A long-gestating bluegrass tribute album to Bob Seger is has finally been released. A standout highlight is former Drive-By Trucker Shonna Tucker fronting a cover of “Hollywood Nights,” Seger’s 1978 classic. Recorded 10 years ago she formed a bond with the material and its theme, and we can now all share in that.
The original might be set on the West Coast, but its creation owes a lot to the South, being recorded at the Muscle Shoals studio with their rhythm section prominently supporting the Silver Bullet Band. Tucker, an Alabama native, jumped at the chance to emulate her musical predecessors by contributing vocals to the song, without having to add her considerable skills with the bass.
It’s a potent combination. “Hollywood Nights” is all about kinetics and forward movement. Those vectors might be a life moving ahead, from a torpid Midwest upbringing, or driving along open roads after being stuck on the California freeways. The wind is in your hair and your cares are being blown away. That suits one of the most kinetic forms of roots music, bluegrass. Even whilst maintaining the key and pace of the original, there is more action and direction from the standard bluegrass lineup of banjo, fiddle, upright bass and guitar. Tucker’s vocals are more knowing and worldly than Seger’s when recalling his brief love affair. His encounter with an older woman is a source of boyish fascination and wistful memories. Perhaps Tucker is the woman herself, looking back on the encounter in a different light, or it might just be someone recognizing the tryst for what it was, life-changing and impactful for one party, but not the other. She most definitely has “all of those skills.” This is an all-American story given a new sense of direction by some musical maestros.
