Bears of Blue River - The Killer Bee Scare

Hello all, it has been some weeks; I have quit my job and been depressed. Its time to take a shower and do something productive that doesn’t involve my x-box. Obviously that means working on my free music blog.

Bears of Blue River are an indie-folk pop sextet from Chicago. Or maybe I should classify them as indie-pop-country. They are definitely indie, but they are country they way Lady Antebellum is country. They have the twang, there are some melodic sensibilities, but don’t go into this looking for stories of outlaws murdering their cheatin’ wives. Unlike the latest crop of pop-country acts The Bears of Blue River are not laden with clichés and dead end melodies, but soaring slideshows on fondly remembered youth, relationships that end amicably, and other things that are pretty nice. Their world is hardly perfect, but it’s nothing to get crazy over.

There are other bands like this out there. They have the requisite guy with the nine foot beard a-la Samuel Beam, the perky lady with the 50s stylings, several nondescript guys with stubbly bears and short haircuts that look like they’d be up for a game of Mario Cart at a given time. But these guys do a good job. If you’ve been reading this blog at all you know I am hardly a person who demands a dark outlook. Given how bad things are right now, a band of nice guys (and gals) making nice music isn’t exactly unwelcome. And the music in question is intelligent and well written. They are more Roy Orbison than Johnny Cash but we can’t listen to Iron and Wine all the time, so I would definitely check them out. It’s a 5 song ep so don’t pay a ton for it, but I would say to go so far as to track it down on Amazon or their website and pay money for it if you have to. It’s a gem of an album, a fun little thing and definitely a good time.