Gentlemen Bears

The identity of a band is so often summed up in their own choice of genre identification. So what should a band that sings about dogs, pickup trucks, and heartache over a bed of pedal steel, lush vocal harmonies, and startlingly unique acoustic guitar instrumentation call themselves? How should they self-identify? ‘Country’ springs to mind. But, ah, ‘country’ is such a naughty word, especially if this particular band hails from Texas. The transition to a more ‘country’ sound has become the hip thing to do for previously more indie-minded rockers of late (read: Conor Oberst, Ben Kweller, etc.). But Gentlemen Bears songrwriter Jerid Reed Morris has a unique set of qualifications, at least in his own mind. His family hails from the same tiny Texas Panhandle town as Bob Wills, father of Texas Swing, and Wills used to cut his grandfather‘s hair at the barbershop he worked at. His grandparents eloped to Clovis, New Mexico, on the very same day that Buddy Holly arrived in town to begin the first of his seminal recording sessions with Norman Petty. It’s in the soil and it’s in his blood. These are his credentials. He’s toured the indie rock circuit, had records put out by No Idea, and toured with the likes of Rescue, This Will Destroy You, and The Nein. And now he insists these ‘country’ songs are essentially the same indie pop songs he’s been writing for years. The lyrical subject matter is different, perhaps, and there’s a distinctive twang to the typical driving indie rock undercurrent. But the pop sensibility and indie aesthetic cling to these songs like Velcro. It’s the sound of mass appeal. It’s what everyone wants to attain to, but so few are able to. It’s pop music. It’s indie music. It’s country music.