By Kristen Bialik Movie - Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975) Watch more on Network Awesome Nashville Tennessee has earned a star on the map for many things: state capital, "Music City," "Athens of the South," and for Robert Altman fans, the site of the 1975 classic Nashville. Befitting a place known for twangy tunes and an imitation Parthenon, Altman's two and half hour long [...]
Seeing as the History of Country series is proving so popular, let us put on a Santa-red Stetson and have a country Christmas. This lot is old-skool: Ernest Tubb riffs (badly) on his 1941 honky tonk classic, Loretta Lynn socks it to it disagreeable Santa, while Brenda Lee aims to lassoo him, yee ha. George Jones goes X-Mas twisting, and Buck Jones provides some serious pathos. And if you had to choose one man to sing Little Drummer Boy, it would have to be Johnny Cash, right? Hey, even horrid old Jingle bloody Bells sounds good here! [...]
In the late 1950s and early '60s country was in a good shape. The likes of Johnny Cash, George Jones, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline (who like Reeves would die in a plane crash), Don Gibson, Kitty Wells, Marty Robbins, Skeeter Davis, Ray Price, Faron Young, Ernest Tubb, ex-boxer Lefty Frizzell and Wanda Jackson were recording prodigious success, even in rivalry with its progeny, rock & roll.These were the comfort years before the social upheaval of the 1960s put into question old certainties, even in the world of country music. By now, country was no longer confined to the [...]
In Volume 9 of the country history series, we look at the glory years of country, a time when the genre was at its most self-confident and profitable. It was still a vibrant genre, as this collection shows, though the crooners were already beginning to define the genre, a situation that would give rise to the outlaw movement, the protagonists of which were inspired by several of the artists on this mix. It's difficult to say who was the biggest star in 1950s country. The crooner likes of Eddy Arnold were immensely successful, but in terms of sales [...]
"Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold..." The last installment in this series, as I have plain ran out of colours, has got the Midas touch all over it. Postpunk legends Magazine go 007, country pioneer Hank Snow buys a one way ticket, and soul saviour Terry Callier mourns a love affair gone bad. Former Swell Map Nikki Sudden finds his pockets all empty, Britpoppers the Wonder Stuff use a golden banjo, and hiphoppers EPMD fall into a trap. "Oh you big big dummy..." Good stuff? Go buy some of the featured albums, ok? Magazine [...]
Some years ago, the brains at Rolling Stone grappled to identify the first ever rock & roll record. In the final face-off, they picked Elvis Presley's debut single That's All Right, a cover of R&B singer Arthur Crudup's song, over Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock (itself a cover, though the song was actually written for the former western swing singer). It is, of course, a fruitless mission to identify a "first" rock & roll song, because the genre is a jumble of diverse influences that convened, not always simultaneously, in an untidy evolution. One might [...]
In this segment we briefly turn our focus on some of the individuals featured on this mix and the 1950/51 compilation . Pictured on the cover is the 1952 Cadillac in which Hank Williams died of heart failure on New Year's Day 1953, aged 30 (though he always looked much older than that). His was the first of a series of young celebrity deaths that created legends for all times. Among the more unexpected names in country must be that of Ole Rasmussen , a western swing bandleader who with [...]
After a hiatus of a few months we return to the history of country music. In the last narrative instalment ( Volume 4 ) we noted the rise of female country singers; some of them will feature in this mix, which covers the years 1950-51, and its follow-up, 1952-53. In the course of the 1950s we will also review country's contribution to rock & roll, and discuss some of the artists featured. What follows then is a brief overview of country music in the 1950s. [...]
Ok folks here's the last episode in our Christmas Party series, the Xmas eve edition, where we post some of the hill's favorite holiday songs - Canadian and otherwise. Christmas In Hollis, Boney M, Hall & Oates, a live Jenn Grant and Daniel Ledwell duet, and a new old favorite from our home province's favorite cowboy: Hank Snow. Hope you enjoy them. And we also hope you all have a fantastic Christmas or whatever holiday you'll be celebrating over the next few days. Things might be slow around the hill as we get into holiday/family [...]
As I mentioned yesterday, my attention this year, as far as music goes, has been diverted in a variety of ways. Doing a 2009 playlist seemed to miss the thrust of what my year was all about (and probably redundant with every other blog out there); doing a collection of old yet new-to-me stuff would have missed all the music that wasn't new to me that I spent so much time with. So instead I offer this: a 75-track playlist that comes as close as I can to giving some impression of what my listening year has really [...]
John Emil List was a man of faith. He read the Bible daily, taught Sunday school and prayed often. He did everything he could to shelter his wife and three children within the Lutheran faith. Though he failed, it is the way he dealt with his failure for which he will be remembered. John's mother had been a hatmaker and part-time nurse. When her widowed cousin fell ill, she nursed him back to health, and they eventually married. At the time she was 40, he was 20 years her senior. She bore one child, John, whom she [...]
Buddy Holly: Crying, Waiting, Hoping [ purchase ] This gem is a home recording made by Buddy Holly in 1958, shortly before his untimely death. While not the same song, it bears some resemblance to this 1955 recording from the Singing Ranger, Hank Snow: Hank Snow: Cryin', Prayin', Waitin', Hopin' [ purchase ]
Eh, we've all done it as a kid. Wrote down our the lyrics to a certain song that spoke to us. Turns out a young Bob Zimmerman - later to be known as Bob Dylan - was doing the same thing when he was 16. The poem titles "Little Buddy" that famed New York auction house Christie's will be auctioning June 23 is actually a Hank Snow song. From the Wisconsin State Journal : Bill Malone, Madison's esteemed country music historian, was on the phone early Wednesday [...]
Filed under: News , Holy Hell Time Magazine once called singer-songwriter Bob Dylan a "master poet." And while he's written some of the most important, influential works of a generation, an early piece of "poetry" he was believed to have penned is now causing some confusion. On May 19, Christie's auction house announced the sale of a handwritten manuscript containing 'Little Buddy,' a poem a teenaged Dylan had purportedly written while at camp in 1957. The following day, however, Christie's announced that the lyrics, with a few minor [...]
Eefing (sometimes spelled eeefin' or eephin', among other variations) is a jarringly weird hillbilly vocal tradition that traces its birth back to at least the 19th century. Sometimes described as sounding like a wheezily rhythmic asthma attack, eefin' afforded those without musical talent or instruments the opportunity to hop on stage and be part of the entertainment. It's pretty hard to convey the essence of eefin' with mere words, however, so by all means go ahead and watch the short video clip up above if you haven't already done so. Long ago, before I [...]
Hank Snow, another of the Nudie Suit -wearing, honky tonkin' stars of early post-war country music is, for Peter Guralnick, a pair with Ernest Tubb. Both were profoundly shaped by their early exposure to Jimmie Rodgers, and worked to maintain his legacy (most notably at the Jimmie Rodgers Country Music Festival, annually in his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi). Both served long apprenticeships prior to "making it" in mainstream country, including unsuccessful stints in Hollywood trying to fit the Gene Autry mold. Both encapsulated the "Golden age" country sound, a sound that was the face of [...]
One of the projects I had in mind when I started posting here was something I was calling "Reading Rock," for absence of a better name (no, really--I'd love a better name). I've learned a great deal about music from reading books, from my first encounter with Lester Bangs's version of Astral Weeks (which is not, I suspect, V an Morrison's version--as I understand it, when he played the whole album in November at the Hollywood Bowl, the songs were re-worked [...]
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Whitney! ♥
The Twilight Sad cover The Smiths
Download: The Violet Lights - "Sex and Sound"
Listen: Burial - Kindred [EP]
