Kriesen serves up tunes, country style

Review: How'd you start doing your show in the 'Sco?

Dirty G: It started kind of strange cause Shirley Adkins,who's the monitor, had been trying to get country in there for four years. They were a little hesitant to do it beacuse they didn't think anybody would show up, so I said, "Well, I'll be the guinea pig, let me try it." So we tried it, and it was surprising because the first time we did it we probably had 75 people. The second time we did it we had over 250 people. It grows every time I do it.

R: Have students gotten any better at line dancing?

DJ Deputy Dogg: When I did it Tuesday we had probably had 22 people on the floor, which is the most I've seen at one time. Plus we brought in a video. They're not bad.

R: Do you have a favorite song?

Gary Kriesen: Well, I'm particular to Hank, Jr. I like his music. That's the whole thing about this show. It all matters what sort of mood I'm in when I walk in there what I'm going to play.

R: Do you play different songs for different crowds?

D: A little bit. Like I play older country early, cause theres not such a crowd. So I'll play Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline - the old stuff. Then when more crowds come in they want to dance. They're used to more up-tempo.

R: What do you think of alternative country?

D: I've heard a little of it. Well, I'm one of those old die-hards. I don't even like Billy Ray Cyrus. There's all kinds of different changes thats country's gone through now that it's so mainstream and so many artists are coming out.

R: The country madness hasn't really hit Oberlin, though.

D: Well, I don't know. There's a whole lot of country fans that are here, at least that I've heard from. They like country but there's not much of it here. You have to go out of Oberlin to hear it.

R: What do you think makes good country music?

D: All country music has a message of some sort, but it can't be too heavy of a message. I mean the problem is that a lot of the older country was all depressing. Either the wife left or the mother died - it was all about hard times. The new country is talking more about the good times and having fun.

R: Do you have a favorite of the newer, young country singers?

D: Well, I like Tracy Byrd. He's real good, and Shania's real good. LeAnn Rimes is real good.

R: What's your favorite country radio station?

D: I like the Cleveland station. They're not too bad. There's a new country station that started in Sandusky, but WGAR, they have the tendency to play more mainstream country.

R: What would you suggest to an Oberlin student who doesn't listen to country, but he likes what s/he hears at Quarter Beers?

D: The reason the show works is that we play such a tremendous cross-section. We go from old to new to stuff people haven't heard. People come up to me up in the booth and say, "Well, I don't know what the song is but it goes like this." They've heard country, but they just don't know it by name.

R: Do you take requests?

D: Yeah, I try.

R: Is there a most requested song?

D: Yup, there's two. Devil Went Down to Georgia is one and Tear in My Beer by Hank, Sr. is another.

R: You also like to play that song Strokin'.

D: Oh yeah, yeah! Carter! Now, how it got on to that album I don't know, but it's on there. It's off a country line dance CD, and there's a line dance that goes to it. How it got on there no one knows.

R: Can you do that dance?

D: Not me. Naaaah, I don't think so. I'm not going to try that one.

R: Do you have people that come up to you that don't usually listen to country?

D: Well, that's the uniqueness of the show. We've now decided that this is a very odd experience for the Oberlin student. If you go into that room, 99 percent of the time you hear hip-hop, house or techno. To throw country at them just flat out fazes them. They don't quite know what's going on. You get a lot of different reactions. You get some people that just sit there in total disbelief who are like, "you can't be playing this," and then there are some who'll just sit and have fun with it.

R: What can Oberlin students learn from country music?

D: There's not much to be learned from country music. It's an alternative to what's out there. It's fun music.

R: It might help if Oberlin students learned to line dance better.

D: That would help a little bit.

R: Do you have regulars at your show?

D: It's gotten to the point now where I get stopped walking around. People ask, "When's the show going to be?" Theres probably 100 people who come every time. It's really nice the Student Union has given me the opportunity. At one point they didn't want it in the room even after it had been fairly successful, because they had different student managers, and [senior] Ian Kelleher stood up for me in a meeting and he said "No, we're going to have it." So it continues, I get a lot of support from everybody down there. All the people down in the 'Sco are real good with it.

R: Do you bring your own CDs?

D: We borrow, we steal. We get whatever we can get from whoever we can.

R: Did you pick your name yourself?

D: No. Not really. The name came about because we were in a mad rush to open and I said, "I don't care what you put up there, just put it up there." And it stuck.

R: Do you have any plans to take your DJ-ing elsewhere?

D: Nah, this is about it. It's a release for me. It's fun. It's a chance to get out and do something. It's fun.