It's A Green Day...on Blue, Blue Grass...

The first compilation of the secret stash of goodies that was, unexpectedly, the Pickin On... series that I stumbled on by accident, was a pretty safe bet. It was, as a reader pointed out, a lovely compilation, but Neil Young and bluegrass were inherently very compatible, seeing how uncle Neil is in acoustic, country-ish mode half of the time, anyway and Tim Smith & Friends wisely picked from albums that emphasized that style, even though I would love to get "Trans" as a bluegrass album, but that's another story entirely. But yeah, Neil Young covered in bluegrass was a relatively safe pick, whereas this - our One Buck album of the day - is...a little less so. 

I don''t know how many of you are Green Day fans. Me, I'm not some crazy superfan but like most of their stuff. Billie Joe is truly underrated as a songwriter (but I'll get to that a little later on) and Tré Cool is one of my favorite drummers. Green Day's best songs are melodic, catchy, and kick some serious ass. They are also pretty much perfect for a bluegrass treatment: they are quick, they have hooks, and they are done in a straightforwad style (i.e. the famous four chords you need). Bluegrass adaptations do not necessarily work on, say, elaborate prog rock compositions, but punk rock? *Chef's kiss*

These versions really show what a great pop songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong is and always was. Sometimes you had the feeling he just had to squeeze some bad words in there to uphold appearances, because at heart he is a pop writer, whose pop just happens to be harder and quicker than a lot of other people's. Now this would be all fine and dandy, but still wouldn't amount to much if the Pickin On... folks had turned these songs into the 'Bluegrass muzak' a reader feared. 

Thankfully, by the time they got around to taking care of Green Day, the powers that be pickin' had turned to full-fledged modern bluegrass outfits and given them reign to arrange and play these songs like they felt. It also helped that the three bands responsible for the Green Day covers here are three of the best in the Pickin On... stable. They all bring something slightly different to the table. Cornbread Red, Honeywagon and The Sidekicks are real bands instead of studio players drafted together, and you can feel that in these songs and arrangements.

It will of course never not be funny to hear a bluegrass player drawl "Well, maybe I'm a faggot American, I ain't part of the red neck agenda". Especially considering that Green Day's (in)famous 'protest album' American Idiot, which is richly presented here, wasn't so much a reaction to George Bush the younger -era politics, though that shoe fit supremely well, but a reaction from Billie Joe Armstrong to seeing band and fans at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. 

This collection really reminds you how great these tunes are. So, whether you like Green Day, you like Bluegrass, or you just like some damn good pickin', A Green Day On Blue Grass is for you...