
After the first instalment of the country history series, it was suggested that I should have at least two compilations for each article. When I floated the idea on this blog's Facebook page, a number of people approved of the idea. So, just to mess up the sequence of posts, here's a second disc for the Pioneer Years – 1920s selection. ... In the first part of the history, we noted the first ever country recording: Sally Gooden by Eck Robertson [...]

In the liner notes to Bob Dylan's 1993 record, World Gone Wrong , he gives a play-by-play look and commentary into it's ten songs. Well, sort of. In a few pages of a CD booklet he divulges his sources and interprets the meaning of the songs - mostly traditional folk and blues tunes, all old, and for the most part pretty dark - all the while riffing a free association into a look at something that Greil Marcus called "the old, weird America." Here's a sample. Dylan's talking about a Civil War ballad, called "Two [...]
Oh, these busy days! They don't give me any opportunity to do the things I want to do, like sit around in my boxers all day, eating corn chips and drinking Coke. Instead, Fawn called at the ungodly hour of 11:00am asking if I wanted to do laundry, complain to the car wash place for screwing up her car, and go to the farmer's market. Jeez lady, what am I, made of energy!? I'm kidding. I like hanging out with Fawn and trying to zing her at every opportunity. We accomplished all our errands today, and I just [...]