Search - Marc Corey Lee :: Jetset Deluxe

This is what country music should sound like!

Kristy | La Porte City, IA | 06/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got an email from musician, Marc Corey Lee, asking me if I'd like to receive a copy of his latest CD, Jetset Deluxe. He's a regular reader at my blog, Vintage Rock, and based on the reviews I'd already written, he thought I might like to listen to his music. I've never been known to turn down anything free (that probably comes from being a broke college student) so of course I said, "send away." I'm a pretty open-minded girl and I've been known to let an assortment of different styles and genres of music creep into my vast CD collection and subconsious.



When I received his CD via mail and a smile crossed my face. I love mail of every shape, size, and kind, as long as its not junk mail...you know, those 12 CDs for a penny offers that I've had to force myself to turn down; there has to be a hitch in such a great offer, hidden somewhere in microscopic fine print. Upon opening up the envelope, my first immediate impression of the CD cover was, "damn, this guy looks kind of like Chris Isaak." Which isn't a bad thing at all since Wicked Game is my all time favorite music video, and not for the anoxeric model chick, I can assure you. As I flipped the case over, my doubts begin to emerge. With song titles like "Mister Heartache" and "South of San Antone," I silently groaned. This can't be a country CD, can it? Country music is the one genre of music I've been consistently dissapointed with my entie life. Its impossible to escape from it because I live the center of midwest hickville....La Porte City, Iowa.



When I was six, I think there were only two types of music I'd been exposed to: country music and classic rock. I could easily go from listening to Garth Brooks "Thunder Rolls" (originally sung by Tanya Tucker btw) to belting along with Robert Plant on "Heartbreaker." But as I got older it seemed as if all country music was being freakishly mutated into what I like to call "cowboy charictures." Girl country crooners turned into souless, comically bad Britney Spears impersonators with Texas twang and Gucci cowboy boots. The men of country music also fell pray to fashion and tried to bring "edge" to their look by wearing wife beaters and big black, ten gallon hats. It was no longer about musical integrity...it was about how many socks guys could shove in their skintight jeans, fashionally ripped in all the "right" places. While country musicians appearance changed drasticially, their music seemed to de-evolve and turn into a bland mix of power ballads and soft rock.



So of course, that's what brought me to the rock n' roll path and led me to create my blog in the first place. I was trying to find a way to get as far away from the country music genre as possible. I vowed to always flip past CMT and never listen to any country albums that weren't from the 50's or 60's (unless it was Garth Brooks or Mary Chapin Carpenter.) So it took a lot of personal coaxing to get myself to put the disc into my CD player...but I did because I try never to judge music I'm supposed to review until after I give the entire disc a listening to.



The second I heard Marc's vocals, I knew that this was a musician with some serious chops. His voice reminds me of Roy Orbision mixed with a bit of John Denver and Chris Isaak thrown in for good measure. He does have all the basic properties of country music including steel guitars, but it doesn't make me feel like line dancing...all i want to do is get out my flowery skirt and twirl around my living room as if I was a ballerina from Little House on the Prarie. Listening to his songs, "Just One Moment" and "Cowboys and Angels" I got this relaxed feeling I get when I listen to Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely." Marc Corey Lee does not play grinding, grungey guitar rock. He also isn't an intense vocalist that wants to peel paint off the walls whenever he opens his mouth. Marc makes the kind of music you listen to when you're lazing around on a sunny day, drinking lemonade on your front porch and imagining what the puffy clould shapes remind you of.



He even packs some edge into his more upbeat numbers. "Ghosts In Paradise" even had a James Bondish type of feel to it, evoking old spy sitcoms like Get Smart. "The First Time" even has a bit of sarcism and nilhism in its tone. With lyrics like " You're the last thing I dream of and the first thing I leave far behind" you know he's speaking from experience and not writing sugar coated sappy love songs like the horrible country cover of All-4-One's "I Swear." He can be romantic though, when he wants to be and I'm sure he has no trouble charming the ladies from stage with his tune, "Please." I almost swoon when he sings (in his very beautiuful voice) "If this were another place and time I would give into you/ The promise of your kiss, your touch/ and making love to you.



I've listened to Jetset Deluxe a few times now, and I'm not sick of it all. It grows on you more each time you listen to it...kind of the way Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection effects me in subtly different ways each time I give it a spin on the hi-fi. Don't let the "country thing" steer you away Marc Corey Lee's music...He's got a great set of pipes, he writes his own music, knows how to play his six string and 12 string, and he reads Vintage Rock. Not too much to complain about, nothing at all comes to mind in fact. Thanks for sharing the music Marc!

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