Maxwell 8: Not Riveting Our Attention

[Four is Enough]

They're trying to sound like bluegrass singers. They are failing. Bluegrass singers KNOW how to pitch their voices, AND they know how to harmonize. These people don't even sound as if they practice together.

Can you tell I love REAL hillbilly music? This AIN'T IT.

 

And, "Mary, Did you KNow?" Just NO.

[Coconut Flan]

Wow, those were both horrendous.  Do they ever listen to their own recordings?  I didn't last long with either one.

[WonderingInWA]

Still, John is hot playing the banjo.

[HoneyBunny]

11 minutes ago, WonderingInWA said:

Still, John is hot playing the banjo.

Damn straight. And he's the only one smart enough to realize he can't sing and keep his mouth shut

[Palimpsest]

7 minutes ago, HoneyBunny said:

And he's the only one smart enough to realize he can't sing and keep his mouth shut

Joseph quite literally sings through his nose.  So do Anna and Mary.

It is an awful pity that they have never been given a lesson in correcting nasal resonance.

 

[FloraDoraDolly]

I think y'all need this!

[16strong]

10 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

OMG.  They still have Joe's "spontaneous" caterwauling up on vimeo.

(You might want to turn the sound down.)

 

He sounds like he's impersonating a praise singer.

1. He can't sing in tune or in time. He keeps speeding up and slowing down.

2. His voice keeps cracking.

3. He can't stay in sync with the piano, or vice versa, actually.

4. And yes, the nasally whine.

I sound better in the shower and I've got no vocal training whatsoever.

[SPHASH]

Sorry Smug Joe you are no Michael W Smith.  Bluegrass and Christmas music do not go together.  

[catlady]

Yeah, Karaoke night is full of better singers.  But I give him credit for the gesture.  Back when I was engaged and head over heels, I would have found it charming if Mr. CL did that (22 years of adulting later, my idea of a romantic surpise is having the dishes washed and dinner started while I've been cleaning the bathroom).  But that should have stayed private between Joseph and Elissa, not flaunted all over the internet.

[ViolaSebastian]

Sorry, Maxwells. The Carter Family has this one wrapped up with a bow.

 

[MamaJunebug]

7 hours ago, HoneyBunny said:

Damn straight. And he's the only one smart enough to realize he can't sing and keep his mouth shut

My Poor Sarah doesn't sing too ... at least IIRC. 

[Howl]

50 minutes ago, ViolaSebastian said:

Sorry, Maxwells. The Carter Family has this one wrapped up with a bow.

What is the instrument being played by the woman front left?  

[Elegant Mess]

41 minutes ago, Howl said:

What is the instrument being played by the woman front left?  

It looks like an Autoharp.

[ViolaSebastian]

That is indeed an autoharp--I dated a Bluegrass musician when I first got divorced. That crowd is uh, very un-Maxwell like, to put it mildly. 

[PennySycamore]

I think that's June Carter playing the autoharp.  Sometimes she held it upright to play it.  Mother Maybelle was the lead on the guitar.  There's now a third generation Carter Family with June and Johnny's son John Carter Cash and several of his cousins.

My first grade teacher played the autoharp.  June was better at it though.

The first time I heard the tune of "Wildwood Flower" it was being used for a cab company on my hometown radio station.  

Quote

If you need a cab and don't have one

Call a Bill Hurt Cab and they'll come on the run

I must have been tiny then.  All these years later I can still remember the phone number from the jingle.

[socalrules]

I feel like the Joseph video is some kind of SNL skit. I don't get how anyone thought this was a good idea to post as a positive thing. It may have been sweet if only for Elissa's eyes, or if Joseph was a 5-year old, but otherwise, why would you set someone up for ridicule with this video?

[Granwych]

8 hours ago, socalrules said:

I feel like the Joseph video is some kind of SNL skit. I don't get how anyone thought this was a good idea to post as a positive thing. It may have been sweet if only for Elissa's eyes, or if Joseph was a 5-year old, but otherwise, why would you set someone up for ridicule with this video?

Because nobody at Maxhell has one single stinking clue.  Plus, we need something to laugh at.

[Four is Enough]

@FloraDoraDolly and @ViolaSebastian: too funny! I was going to look for some Mother Maybelle and the Carters.. but here it's already done for me! 

I grew up listening to music like this, and I swear I've heard harmonies better than the Maxwells' coming off other people's back porches!

[WonderingInWA]

1 hour ago, Four is Enough said:

 

I grew up listening to music like this, and I swear I've heard harmonies better than the Maxwells' coming off other people's back porches!

...coming off the SOFA on the back porch and influenced by copious amounts of MOONSHINE...

[nastyhobbitses]

On 4/28/2017 at 10:34 AM, Captain Obvious said:

If I remember correctly, it was just after his Sekrit Wedding and it was a Special Gift for Elissa.

Little did he realise that that video is grounds for instant annulment in 35 states.

If it were a totally private video and done with a little tongue-in-cheek awareness of the cheesiness of it all, it would have been kinda sweet. But he's just so earnest that it's cringey and a bit sad.

[nausicaa]

1 hour ago, Four is Enough said:

I grew up listening to music like this, and I swear I've heard harmonies better than the Maxwells' coming off other people's back porches!

Definitely. Hell, I've heard better harmonies from little kids! This Maxwell shit is the reason people have a bad opinion of bluegrass!

I still don't understand how the attitude of "I'm naturally amazing at everything and have nothing to learn or study from anyone else" is a Christian attitude to have. It's so completely arrogant and also self-defeating. 

And as a palate cleanser, my favorite bluegrass song of all time, "My Love Will Not Change," by the Del McCoury band. 

 

 

[Four is Enough]

Well, that may haave been the palate cleanser, @nausicaa, but now I have a cheese course... Have you ever heard of the Cleverlys? These guys are talented...

Or this one:

I've spent a great deal of time enjoying them on YouTube.

[FloraDoraDolly]

For those who have actually met the Maxwells, do they speak with the same nasal twang that they utilize when they're singing? They live in Kansas, and IIRC the older kids grew up in Seattle or somewhere else in the Pacific Northwest. But their "singing accent" is so thick! 

[PennySycamore]

@Four is Enough, listening to The Cleverlys sing "Ain't No Sunshine", I was imagining this playing during the scene in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant is wandering the streets of London after Julia Roberts breaks up with him.  Yeah, I watched that movie last night.

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

Oh my god guys! I'm going to Kansas city soon for my husbands work conference (don't ask!). 

Oh I hope I run into them! My finest hour