DEVO‘s “Gut Feeling” is a deep cut from their debut album, known for its 2 minute instrumental intro before lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh starts singing. It’s fairly atypical for early DEVO, melding an almost jam-band type of song structure with DEVO’s notoriously herky jerky new wave sound.
Brent Amaker and the Rodeo are a Seattle-based traditional country band that first got attention in the covers world for their cover of Kraftwerk’s “Pocket Calculator” back in 2010. They all dress in black with cowboy hats and Amaker’s delivery is often spoken word.
As with the original, The Rodeo’s version of “Gut Feeling” starts with a long, drawn out instrumental section. Only this time there’s some more swing to it, with the bass, drums and rhythm guitar echoing more of a rootsy feel than new wave. There’s some country picking from the lead guitar, despite how angular the main riff is.
In this case it only takes 90 seconds, not the full two minutes, to get to the vocals. Amaker speaks the lyrics in his deeply, gravelly voice which fully centers the song in traditional country territory, despite the instrumentation. In the chorus, the Rodeo add a softly spoken “feeling” as backing vocals. For the refrain there are some distant backing vocals as well. Brent Amaker and the Rodeo don’t include “Slap Your Mammy,” the tacked on rave up on the original recording and instead end the song on the refrain and the guitar solo.
It’s a fun cover of a classic DEVO song that manages to preserve enough of the original quirkiness while mostly sounding like a completely different genre.
