"Do You Like American Music?"

Folk-Punk-Americana...oh how I love the Violent Femmes. I remember the 1st time I heard the song "Out Of the Window"...I was hooked. Then it was Blister In the Sun, Add It Up, American Music, Gone Daddy Gone, Old Mother Reagan, and Waiting for a Bus.

This Milwaukee trio showed me what was possible with an acoustic guitar and a tight rhythm section. Yet it was Gordon Gano's perverse lyrics ("wait a minute honey gonna add it up...) filled with teenage angst ("you can all just kiss off into the air...") and sung like an 11-year old that brought me both relief and laughter...the Femmes were a breath of fresh air to teenagers everywhere.

Never too complicated in their chord charts the Femmes taught me that the G, C, D combo was king and soon I found myself down in the basement with my friend Duffy playing every Femmes tune as if we had written it ourselves. The energy they recorded in their songs was channeled in their live performances (still one of my "all time shows" 1993 Chicago's Aragon Ballroom).

Although my guitar skills may not have advanced too far beyond the basic three chord progression, the landscape of American music is better because of the Femmes.