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Snake in the Grass is eleven songs of diverse Americana influences that weave together a story of a struggle toward freedom in a time of ominously increasing external controls. The record begins with “Surviving You”, a pop paean to individual liberation with Native American influences. Set on the open plain and soaked in a steady rain, “If The Filly Wins” tells a troubadour’s tale of the closing frontier. Then, “A Stranger’s Dream” introduces quixotic electric guitar riffs that grow to dominate the rocking next track, “Get Like This”. Rock gives way to romance on the more subdued “Run Together”, a kaleidoscopic musical commentary on interconnection, followed by “Guantanamo”, a haunting appeal to social conscience and, carrying the back story of the CD, the shape-shifting, rockabilly and blues-tinged, “Snake in the Grass”, the title song. Lienke has, with this latest CD, employed guitar-driven, layered, ensemble arrangements with topbeat rhythms to frame story-telling vocals, constructing a digital-enabled sound with an analogue feel. The result is a fresh take on the context of the popular song that shakes off the old (“Rock and Roll is Dead”), and with some measure of skepticism, embraces the new, (“Twenty First Century Man”), opening our minds and hearts to loss (“1995, April 19th) and glimpses of true transformation, (“Redeemer”). Play Get Like This Play Surviving You Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1 Surviving You 2 If the Filly Wins 3 A Stranger's Dream 4 Get Like This 5 Run Together 6 Guantanamo 7 Snake in the Grass 8 Rock 'N' Roll Is Dead 9 Twenty First Century Man 10 1995, April 19th 11 Redeemer  | | Play The Smell Of Roses Play Way Station Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1 I Got The Bug 2 Way Station 3 Wanda Get Love 4 The Smell Of Roses 5 Injured Party 6 Window Of Risk 7 Marella 8 Horseless Carriage 9 The Man That You Are 10 Today |
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| Roger Lienke is an Oklahoma City-based musical refugee of the Minneapolis suburbs. He has been around the proverbial block a time or two. Done some things. Gotten knocked about some. Gotten up. Gotten older. Gotten young again. He lives close to the heart of the matter and writes about it. He’s for real and he cares. His songs are a bringing together; they take you somewhere.
His voice mixes a northern edge with warm tones of the Oklahoma earth. Influences infuse his music from his ancestors (folk, jazz, orchestral, band and theater music) and he has blended them into a distinctive amalgam of Americana music that pops, rocks, soothes and challenges. With a background of British invasion-inspired, American pop (with contributions from rhythm and blues, reggae, country, soul, psychedelic rock, and film music) Lienke brings a storyteller’s sensibility to everything he writes, a process that began when he was eight years old. The guitar is his main instrument but not his only one. He plays the piano and French horn (taught early on by his father) and lends his hands to the bass and drums when called for. His arrangements are driven by an approach to rhythm he calls the “topbeat”. In the tonality of his music, there is history, there is possibility, and there is now. It calls you in. It asks you to let go of outworn musical fixations, to inhabit an alternative world and to participate. Longtime collaborator with his brothers in performance and on record, Lienke has since launched a solo career that includes composing for different mediums (records, radio, theater, television and films), performing (alone and with friends) and directing select musical projects. His latest CD on Blue Chip Records is Snake in the Grass. Realistic about but undaunted by some of the obstacles intrinsic to the business of making music, Lienke states: “When you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t, sometimes damned if you do will have to do.” Review of "Snake in the Grass" Someone whose name escapes me at the moment once made the wry statement, "The English language invented the word 'loneliness' to convey the misery of being alone -- and the word 'solitude' to convey the glory of being alone." This conflicted yet deeply truthful statement ran through my mind as I listened to "Snake in the Grass," the latest album from Minnesota-to-Oklahoma transplant Americana artist Roger Lienke. Highlights include the sunnily off-kilter "Stranger's Dream," the unblinkingly political, questioning "Guantanamo," jangly blues-rocker "Snake in the Grass," the bouncily playful riff on the jaded undertones of music in popular culture "Rock 'N' Roll is Dead" (some salty language on those two here and there, but they're great fun all the same), and the haunting, hymn-like "1995, April 19th" (very few Sooner State eyes that remember witnessing that day will stay dry when hearing this -- trust me). "Redeemer" closes out the album with a meditation on grace sure to please the devout and fans of clever piano work alike. The subject matter throughout often veers into the territory of the heartworn and the lovestruck, and so may not hold a great deal of appeal for younger ears, but it is with a clear, engaging voice and the courage to dream big Lienke sings with far-reaching appeal as a wise, hopeful troubadour about all kinds of times, including, of course, the lonely ones. "I'm a lonesome traveler with nowhere to go/I spend all of my time on my own/And the chances of having somebody to hold/They come twice in this lifetime, I'm told/And the first was a long time ago," Lienke sings on "If the Filly Wins." Loneliness (or is that solitude?) never sounded so good; any appreciator of the music of Tom Petty who seeks something more introspective, lived-in and thought out would do well indeed to give "Snake in the Grass" a spin. -- Adam Scott (Entertainment Editor - The Norman Transcript) Visit Roger's web site |