Black Sheep: An Unconventional look at Good Ol’ Family Values

I have been and always will be associated with the punk rock movement. Though my attire has changed drastically from when I was a teenager, my ideologies still hold strong. I was one of those kids with an eight inch, apple green Mohawk; twenty-hole, steel-toe Doc Martin boots and more safety pins than I care to remember. I was however, always trying to go out of my way to be a perfect gentleman at the same time. I would always hold the door for people, give my seat on the bus to elderly folks and convey myself as an upstanding individual. For a few years I even gave straight-edge a try, to disassociate myself with the rambunctious teens that were frowned upon by society and to show that rebellion through drugs and alcohol is the same thing as our parents did, ergo not rebellion. I did all of this because I wanted to show people that you can’t judge a book by its cover, the oldest adage but one that many people are quick to forget. I was out to prove a point, to show everyone I came in contact with, that despite my appearance, I was more of a gentleman than most of the people they knew. 

Karyn A. Gray recently published her first book, Black Sheep: An Unconventional Look at Good Ol’ Family Values. It is a compilation of photo’s and thoughts on family as seen by some of the underground elite. The book looks at family life as told by the artists, musicians and celebrities themselves, accompanied by photo’s of their family life, past and present. Black Sheep incorporates underground A-Listers including contributions by such prominent artists as Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, Sage Francis, Mr. Dibbs, Melissa Auf der Maur and Danny Diablo. The contributor’s show that looks and/or career choice do not define us as a hole, and too see the whole picture, one only has to ask, which is exactly what Karyn Gray did. The contributors all have varied stances on family, but for the most part it seems to be just as important to the tattooed roughneck as it is to their cardigan wearing counterparts. 

Black Sheep is a throwback to my and many others childhoods. We can see ourselves in the reflections of the artists. Whether we don ourselves with a plethora of tattoos or listen to aggressive music, we still (for the most part) have a family that we care for. The underground music, tattoo, art and fashion scene are not “defined” in Black Sheep, as they can’t be defined in general. Every person is an individual and therefore holds individuals ideas on the underground scene. As the Generation X era moves into a dominant position in the world and takes the place of the baby boomers, the “underground” raises slowly to the surface. Black Sheep: An Unconventional look at Good Ol’ Family Values begs its readers to look beyond the surface and to not judge a book by its cover, you should however read this book from cover to cover.

–Mathieu "Runt" Barrot