I’ve been looking forward to writing about Ween. When I’m asked about my favorite band, they’re usually my go-to, mostly because of how much they’ve influenced my musical taste over the years. I’ve been listening to Ween since my early teens. A friend of my mom’s took her and me to one of their shows at Fitzgerald’s in Houston in ’97. After the show, my mom’s friend gave me a cassette copy of Pure Guava, which I played until it wore out. The first CDs I bought with my own money were Chocolate and Cheese, and The Mollusk.

They’re a hard band to define. They jump between styles constantly, but nail it every time. They introduced me to a number of musical styles I may never have given a shot otherwise, including country music.

When I first heard 12 Golden Country Greats I was pretty avidly anti-country. Growing up in Texas, I was exposed to a lot of mainstream, big stadium ’90s country – Lots of Garth Brooks and Boot Scootin’ Boogies and Achy Breaky Hearts… and it all just annoyed me. I was completely unfamiliar with classic country at the time and 12 Golden Country Greats (and one random episode of “Grand Ole Opry” I caught on PBS) totally opened my eyes to what country could sound like, and, to my surprise, I didn’t hate it one bit.

I like this song a lot. It has a great old school country sound, fantastic steel guitar, and a beautiful (as always) guitar solo from Dean Ween, plus the tongue-in-cheek humor Ween infuses into all their songs.

If you couldn’t tell, I love this band.

Bonus: One of my favorite California skate/surf punk bands, FIDLAR, did an awesome cover of this song.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last time I heard it: It’s definitely been a while but I was thinking about country music yesterday after I watched an episode of iZombie where the main character sings a country tune.