I like my lovin' country style...

...I'm only in the city for awhile.

Wanda Jackson - Lovin' Country Style (buy)

This fun tune comes from Wanda's pre-rockabilly country phase (mid-1950's). It's good for dancing around the living room and embarrassing your children.

Great Blog: The Old, Weird America

As an enthusiastic music blogger, I spend a lot of time throwing around conclusory superlatives. Everything is "great" or "amazing" or "brilliant." (Remember, I'm not a critic--just a guy trying to point you to some good things.) So get ready, it's time for more gushing!

Today's post is about a brilliant newish blog called The Old, Weird America. Simply put, this blog is an amazing resource. The writer, a 33-year-old man from France, is using Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music "as a roadmap to explore American folk music and maybe other countries traditions along the way."

What that means is that each song from the Anthology is used as the starting point for a separate post about the song or the style. Not only do you get an informative description about the specific song from the Anthology, but you can also download and listen to other songs by the same artist and--even better--several other variations of the same song by different artists.

While you might think it would be tedious to hear 32 different versions of Froggy Went A-Courtin' (or 100 different performances of John Henry) that's not the case at all. There is a great variety of styles and structure from song to song, and the recordings span a number of years up to the present time. It's interesting to hear the differences as the songs evolve over the years (and sometimes split into two entirely separate songs). Give it a try.

Here are a few tracks I downloaded this week from the post about Song No. 8: King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O (a.k.a. Froggy Went A-Courtin'):

The first is a funny song about Kansas by Chubby Parker, the performer on the Anthology:

Chubby Parker - In Kansas ("The girls are fat as pigs in Kansas...")

The next two are modern variations on the primary song used on the Anthology:

Red Allen - Froggy Went A-Courtin' (buy)

Flat Duo Jets - Frog Went A Courtin' (buy)

That's the spirit, Woody

If you've been paying attention to the news, you may know things have been pretty rough here in Detroit lately, and they're probably about to get rougher. I don't want to be too doom-and-gloomy, but it's looking like the "Dust Bowl" of the 1930s may be replaced by the "Rust Bowl" of the 2010s

If the U.S. automakers start going through bankruptcy, a lot of people around here are going to be looking to relocate, but its not clear where they'll be able to go, or what they'll leave behind. Anyway, it's got me a concerned (and listening to Woody Guthrie).

Like the protagonist in Woody's song, we Detroiters are going to have to try to keep a positive attitude and perservere:

Woody Guthrie - Dust Can't Kill Me (buy)

Talk about a tale of woe...

The photos used in this post come for a recent photo essay appearing in Time magazine.

There is moonlight and moss in the trees...

Sorry things have been so quiet here lately. The ideas aren't flowing, but I do have a few projects in the works. Stay tuned for posts on Doug Sahm and Cowboy Jack Clement (a great songwriter and producer who worked with Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Young among many others).

Lately, I've been raving about Steve Young over at Groover's Paradise. Check out this post for details. Steve Young is so good he deserves a mention here too. (Also, with today's post I'm testing out the new Disqus comment feature here. Let me know what you think.)

This is a 1981 re-recording of the title track of Steve Young's second album (recorded for use on the Rounder reissue).

Steve Young - Seven Bridges Road

A different version also appeared on his debut album. I'm told the Eagles did a cover version as well. The seven bridges road refers to the road outside of Montgomery, Alabama that leads to Oakwood Annex Cemetery and Hank Williams' grave (Wikipedia). (Incidentally, in the second song on the album, Montgomery in the Rain, Young sings about going out to "Hank's tombstone.")

There are stars in the southern sky,
Southward as you go
There is moonlight and moss in the trees
Down the seven bridges road...

Writer's Block: A Good Year For The Roses

Last night my fortune cookie said "Success Is In The Details."

The author of that cookie fortune probably works part time as a country music songwriter, because the advice is dead on. When you want to write a song about a break up, you don't want to come right out and say: "You broke my heart and now I'm sad." It's much better to show it. And the best way to show is with poignant details.

This evening's case in point:

George Jones - A Good Year For The Roses (buy)

The author of this tune is Jerry Chestnut, who in 1996 was elected into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall Of Fame. The performer, of course, is the great George Jones, as fine an interpreter of country songs as has ever lived.

I can hardly bear the sight of lipstick
On the cigarettes there in the ashtray
Lyin' cold the way you left them,
But at least your lips caressed them while you packed

And a lip print on a half-filled cup of coffee
That you poured and didn't drink
But at least you thought you wanted it
That's so much more than I can say for me

It's been a good year for the roses
Many blooms still linger there
The lawn could stand another mowin'
Funny, I don't even care
When you turned to walk away
As the door behind you closes
The only thing I know to say
It's been a good year for the roses

After three full years of marriage
It's the first time that you haven't made the bed
I guess the reason we're not talking
There's so little left to say, we haven't said

While a million thoughts go racing through my mind
I find I haven't spoke a word
And from the bedroom the familiar sound
Of our one baby's cryin' goes unheard

CHORUS

Like the very best country songs, this one's slightly pathetic ("But at least you thought you wanted it; that's more than I can say for me."). As a married-with-children suburbanite, my favorite line is the one about the lawn needing "another mowing." I know the feeling. Suddenly such typically important tasks like lawn care don't matter anymore. But the lingering rose blooms represent a minor victory amid the chaos of the crying baby and the broken home.

Well done Mr. Chestnut and Mr. Jones.

I Heart Blue Note Records

[Editor's note: I'm double posting this at Star Maker Machine as part of their "Record Labels" theme week. If you've already seen this there, then just skip down to the bottom of this post where I've added one extra track. If you haven't been to Star Maker Machine lately, you should go check out the other "Record Labels" posts, covering labels such as Twin/Tone, Apple, and Revenant. And while we're talking about posts elsewhere, I think you'll like what's happening over at Groover's Paradise, which is my latest blogging endeavor.]



Blue Note Records is one of the preeminent labels in jazz history, known mainly for its hard bop releases, a style that combined bebop with elements of soul and R&B. Blue Note recording artists include Lee Morgan, Jimmy Smith, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Horace Silver, and Donald Byrd.



As great as the music was, Blue Note is perhaps equally lauded for its contribution to the graphic arts. Cover artist Reid Miles developed a distinctive style that used black and white photographs with limited color palettes to great effect. There simply aren't any cooler album covers. See more here and here. Now enjoy some great jazz music!



Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Moanin' (buy)



John Coltrane - Lazy Bird (buy)



Jimmy Smith - Back At The Chicken Shack (buy)



This last one's "hugely" angular, but it works, especially on a warm, rainy night:

Eric Dolphy - Stright Up And Down (buy)

What is your favorite Blue Note cover?

Sorry You're Sick

Well folks, that's it for the drinking songs. Another box checked off the STWOF to-do list...

I know I missed some good ones, but I'm all out of booze (and out of steam), so the rest will have to wait for another day. Right now, I just need some sleep!

Until we meet again, enjoy these tunes:

Ted Hawkins - Sorry You're Sick (buy)
Lefty Frizzell & Johnny Bond - Sick, Sober & Sorry (buy)
George Jones - Heartaches & Hangovers (buy)
Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down (buy)
Hank Thompson - Hangover Tavern (buy)

I'll be back when the cuckoo wails and the lonesome blue jay cries...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You know what to do.

The Pogues - The Parting Glass (buy)
The Pogues featuring The Dubliners - The Irish Rover (buy)
The Dubliners - Whiskey In The Jar (buy)
Liam Clancy - All For Me Grog (buy)
The Clancy Brothers - Finnegan's Wake (buy)

This one's too good for just one version:

The Clancy Brothers - The Parting Glass (buy)

Today's drink, of course

Photostory: Georgia In A Jug

Johnny Paycheck - Georgia In A Jug (buy)

Mason jars on the dresser filled with dollars and quarters,
Savin' em' for our trip around the world,
But now that you changed your tune, there'll be no honeymoon,
So tonight I'm going there without you girl...

I'm going down to Mexico, in a glass of tequila

Going down to Puerto Rico, in a bottle of rum

Going out to Honolulu, in a Mai Tai mug

Then I'm coming back home to Georgia, in a jug.
We'll never ride that bus to Mexico City, that's a pity

We'll never sail our ship into old San Juan

You'll never walk with me, on the beach at Waikiki

And we'll never share that brick suburban home

Today I'm taking that money out of that jar
Tonight I'll by my "ticket," at the corner bar...

* * * * *
Here's another version that I enjoy.

Read about it before listening:

Eugene Chadbourne - Georgia In A Jug (buy)

Whiskey whiskey on the shelf, you were so quiet there by yourself...

Things were fine 'til they took you down, opened you up and passed you around.

When the talk turns to drinking songs, Wynonie Harris is a name that can't go unmentioned. Harris was a blues "shouter" who recorded in the 1940s and 1950s. His upbeat jump blues style (which didn't shy away from sex and booze) was an important precurssor to rock and roll. My eyes were opened up to Wynonie through coverage on Big Rock Candy Mountain (a great blog). Here are some of my favorites:

Wynonie Harris – Quiet Whiskey (buy)
Wynonie Harris – Don't Take My Whiskey Away (buy)
Wynonie Harris – Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well? (buy)
Wynonie Harris – Drinkin' Sherry Wine (buy)
Wynonie Harris – Wine Wine Sweet Wine (buy)

Enjoy your Wynonie Harris with whiskey and wine, of course.