I’m sitting in an airport terminal, waiting to board my upcoming flight, listening, for the first time, to Zagnutt’s Madame Sherri. Suddenly I’m daydreaming a montage of scenes. A dirty, worn-in and worn-out rock band hitting the road. A tour bus travelling down the long American highways, pulling into towns for blistering one-night stands. Scenes of loving and leaving fans in the rear-view mirror. Scenes of getting drunk, getting back on the bus, getting a few hours sleep, and getting to the next gig. Sitting there at the Gate, a roadmap of America appears before me, as Zagnutt’s bus rolls across it. Their hair and their beards get longer, as their live performance gets tighter, with each stop along the way. In this daydream, I’ve become a writer following the band around. Maybe we’re all at the airport about to begin a European tour.
It’s a romantic scene of a rock band from the 1970s and 80s. Though this scene wouldn’t be that common anymore, for the 40 minutes of Zagnutt’s Madame Sherri, this is the world that I’m transported to. Zagnutt has been putting in these miles for over 20 years. They described themselves as a “Boston baked psychedelic funkabilly arena rock band.” Madame Sherri is their fifth record.
For what it’s worth, I haven’t had that moment, while listening to the album, where I felt inspired to tell everyone I knew about the band. There isn’t this new sound or melody that I can just feel is going to springboard the band to stardom. While there are some standout tracks, like “Oceans,” I’m not sure if the songs are going to take the world by storm. And after 20 years, perhaps the band has found their footing and place as simply a solid gigging rock band that most people probably haven’t heard of. But, they’ll keep doing their thing because it’s what they do. It’s what they love to do. And you can get a sense of that love in the songs on Madame Sherri.
As I continue to sit at the airport terminal, people move about, as if dancing to the music of Zagnutt, as planes empty and load new sets of passengers. It’s time to get on the move somehow to somewhere. Time to go away for a while. I let the electric guitars, vocal harmonies, and the classic rock beat carry me for a time. Right now, Madame Sherri is taking me exactly where I need to go.
