“We don’t sound anything like Animal Collective—except once.” said Craig Brown of Canago as he pointed to my blue composition book where I was taking notes. “Can you put that in there?” he asked with a smirk. Through out the entire interview he kept his eye on the composition book, making the gesture to quote him, checking my spelling and trying to read that which I wrote down. Phrases like motorized talking or manic energy don’t quite encapsulate Craig Brown’s personality. Once started, he talks at a speed just shy of mach 1 and not always in a straight line. He branches off and then comes back, yet rarely loses his line of original thought. He thinks and talks all over the map and that cliché is very descriptive of the music that is Canago. If you charted out all the influences that come not just from Brown but from the rest of the band you’d have nearly the full spectrum of color on said map. Canago describes its’ music as a Jam Pop Dance Rock Feel Good Party. They are quite simply fun. Like being the first one in the 64 pack of Crayola crayons and even better is that everyone has their own pack.

    The underlying reason for such color is that at the very core of Craig Brown lays a brilliant poet. Yet he is a bit beyond being a mere poet. He is a man enthralled by the written and spoken word, but he’s chosen to transcribe his passion into song.  I, myself, come from a family of serious readers, and had thought myself to be one until I sat trying to keep up with the endless stream of authors and poets that Brown named as influences and contributors to his own writing and thought processes. Asking about just the written word, at the beginning, I caught Irvine Welsh, Charles Bukowski, & Jack Kerouac.                        

Before I could ask the typical question of, “What do you listen to?” Brown volunteered his response to the question by saying, “I love it when people ask me what I listen to. I always say, ‘How much time do you have?’” Later when I redirected the question with a hypothetical, “What five albums would you have to have on a deserted island?” He named five, and then added a sixth, talked some more, added another, and by the end of the interview had insisted it be ten. Days later he e-mailed me yet more. On surface it’s of course humorous but taken in conjunction with all that he has read, one has to take Craig Brown very serious.

    The problem is that it is really hard to watch a Canago performance and not think for just a minute that Brown is somewhat of a buffoon. Having gone with Pennman to their CD release party at Tidball’s, I found myself grinning as I watched the crowd. Nearly every body within close proximity of the stage was dancing. Crowd favorites were greeted with cheers and applause. Yet my eyes were continually drawn back to the guy singing with this strange ‘get-up’ on his head and face. During the interview some days later I asked if Canago always released balloons during their shows and if he always wore the apparatuses or was it just for the CD release party? Craig replied with a firm shake of his head and a persistent wave of both his hands, “No. No. We always try to do something different for each show. We love having fun with the crowd.” I said, “It really kept the energy in the room up. And they loved it.” His response was, “Yeah. Fun. It’s Fun.” And then I got it.

    Canago’s debut album called Fun is titled so à propos it’s almost déjà vu. I asked about the cover art of the CD Fun. Brown explained it was his venture into graphic arts. He asked if I saw the bubbles in the letters and I was thinking, “Err?” and with my puzzled expression came the story of the Jell-O letters, a black box and a light table. Again completely unconventional and wonderfully bizarre and more than likely only would this madman have thought it up as album cover art.

    Just like there’s so much more to Craig Brown than his neo-hippie exterior, there are volumes more to Canago. After my initial observation of Canago’s performance at the CD release party, the next thing I noticed was the power machine of a drummer by the name of Karl ‘Mikey’ Malone. The energy and expertise of Karl Malone compares easily to that of Mitchell Plumlee, Chris Hardesty, Fenner Castner or Randy Rush. In fact, I made a point of telling Mitchell ‘to check him out’ and how impressed I was with him as a drummer. It was Malone & Brown that started up Canago—friends since their high school days. Brown describes the friendship and eventual addition of Robbie Neighbors (lead guitar), Danny Mitchell (guitar & vocals) & Jason Williams (bass) ‘as a love for Phish’

    After leaving the show I remarked to Pennman that it was ‘like a flashback to the RadioActive Flowers days’ with the warm, happy vibe coming off the crowd and the inter-action of the band with them. I raved on about Malone, and Pennman commented about the bass player, Jason Williams. Of course we agreed that together Canago had tight rhythm section which, of course, defines a good ‘jam’ band. Refusing to be bordered into a specific genre, Canago uses the individual influences of each band member like Robbie Neighbors’ inclination towards the ‘high lonesome sound’ or Karl Malone’s countless hours on the Greenwood High School’s marching band’s drum-line or Brown’s years of vocal training to be a multi-genre musical entity.

     In the boundless range of musical interest that goes from Jon Bonham to Herbie Hancock lays the place that is Canago. It’s your own place—your private island. It’s a vision on the ceiling that envisions that individual idea of fun, of creativity and of friendship and yet beckons you to share your vision with the rest of us.

About the author: Franne J. has lived in 5 major cities and 7 states, but has always loved this area and considered Bowling Green home. She’s been a part of and writing about the local art and music scene, off and on, since the mid-90’s. She recently met the love of her life, a ship’s captain, who has encouraged her to write again. Find her on Facebook.