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As  a late convert to this band, I was always concerned that these eccentric Brit expatriates were having a wicked larf at America's dwindling culture. By whatever means they meant to skew their post-punk acquisition of folk, country, gospel and cajun sounds,  they came off as slightly smug and arrogant through the process back during the late '80s when no one else was attempting to find common musical threads.

Ironically, The Mekons have been regenerating and reconfirming their fondness for this country's roots music for so long that OOOH! boasts more ingenuity and historical authority than most anything the Nashville elite have produced in ages. (Play this next to any CMT chart-topper and see who sounds more "country"). Not that it matters, since the band has perpetuated its own tradition- combining assertive social rhetoric with a unique musical mixture. 

Like the un-churchy hymn of "Take His Name In Vain," the lonesome trail lament of "Bob Hope & Charity," or the Appalachian/Celtic jig that drives "Thee Olde  Trip To Jerusalem," the Mekons aren't bearing some old torch but setting little blazes all along the trail. Now I'm off to discover what I missed.