| Followers of the folk/songwriter scene
in Chicago will no doubt be familiar with the work of guitarist/vocalist Bucky Halker. He
first came to the attention of local music fans as the guitarist, voice, and principal
songwriter of the late, lamented Remainders. The Remainders were one of the best bands in
the city in the early 1990s, combining roots rock, country, and New Orleans influences
into a heady barroom brew. Since the groups’ demise, Halker has produced a series of
solo albums and continued to gig around the city with his new band The Complete Unknowns.
The latest of these solo discs, "Don’t Want Your Millions" (Brambus) is a
bit of a departure from the type of album Halker usually releases. Instead of documenting
another cycle of his original compositions, "Don’t Want Your Millions" is
made up entirely of Halkers’ versions of historic labor protest songs. You see, in
addition to his musical life, Bucky is also a PH.D in labor history and has been
collecting and performing these types of tunes most of his life. The album is comprised of
a mixed bag of songs by recognizable writers (Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly), a few labor
standards, and a few that are virtually unknown. The songs have been drastically
rearranged and redone in Halkers’ own style and are sonically closer to modern
folk/rock/roots sounds than they are to the original versions.
Sonic updates aside, all the songs chosen for this project
express timeless sentiments that are as valid today as they were in the times they were
written in. These are stories of those who cannot attain the basic needs of their lives or
of those who have had those basic need taken away from them. The title cut, written by
veteran coal miner Jim Garland in 1932, speaks to anyone who has had the rug jerked out
from under them when it says ’I don’t want your millions, mister/I don’t
want your diamond ring/All I want is the right to live, now, mister/Give me my old job
back again.’ One of Woody Guthrie’s most famous songs, "Do Re Mi" is
given a pleasing countrified treatment here, but still present is the original’s
cautionary warning that running to ’paradise’ without any money may be more hell
than heaven.
The rest of the record continues in this vein, giving voice to the rebellious souls
whom helped to build this country over the last century or so. However, in this day and
age of corporate downsizing, layoffs, and the relocation of many blue-collar jobs to the
other side of the globe, many modern listeners may find their lives reflected here as
well. Halker does a great job in conveying these stories in a way that feels less like a
history lesson and more like the guy sitting next to you on the bus speaking his mind. In
lesser hands, an album like this could turn ponderous quickly, but Halker handles it well
and delivers a vibrant documentation of what it feels like to work for a living.
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