ARTIST: The SWAG Report 103 with freebie mp3 downloads for songs by artists including Gomez, Gossip, Jesca Hoop, mbilly, New Beard, OFF!, Roxette, YACHT and more! So much more! DATE: 04-25-12 WRITER: Don Loder Hey Junky, Awright, so, le's do da dance again shall we? I got alla music fo' ya, an' I think yer gonna line what I got dis week! I gotcha some special, tasty bits o' SWAG fo' ya that I think'll turn'at lil chippy inta a full-blown [...]
Tammy Wynette was a beautician-turned-singer and twice-divorced mother of three. George Jones was a country superstar who, upon witnessing a fight between Tammy and her second husband, urged her and
"A woman in a prewar Dodge coupe passed them on the road. She was headed for Brakke's. She turned into the parking lot and drove the car up to the front door. Inside, the boys were just getting started on Divorce Me C.O.D. , which had been a big hit for Merle. The woman opened the trunk and began to throw items of men's clothing out onto the parking lot. Suits, shirts, underwear, shoes, the works. When she was done, she backed the Dodge out. The future ex-Mrs. Ray McKinney headed north toward Willow Springs in a cloud [...]
Photo courtesy of National Archives and Records AdministrationAt least we got some rain this year. You load 16 tons, whaddya get? Well, you'd be lucky to get a coal mining job these days. Okay,
Sparklehorse didn't record very many covers. Here's a look at a few of the interesting cover versions Mark Linkous left to us including Pink Floyd, Vic Chesnutt and Daniel Johnston.
Mason Porter present an album of Roots/Americana covers
Although the dissolution of a marriage is usually a traumatic event, a lot of people seem to find some relief by using a little black humor to mark the occasion. That can take many different forms, but for a lot of folks - mostly women, it appears - a party is just the thing. But you can't have a big party these days without having a fancy, decorated cake. A lot of good examples form our slideshow below, and thanks go out to one of our regulars for the pictures. (He prefers to remain anonymous but let's call [...]
As before, this album refers to artists and songs featured on both 1940s compilations. The importance to country music of Ernest Tubb 's Walking The Floor Over You cannot be underestimated. It was not the first honky tonk record, nor the first to use the new-fangled electric guitar. But it was the first really big hit to use electric guitar solos, performed by Fay 'Smitty' Smith, and is considered the breakthrough record for honky tonk music, a label that was variously used for different genres, but now [...]
By the early 1940s the crooners had begun to make their mark, with Jimmie Davies — future Democrat governor of Louisiana — having led the way. Many of them had toiled and crooned in the 1930s. But with a world war slowly engulfing the globe, the market wanted, and got, romance. More than that, men took their country songs with them to the army and disseminated the music among their fellow soldiers. Country music thus found new fans, and its leading singers — Roy Acuff, Gene Autry, Red Foley, Tex Ritter, Eddy Arnold — gained a national audience. In 1945, [...]
The California blues-folk-rock band performs songs by Bob Dylan, Magnapop, Frank Sinatra and more!
Merle Travis ( fansite wiki AMG ) was a highly influential country guitar picker, born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky (which "Paradise" would later be stripmined for coal) in 1917. He befriended Tennessee Ernie Ford , and even wrote "Sixteen Tons," which would become Ernie's biggest hit. This is an loose, laidback version, recorded only two years before Travis's death. His voice is appropriately aged, warm and crackling. He improvises a few lyrics, such as Billy's unimpressive claim to have "one little chilluns." You'll note that this is [...]
At one time, several members of my extended family were involved in coal mining at some level, and that's probably true of many of us with rural roots. Along with farming (something my family also knew a little about), mining was one of the most common jobs around in those days. In some cases - especially during tough times - working men did both, working a shift in the mine while keeping up a farm too. But the two professions have another similarity - both have been the inspiration for a lot of America's music. A while [...]
Merle Travis: Green Cheese [ purchase ] In this charming little ditty, country music's greatest guitar player, Merle Travis , ponders a love metaphor gone bad (and does a little picking too).
One of the things I like to do here at Setting The Woods On Fire is to compile what I call the "original" version of well-known cover albums. It's no secret that The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo was an important album in the development of country rock. (Read about it here , here , and here .) But you might be surprised to learn that nine of the eleven songs were covers. Listening to earlier versions of the songs covered by The Byrds, along with two originals written by then-member [...]
Massachusetts - The Bee Gees This post of my Songs of the Fifty States series qualifies as the least 'countrified', starting right from the top with The Bee Gees and a song that showcases their knack for songwriting pre- squeaking, squawking disco era (1967 to be precise, and their first UK Number 1). Perhaps here I have succumbed and posted the most patent Massachusetts-related track, but it's a goodie and, to be honest, I didn't really bother searching much further here! The only other track... Please visit Ceci N'est Pas un Blog for the full content...the [...]
Massachusetts - The Bee Gees This post of my Songs of the Fifty States series qualifies as the least 'countrified', starting right from the top with The Bee Gees and a song that showcases their knack for songwriting pre- squeaking, squawking disco era (1967 to be precise, and their first UK Number 1). Perhaps here I have succumbed and posted the most patent Massachusetts-related track, but it's a goodie and, to be honest, I didn't really bother searching much further here! The only other track... Please visit Ceci N'est Pas un Blog for the full content...the [...]
Last week's theme at Star Maker Machine was the fifty states. Going through my "state" songs, I wasn't surprised to see that Texas, California, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee inspired more than their fair share of good songs. Another top tier state, with a deep roster of quality tunes, was Kentucky --the focus of tonight's post. The Bluegrass State has a great musical tradition. Notable Kentuckians include Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, and Tom T. Hall . In [...]
I made my first post over at Star Maker Machine yesterday. It is a fabulous group blog which has a weekly theme for posts - this week it's boats. The song I posted was The Coal Boat Song by Stompin' Tom Connors (head over there if you want to listen to/download that track) and, when I started typing 'coal boat' into my iTunes to look for it, I realised just how many great songs there are with 'coal' in the title! So this got me thinking and, following a bit more research, I decided to also... Please [...]
Ground Control
City Pages - Gimme Noise
For The Sake Of The Song
Cover Me
Geezer Music Club
Any Major Dude With Half A Heart
She'll Grow Back
WFMU's Beware of the Blog
Star Maker Machine
Setting The Woods On Fire
Ceci n'est pas un blog
Music Singles Chart #109
I’ll Just Leave This Here #161
TheNext2Shine.com present #Discovery Part 2: R&B Sampler Mixtape
REMIX SUNDAYS- May 27th, 2012
