Vance Gilbert "Kiss My A**"

I grew up Catholic, going to church every Sunday, going through the ritual.

If you grew up Catholic, or if you've ever attended a Catholic wedding or funeral, you know what I mean when I say that, compared to many religious services a Catholic ceremony is often very rote, very sedate, formal, and often a bit monotone.

We went to what was called "The French Church" in my town. Back over 100 years ago, the Mass would be in French. This was the only differentiation I could see, from the "Immaculate Conception" which, back in the day, was attended mainly by The Irish.

But really, to a kid, Catholic Church was like McDonalds. The food roughly tasted the same, no matter where you stopped. That was both comforting, and a little boring.

The French Church had the same Pastor for many, many years, but Father Dacier had to retire eventually. Father Plourde came in, and though some of the old school folks felt he was a big shift, from my perspective, there wasn't much new.

It must have been a little boring to the "new" Priest.

Because not too long after he arrived, he gave a sermon, which he'd repeat from time to time, about how, while he was happy to be Catholic and believed it to be the true path to Heaven, he was a little envious of those Baptists who had their congregation hooting and hollering during a sermon. People spontaneous shouting out "Praise Jesus!" "Testify!" and such. He admired the passion for faith.

He'd end he sermon, and on a good day, maybe one Catholic would, speaking loudly but politely, say, "Amen."

Just as often as not, silence.

That's a long way around to get to today's point, which is that the Folk world can be an awful lot like Catholic church. A little staid, formal, introspective.

And secretly, as a devotee of folk music, I look longingly at the Rap world and their "response" songs. You got a beef with someone? You want to address the same topic from a different perspective? Write a Response (or Answer) song.

It just doesn't happen in the folk world.

But in the Youtube world, it's more prevalent than ever. Maybe that's what motivated Vance Gilbert.

So how entertaining, even if he's just screwing around, for Gilbert to write to a reaction song to the biggest (musical) viral sensation of the year, Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You."

Silly, but certainly not staid.


Tonight on mvy Live, the station features Vance Gilbert in concert, from his fall appearance at The Narrows. Tune in at 9pm.