Hillbilly Savant, Appalachian Genius, Fluxus Intellectual???
slappy | somewhere else | 06/17/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The image that may come immediately to mind when one thinks of "back porch hillbilly blues" is that of an ignorant, inbred redneck. In this case the exact opposite is true: Henry Flynt is an urban genius and fluxus pioneer. A thinker, a visionary. What's great about Henry Flynt, and especially this music document, is that Henry treats back porch hillbilly music with the cultural respect it deserves.
Flynt accomplishes the difficult task of maintaining the musical and cultural integrity of hillbilly music while elevating it to an urban, intellectualized context/piece. Furthurmore, Henry's work is never dispassionate - this is not simply an intellectual exercise for him - this is spiritual recontextualism, not mundane recycling. He wants to take you higher while "keeping it real".
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