‘A Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.’ – New York Journal, 1900
When the American frontier ploughed West following the Civil War, it left in its wake a region frozen in time. The Appalachians – until that point on a par with the rest of the country, socially and technologically – fell into a deep slumber, becoming synonymous to the outside world with backwardness, inbreeding and the kind of ultra-violence depicted so chillingly in 1972 thriller Deliverance.
This hillbilly stereotype – fuelled by stories of murderous mountain feuds, such as those between the Hatfield and McCoy clans in the late 19th century – was also synonymous with something else: the toe-tappin’, fast-fiddlin’ folksy sound that would eventually become country music. And from obscure roots in the mountains of 19th century Appalachia that sound – the sound of the Wild West – is today being shipped wholesale to Southeast Asia.
The Wanderlusters, here for a two-night tour, are Ho Chi Minh City’s resident hillbillies. Founded by Davis Zunk, an Ohio-born drummer who spent his formative musical years in New Orleans, they’re a glorious knee-slapping nod to bygone times. Dressed in sombre frontier garb, these would-be mountain men – distinguishable from their forefathers by noticeably better dentistry – eschew the fripperies of the global age in favour of good ol’-fashioned values. Provided it’s after 6pm.
“I don’t look like a hillbilly around the house,” says Zunk. “Only after dark. I get clothing made over here – that’s one of the beauties of living in Asia. I pull stuff off the internet – turn-of-the-century cowboy stuff. In Asia if you say ‘bluegrass’ that doesn’t really mean anything, but if you’re wearing a cowboy hat, everyone knows what a cowboy is. That’s the reason for the hats, to have some kind of identity. Otherwise you say ‘bluegrass’ and people are, like, ‘What?’ But point to the hat and you get ‘Oh, yeah: cowboy!’”
But American roots music, despite its faraway beginnings, is taking firm hold. “A lot like the original music was, hillbilly is kind of new here because it’s been repressed for so long. Since I started coming to Vietnam in 2005, the differences I’ve seen – there’s a little more freedom; people are expressing themselves more. And the energy of the young people in Asia is really cool. We’ve been playing at this one club and it’s full of 20-year-old Vietnamese. While you’re playing they just kind of sit there and stare at you, but then when you’ve finished they start clapping and cheering. It’s still conservative – the government’s very conservative – but it’s starting to turn the other way. The people aren’t like they used to be.”
Touching on everything from jazz and gospel to blues and rock ‘n’ roll but with their hearts belonging to bluegrass, The Wanderlusters have so far produced two albums, the first being 2011’s Midnight Breeze. The latest will be ready by the time they land in Phnom Penh and is called Khong Say Khong Ve, a Vietnamese expression which translates as ‘Don’t go home until you’re drunk.’ On it, traditional Vietnamese instruments weave between piano, accordion and drums. “The dan bau is my favourite: a one-stringed instrument with a sort of whammy bar and a cool, surrealistic type of sound,” says Zunk. “Next is the dan nhi, a two-stringed violin. Third is a bamboo xylophone. And we used a famous musician, Thuy Nguyen, from an all-girls traditional Vietnamese band called Mot Troi Moi.”
Lyrically, both albums draw heavily on The Wanderlusters’ ‘ragtag expat lives in exotic Southeast Asia’. “The inspiration for Bamboo Hotline came from a buddy of mine who has lived in Southeast Asia for some 20-odd years,” says Zunk. One day he gave the secretary from his office a ride home from work and before he arrived home to his wife 30 minutes later she’d already heard the news. This was pre-cell phone or even house phone days. Bamboo Hotline describes the speed in which information (mostly gossip) spreads among the community. As big, goofy-looking white guys who stick out like turds in a punchbowl, we’re a constant source of intrigue, scandal and gossip for the locals.
“Troubled Man is a bit more serious of a tune. A lot of friends of mine died unexpectedly and way too young this year. I sing it from a male point of view but I was actually thinking of how my friend’s wife will feel a year from now on the anniversary of his death. He was only 36; he had a heart attack while hiking and leaves behind two young children. He was a boisterous, fun-loving guy who was always the life of the party and a great friend loved by many. The hallucinating part was inspired by my grandma, who used to call my dad by her husband’s name when she was very old. Even though she outlived my grandpa by 20 years, she still thought of him daily. Drinking to the point of hallucinating is one way of coping with loss.”
Underpinning every tune is skilled musicianship, the kind Zunk attributes to his time spent in New Orleans. “I wouldn’t be the same person – or the same musician – if I hadn’t gone there. Nowhere else, at least in America, has that music culture. In New Orleans, if someone gets married there’s music. If someone dies there’s music. If there’s a holiday, there’s music. You can walk down the street and there’s kids waiting for the bus, playing drums on the mailbox. There’s this radio station that plays only New Orleans music all day, every day. I had a radio in every room of my house and I’m not the only one; most people in New Orleans are like that. When you live there, the rest of the world doesn’t matter; it doesn’t exist.”
As you might expect of cowboys, the band – allegedly the only one in Vietnam to have killed someone with a shovel , although this has yet to be confirmed – comes with a caveat: “Some members are wanted by the law, others by jealous husbands and some have just plain ‘gone missing’ over the years. Be forewarned: lock up your daughters and wives!”