Korn’s Jonathan Davis is not a man who is afraid of surprising his fans. Having already made a dubstep album, The Path of Totality, with Korn in 2011, he is now in the studio working on a country record.
The singer posted a photograph on Instagram and said he was working with Big & Rich on a country project. He added the hashtag Bakersfieldsound, referring to the hard-edged country sound developed around the honky-tonks of the California city in the late 1950s, whose best known exponent was Merle Haggard. Bakersfield is also Davis’s hometown.
Big & Rich have recorded five albums, all of which have reached the top 10 in the US country charts. They have collaborated extensively, working with John Legend, Wyclef Jean and Lil Jon, among others, and are no strangers to harder rocking music, too, having covered both the Beastie Boys’s (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party) and Mötley Crüe’s Same Old Situation.
Davis is not the only rock’n’roll frontman dabbling with country at the moment. Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler has also recorded a country record, having moved to Nashville for four months to embed himself in the city’s writing community. He has said his record combines the dark side of Johnny Cash’s final album and the “love and fun” of Mumford & Sons.
Tyler announced the release of his album – which is to be released on Big Machine, the label that is also home to Taylor Swift – at the Grand Ole Opry in April. His first country single, Love Is Your Name, came out two weeks ago.
Hardcore country fans have reacted with a certain suspicion to Tyler’s move to country, with some observing that Big Machine boss Scott Borchetta has been instrumental in leading the crossover between rock and country. Saving Country Music said of Love Is Your Name: “Those hoping Steven would be serving up a steaming pile of Bro-Country stool so I could then serve up a bowl of blood in retaliation, I’m sorry to let you down. Love Is Your Name is sappy, somewhat safe (though bold in places), not especially country, and certainly coming from someone who really has no business in country music. But bad it is not.”
