It wasn’t until the oft-delayed release party, at The Wilburn Street Tavern — finally hearing some of the tracks from The Tan Side of Lonesome in a proper disco context, with a good crowd letting loose on a pleasant enough late-May Friday evening — that the sheer and improbable joy of the whole project fell into place. It was Tan’s take on Kacey Musgraves’ “High Horse” that did it, though I’d had a taste of this effect on Cinco de Mayo at Third Man Records’ Blue Room, when I dropped his cover of Toby Keith’s “Wish I Didn’t Know” into my DJ set.
Of course, given that supply chain drama has exacerbated the backlog of records waiting to be pressed at the vinyl pressing plants of the world, how do we even define record release dates anymore? The digital world is a perfect avatar of The Now, wanting more and more, flinging countless quantities of data against a theoretical wall of music and just seeing what sticks. Streaming may be one of the dominant forms of music delivery these days, but there’s a certain transitory emptiness to the whole endeavor. When abstract digital delivery systems and those of physical media finally align — when you can find a record on your phone or at your favorite brick-and-mortar store — then we can all agree that a record is out there for the world. But a good song works in whatever context you deploy it.
The idea behind The Tan Side of Lonesome is a great one: taking five country hits from the past three decades and turning them into four-to-the-floor Italodisco stompers. The concept isn’t entirely new; even Saint Dolly has been doing remixes since the late ’70s, and Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd, LeAnn Rimes and Shania Twain have understood the usefulness of a dance-floor makeover for their tracks. But Tan — Nashville’s one-stop shop for DJing, electronic performance, musicraft, birdwatching and deadpan humor — took this chance not to serve up mercenary cash-ins, but rather to take some superbly written songs and give them new life and new context.
The Tan Side of Lonesome is out now, streaming via Bandcamp and available on vinyl via Stochastic Releases out of Grenoble, France. While Tan was at his combination studio, aquarium workspace and listening den, I spoke with him to get at the heart of this singular new record.
What exactly set you on the road to what became this project?
I played Jim Reeves’ The Blue Side of Lonesome for [fiancée and artistic collaborator] Dixie. And she came up with the idea for Tan to do a country cover album and call it The Tan Side of Lonesome. The original idea was to do classic country covers since I’ve been playing those most of my life, but I thought it would be more fun/interesting to do songs I loved that were mainly written in my lifetime.
You’ve played all kinds of music in myriad styles in the past. Was there some kind of epiphany that there were similarities between mainstream country and Italodisco, or was it a whole other process?
No real epiphany. They’re both corny genres with big characters and great hooks.
With this project having been out there and streamable for a bit, have you heard any response from any of the artists you pay tribute to with this record, or anyone on their teams?
Nah. I’m pretty hard to get ahold of.
When you’re working on finding a new arrangement for an existing work, is it a groove, a specific sound, or a bass line that tends to work its way into your skull first?
I usually just choose the path of least resistance. Melody, then chord progression, then bass, then everything else.
What do you think is the apotheosis of dance covers? Like, what’s the best example of taking a non-dance song and making it into a dance floor anthem?
Off the top of my head, the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of “Always on My Mind” is almost perfect.
Is there more satisfaction in getting the country music community into Italodance, or in getting the Neuromantic crowd to dig on strong-ass songwriting and country turns of phrase?
People are going to like what they like, and I have no control over that. I just want to put interesting music out into the ether.
What’s your next project coming up?
I take pictures of birds around town, or wherever I’m traveling, and post them to social media every day. It’s my way of sharing nature with people who don’t get to interact with it on a regular basis. I spend most of my free time on Mill Creek or at Percy Priest, looking at and listening to birds. It has added a new depth to life that is eternal and hard to put into words. If I can inspire anyone to appreciate the beauty in this town more than they did before, I’m successful. … Musically, I’ve thought about doing an instrumental concept album inspired by Cambridge Glass, but who knows?
