supposed carefree-ness of the Fifties and Sixties, it’s difficult not to recognize the undertones of discontent that riddled society at the time (perhaps a mirror of our current world). After all, the age of grand speeches of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. that Kevin Brinkkoeter and crew long for were precipitated by the civil unrest and social discrimination of one of our nation’s most turbulent eras. That dichotomy riddles the song in a complicated balance of memory and cultural consciousness that opens up within the seemingly straightforward lyrics. And it’s also just a rocking good tune.