I do love me some Squidbillies . In fact, I love everything about the show except that it's on in the middle of the night when my old ass is hard at slumber. Anyway, if you're a fan of the show, you know damn well that the music is dazzling. And not only do you get twisted original songs performed by the show's voice talent (Unknown Hinson anyone?), but the creators have somehow managed to wrangle more than their fair share of bona fide musical celebs over the years, including such [...]
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! [...]
Thanks in large part to country-influenced acts like The Byrds, The Grateful Dead and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, rock fans were starting to dig the country scene — not Nashville's crooners or John Denver, of course, but the Outlaws, Gram Parsons and some of the old pioneers. Some of California rock's great names had their roots in playing bluegrass; people like Eagles co-founder and Flying Burrito Brother Bernie Leadon, the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and the singer-songwriter J.D. Souther, who wrote for the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, the Texan "Queen of Rock" who made her start as a country [...]
"She Thinks I Still Care" and other classics can be found here and elsewhere.
The traditional country stars — Conway Twitty, George Jones, Tammy Wynette Charlie Rich, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride — were still selling many records in the 1970s, and periodically crossed over to the pop charts. Singers like Donna Fargo evoked the good old days with happy songs like The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA. These were still the Opry years — in fact, in 1972 the Grand Ole Opry opened a theme park called Opryland, and wo years later moved out of its long-time home, the Ryman Theatre, to Opryland. But the Nashville scene no longer monopolised country, [...]
"I was drunk, the day my mama, got outta prison." You know the rest. But what you may not know is that this weekend, 48 years ago, country singer David Allan Coe began serving a four-year pri
It was the age of the country songwriter, with people such as Harlan Howard (Heartaches By The Number), Hank Cochran (I Fall To Pieces), Roger Miller (Billy Bayou), Willie Nelson (Crazy), Mel Tillis (Detroit City), Tom T Hall (Harper Valley PTA) and the Bryants (Love Hurts) creating many classics. Some of them would become stars in their own right. None maybe more so than Kris Kristofferson, a man whose early biography reads like a far-fetched penny novel. Many of the songs he is known for were first recorded by others, sometimes several times. With the arguable exception of Me And [...]
Robert Ellis Announces Tour Dates With Jamey Johnson, Jonny Corndawg & George Jones New Album Photographs ???? Uncut ???? Mojo Listen to and Embed Robert Ellis' "What's In It For Me" Robert Ellis, who just played the last several nights with Dawes, announced a new run of dates, including shows Jamey Johnson, Jonny Corndawg and the young artist's hero, George Jones. Robert and his band, who according to the Houston Chronicle have "...built a concrete reputation for impeccable live performances," have also been confirmed to perform on the [...]
(Diversions, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, catches up with our favorite artists as they wax on subjects other than recording and performing.) Considering what passes for "country music" in Nashville these days (not to mention "country radio") it's easy to forget there are true heirs to the old masters writing, recording and performing in [...]
In the slipstream of Johnny Cash came what would become known as the Outlaw Movement, an informal response to Nashville's easy listening, corporate and safe style, often recorded in Texas, reviving the honky tonk sounds of Hank Williams with strong lyrical content. Starting in the mid-'60s with singers like Bobby Bare, Tompall Glaser and Johnny Darrell, the sub-genre's standard bearers would include Waylon Jennings and his wife Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson (after he grew his hair), Kris Kristofferson, Leon Russell, Billy Joe Shaver, Hank Williams Jr, Jerry Jeff Walker and Gram Parsons. More traditionally-minded country stars, many mentored [...]
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 [...]
Cowpunk trailblazers Jason & the Scorchers cover everyone from John Denver to the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan to Kenny Rogers.
Enchantment never sounded so sweet.
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 [...]
George Jones Arena Theatre April 29, 2011 For Rocks Off, going to see George Jones radiated much the same feeling of apprehension we had about the Pogues show at House of Blues in October 2009. ... Continue reading "Friday Night: George Jones At Arena Theatre" >
Last month Death Cab For Cutie returned to the spotlight with "You Are A Tourist," the great first single and video from their forthcoming Codes And Keys . A sunny addition to our spring playlist, it recalls brighter moments of mid-period Cure when it's not channeling "Float On." That's fitting given how Ben Gibbard's got five Cure covers in his live repertoire. In fact I can't remember ever seeing seeing the guy perform without hearing some other band's song in the set. So before we gear up to collectively prematurely evaluate Codes , here's a listen back at [...]
It's a little-known fact that TDoL is big into country-not the nonsense that passes as country today, but the good stuff. Tonight I'm gonna dust off my crate of country records, this time with my good man Robert Ham over at The Voice of Energy , and spin some rootin' tootin' cowboy songs. This honkey tonk kicks off at 9 p.m. at my favorite funeral-parlor-turned music venue The Woods . Expect to hear one or more of the following: Buck Owens and his Buckaroos , Porter Wagoner , Montana Slim , [...]
by Will Rigby Leon Payne's song "Psycho" is legendary, and rightly so. Payne was a blind country singer and songwriter who has the distinction of having two of his songs recorded by Hank Williams: "Lost Highway" (listen to Leon's version here ) and "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me." Other well-known songs he wrote are "I Love You Because," which Elvis Presley recorded at his first session for Sun Records in 1954, and "Things Have Gone To Pieces," originally a hit for George Jones. On a day off in [...]
I found a neat YT channel with a bunch of classic country artists shot on film in the mid-seventies. Take a look: Rest In Peace James O'Gwynn mp3 Jug Brown - mp3 [...]
We had a lot of fun a few weeks ago with the duet album featuring Gregg Allman and his wife at the time, Cher. So much fun, in fact, that I've dug up a few more duet LPs from my sister's record collection, and we'll be spinning those in the next few weeks. Today we have a duet album from two artists who also happened to be husband and wife: George Jones and Tammy Wynette. So we have Golden Ring , from 1976, which is one of about 10 albums recorded by the two country icons but [...]
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