Norfolk hits the Indie music scene in Bakersfield, CA - by N.L. Belardes
The jet turned in the sky. It banked low over an air base, just above the green hue of skyline where helicopters could be seen lining an airstrip. Then the jet straightened and came in just as low, tearing a path above the horizon of trees before finally landing and rolling to a slow stop. I stepped off the plane, always happy and wanting to kiss the ground. It was summer 1998, and this was Norfolk, Virginia...
Shoot forward to April, 2005. Bakersfield has a new band with the same name as the town I traveled through to get to the pristine beaches of the Outer Banks. The group is Norfolk, and they just played a gig with the Dalloways and Johnny Come Lately at Narduccis, an old Basque restaurant and bar in Bakersfield, California’s historic East side. Yes, Norfolk is a mysterious name for a band in a town that’s about as far from the East Coast as you can get in North America, but then, we may be talking a different Norfolk here...
There’s a historic region of eastern England that borders the North Sea. Part of East Anglia, its name means the “northern folk,” as opposed to the “southern folk” of Suffolk… think Albion’s Seed, a 1989 book by historian David Hackett Fischer who says the American character and its folkways can be brought back to the varying naming ways, fighting ways, eating ways, courting ways, etc., that derive from Britain’s East Anglian culture...
But then again, for all I know Norfolk frontman James just pulled the band name out of a hat...
Alt. country, alt. country rock, cowpunk; what does this mean to you but a Jeff Tweedy rock ballad ala Wilco’s Summerteeth or A Ghost is Born? Or, No Depression foot-stompin’ riffs and ever-so-slight western twang to a gruff non-country voice via alt. country’s Austin origins—well there’s Norfolk. The difference? Norfolk’s music powers into you without the fancy Jeff Tweedy country lead-ins, and with lyrics that shine more straightforward than any Tweedy-esque grunting about Handshake Drugs.
Norfolk is a pleasant change, a transformation with roots that could tie in to the old Bakersfield Sound—just a lot more rockin’ and very alternative. And I only make the comparison because Bakersfield is in dire need of bands that take the Nashville West heritage to the Indie level. Jimmy Holliday has echoes of this. Maybe it’s because Norfolk is from Bakersfield, so I accuse them of such origins in dusty guitar sounds and an agricultural and oilfield background that can only pour from such rural roots. Could be Norfolk only wants to be thought of as a rock band. Well they are a rock band, and a good one at that. But I won’t ever hesitate to put them in a similar category with bands of the alt country movement. Bakersfield needs Norfolk’s songwriting and deep alternative country roots. The ghosts of the old Blackboard would be proud that Bakersfield heritage has a slight influence on Indie rockers, like the recent reminiscence of the ‘Doctor of Guitars’, Gene Moles, whose ghost just frequented Trouts Bar, that old Honky Tonk. There, the remnants of a country heyday still dust off their boots and guitars and then sing the workin’ class blues... only here there are no cowboy hats, no swingin' doors, bar fights and talk of Okie streets, just rock with a slight alt. country sound that is refreshing to hear.
Shoot forward to April, 2005. Bakersfield has a new band with the same name as the town I traveled through to get to the pristine beaches of the Outer Banks. The group is Norfolk, and they just played a gig with the Dalloways and Johnny Come Lately at Narduccis, an old Basque restaurant and bar in Bakersfield, California’s historic East side. Yes, Norfolk is a mysterious name for a band in a town that’s about as far from the East Coast as you can get in North America, but then, we may be talking a different Norfolk here...
There’s a historic region of eastern England that borders the North Sea. Part of East Anglia, its name means the “northern folk,” as opposed to the “southern folk” of Suffolk… think Albion’s Seed, a 1989 book by historian David Hackett Fischer who says the American character and its folkways can be brought back to the varying naming ways, fighting ways, eating ways, courting ways, etc., that derive from Britain’s East Anglian culture...
But then again, for all I know Norfolk frontman James just pulled the band name out of a hat...
Alt. country, alt. country rock, cowpunk; what does this mean to you but a Jeff Tweedy rock ballad ala Wilco’s Summerteeth or A Ghost is Born? Or, No Depression foot-stompin’ riffs and ever-so-slight western twang to a gruff non-country voice via alt. country’s Austin origins—well there’s Norfolk. The difference? Norfolk’s music powers into you without the fancy Jeff Tweedy country lead-ins, and with lyrics that shine more straightforward than any Tweedy-esque grunting about Handshake Drugs.
Norfolk is a pleasant change, a transformation with roots that could tie in to the old Bakersfield Sound—just a lot more rockin’ and very alternative. And I only make the comparison because Bakersfield is in dire need of bands that take the Nashville West heritage to the Indie level. Jimmy Holliday has echoes of this. Maybe it’s because Norfolk is from Bakersfield, so I accuse them of such origins in dusty guitar sounds and an agricultural and oilfield background that can only pour from such rural roots. Could be Norfolk only wants to be thought of as a rock band. Well they are a rock band, and a good one at that. But I won’t ever hesitate to put them in a similar category with bands of the alt country movement. Bakersfield needs Norfolk’s songwriting and deep alternative country roots. The ghosts of the old Blackboard would be proud that Bakersfield heritage has a slight influence on Indie rockers, like the recent reminiscence of the ‘Doctor of Guitars’, Gene Moles, whose ghost just frequented Trouts Bar, that old Honky Tonk. There, the remnants of a country heyday still dust off their boots and guitars and then sing the workin’ class blues... only here there are no cowboy hats, no swingin' doors, bar fights and talk of Okie streets, just rock with a slight alt. country sound that is refreshing to hear.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Monday, April 18, 2005.
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