by John Pigeau

You either have to be a bit crazy or innately ballsy to re-interpret a classic rock 'n' roll record bluegrass style Ñ or maybe you have to be a nice mix of both. Whatever the case, Kingston's Luther Wright and the Wrongs have taken the broodiness out of Pink Floyd's The Wall and added their own swanky, twangy, trippy musical talents to produce a full-tilt country version of the beloved cult Floyd LP as Rebuild The Wall, Part I, replete with fiddles, banjos, mandolins, haunting pedal steel guitar, and even sporadic barnyard noises. The all too obvious question is . . . why?

According to Wright, The Wall was already a bluegrass album, the songs were just waiting to be countrified.

"We figured out that The Wall was a great country record," says Wright, "it just wasn't recorded as such. We thought we could make it our own and have some fun. It occurred to us when we were driving on tour out east and 'The Wall, Part II' came on the radio and we started to play along with it and we thought, `That's a good country thing.'"

The band Ñ Cam Giroux, Dan Curtis, Sean Kelly, Olesh Maximew, and the enigmatic Mr. Wright Ñ kicked the idea around for about a year before they actually sat down to re-record The Wall country-style.

"Everyone who heard about it was either really excited or really offended," Wright admits. "Roger Waters says he enjoys the album, approves of the album and" Ñ this in a somewhat sarcastic tone Ñ "wishes us luck."

Off and on over a seven-month span, the cowpunks and friends played and tweaked and kicked around ideas at Wright's home studio, making the record for a whopping $23.

"And we hope to make at least $20 of that back," Wright quips.

Why so cheap? First, since they had their own studio, the band didn't have heavy hourly rates to worry about. And second, they recorded on eight-track reel to reel analogue with used Ñ yes, used Ñ tape. The finished product lends some credence to Wright's assertion that The Wall was a bunch of country songs waiting to happen.

The Wrongs' version is essentially a string of neatly arranged waltzes ("In The Flesh?" is quite the compelling waltz), featuring a myriad of stellar guests including Jason Mercer, Carolyn Mark, Stephanie Earp, and Sarah Harmer. Wright and Harmer's duet of "Mother" Ñ by far the best track on the album Ñ is wickedly and hauntingly enticing. On the remaining Waters originals, it seems, little tinkering was done Ñ a new key arrangement here, a screaming fiddle there, tight lyric harmony vocals throughout. The album was self-produced and engineered. Wright says everyone got a chance to sit down at the boards and learn first-hand how to make a record, adding that everyone is the better musician for their efforts.

"We were also lucky enough to have some friends lend us some high end equipment and everything else was just kind of crap that works. But we're old school and low budget, that's the way we like it. It was a great experience to record and not have to worry about budget other than all the pizza, beer, doobies, and coffee."

Over the past six months, the band has been gigging some of the songs from Rebuild The Wall mixed in with original songs from their first two albums Ñ their 1998 debut Hurtin' For Certain and 1999's Roger's Waltz Ñ and have been receiving some great feedback. They recently played the prestigious South By Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas where their alt-country tunes went over quite well, according to Wright.

"It went great. We sold a whole bunch of CDs Ñ all we had were the old Roger's Waltz CDs. But we got a lot of compliments on all our stuff and some requests for tunes from Rebuild The Wall." The new CD has "Approved by Roger Waters" stamped on its cover and is being distributed by Universal Records, but how much muscle will a major label flex for an obscure but well-respected alt-country band?

"Well, that's a good question." Wright ponders. "We're hoping quite a bit. You know it's a big-ass company and they're pretty hyped about it. There's a lot of hype around the office. Apparently the inner office staff orders are rampant, everyone is curious. It's like anything Ñ if it really gets a buzz and people start to buy it then the label will spend more money on it. But it's pretty self-perpetuating given what it is already."

That said, Wright also hopes this bold move will finally land the band a niche in radioland where no one Ñ except for CBC and maybe college radio Ñ really seems to know where to place the band. With a third Luther Wright and the Wrongs album already in the works and the steadily-growing hype over The Wall project, look for this ambitious Kingston-based band to break out with a resounding twang in the very near future.

John Pigeau, A & E editor at PIC Press, is an entertainment junkie, an aspiring screenwriter, and a cherished uncle.