Beans on Toast
The Grand Scheme Of Things
I give this friendly Brit low marks on vocal skills, medium ones on musicianship, and an A plus for songwriting. Beans (no idea what his real name is) hails from Essex yet he directly channels good old American Pete Seeger-infused folk. He mostly plunks on stringed instruments with the occasional backing band or vocalists; his vocals are like falling off a motor cycle and sliding on gravel, but his lyrics punch right through to the heart of whatever social issue crosses his gun sights.
“Fuck You Nashville” sums his disgust with The System, we sense his gigs in C&W town didn’t do well despite his attitude: real outsiders challenge the system of carefully constructed outsider aura and are NOT appreciated. “The Chicken Song” marvels at how easy it is to find dead chicken no matter where you go, and “The War on War” is just that; why waste efforts fighting a war on drugs when there are so many real wars to protest? Beans has the sort of accent that makes anything from the BBC so enchanting, but his politics punch right to the heart of American Experience as well as those of his homeland. Grab a CD, link arms with someone in earth shoes and let’s sing LOUD. How else are you gonna end war?
