Blitzen Trapper makes American music - America as bandleader Eric Earley experiences it. With the perspective of a traveling musician, Earley describes America as “metropolises with lots of space in between.” Pick a Blitzen Trapper record, and you’ll find punk angst and metal riffs spaced between more acoustic ditties and ballads that put the heart at ease. With electronic and R&B elements thrown in, Blitzen Trapper encompasses the diverse sound of 20th-century American music with a 21st-century sensibility.

But the music is inspired by something more than a troubadour’s view from the van window. A lifetime of music appreciation can be discerned in the Blitzen Trapper catalogue. Earley was raised outside of Salem, OR in an upbringing that was both rural and modest. His father, an amateur bluegrass musician, taught him how to play the banjo by the time he was six years old. Earley continues to pluck the banjo on the band’s 2008 release, Furr, where, for example, he uses it to enhance the disco-themed track, “Saturday Night.” The band even breaks into a minute of full-on backcountry bluegrass pickin’ in the middle of its more aggressive and experimental 2007 breakthrough album, Wild Mountain Nation.

Earley became conscious of pop-leaning folk when, on road trips in the family VW bus, he heard the first album that changed his life (as he told the blog youaintnopicasso.com), an 8-track of John Denver’s Greatest Hits. Earley was inspired to move from banjo to guitar, playing along not only with John Denver records, but Bob Dylan and Doc Watson as well. As he grew up, his tastes expanded beyond the family-approved records and became increasingly eclectic.

A classic-rock kid raised on '90s radio can be heard on a majority of Blitzen Trapper songs. Tracks like the upbeat and adventurous “Gold for Bread,” from Furr, have an aura of experimentation not found in ordinary rock tunes. That is, there are hints of the music Earley listened to in his pre-high-school years, like M.C. Hammer, Kip Winger and Guns ‘N Roses, and the bands he emulated once in high school, such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M. Songs like the pleasantly easy going “Asleep for Days,” from his 2004 release, Field Rexx, combine those early elements with a taste of Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Sonic Youth - artists he currently lists as main influences.

After high school, Earley left the Pacific Northwest for Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA. Covenant is a liberal arts college whose motto is, “In All Things Christ Preeminent.” Earley decided on Covenant because, “It was 3,000 miles from where I grew up.” Despite the distance from home, or maybe because of it, he was never able to get comfortable on the pristine Southern campus. Earley left Covenant after an uneasy freshman year. “I didn’t understand the people there and wanted to go back home,” he remembers. This sense of youthful rebellion commandeers the majority of the tracks on Wild Mountain Nation. At times bizarre, there’s a disjointed aggressiveness that resembles punk more than his other influences. "Love U," from Furr, shares these characteristics.

Back in Oregon, Earley moved to Portland and became the consummate bohemian. In and out of school, he eventually graduated from Portland State on the Deans’ List. He continued making and recording music, sleeping wherever there was available space. In 2000 he began playing with longtime friends Erik Menteer, Brian Adrian Koch, Michael VanPelt, Drew Laughery and fellow Covenant survivor Mark Marquis. A few years later, they officially became Blitzen Trapper.

With an organic spirit, Earley's object as a songwriter is to create “classic songs that are more than just of the moment.” He does this by cohesively bringing together different musical approaches typically categorized as being different genres, but which he sees as being one: “American music, vaguely Western, from the mountains.”

For example, take “Fire & Fast Bullets” from Furr. It begins with a reverb-heavy guitar riff and lyrics that could be mistaken for a Geddy Lee proclamation: “There’s dragons and demons alive in the sky!” Driving drums alongside a cacophony of cymbal clashing emphasize the garage-rock elements. The absurd and apocalyptic vibe is assuaged with sweet harmonizing, and a melodic pop song emerges. Keeping things unpredictable, electronic effects are included, which make the highs higher and lows lower. This segues into a down-home harmonica, followed by a piercing heavy metal guitar solo. It’s something completely new yet filled with familiar ingredients, resembling a vintage and psychedelic sound.

“There's no real process,” Earley responds when asked how the layers of genres are put together. He lays the groundwork for Blitzen Trapper songs in solitude, playing on a piano or guitar. “Usually [I] just whack away on a guitar with a four-track 'til I hit on something I like. That's probably the age-old process used by most rock-guitar people.” He then moves on. If he’s motivated to come back to the song, he’ll work on it some more. Only the songs that continue to inspire him get introduced to the band for further practice and exploration.

This non-process has produced four Blitzen Trapper albums that reflect Earley’s philosophy that all American music has familiar elements and can be mixed together to form enduring melodies.

Michael J. Gerber

WHO	Blitzen Trapper, Alela Diane
WHERE	40 Watt Club
WHEN	Wednesday, Mar. 4
HOW MUCH	$10