dual personalities

Tag: country music

April 6, 2023

With a picture of Stonewall Jackson above my head

by chuckofish

Congratulations to Patty Loveless who will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year! This coal miner’s daughter from eastern Kentucky always was a classy lady and a particular favorite in our family.

I will never forget the time the boy, age about 11, yelled out “We love you Patty!” at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville just as there was a moment of silence in the audience. She looked up to the balcony where we were sitting and smiled.

We’ll be dancing a jig for you, Patty darling.

Also being inducted are Tanya Tucker and songwriter Bob McDill, who wrote “Good Ole Boys Like Me”. Don Williams recorded it in 1980 and the song reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart.

This is one of the great country songs in my estimation. Pure poetry, man.

Nothing makes a sound in the night like the wind does
But you ain’t afraid if you’re washed in the blood like I was
The smell of Cape Jasmine through the window screen
John R and the Wolfman kept me company
By the light of the radio by my bed
With Thomas Wolfe whispering in my head

I can still hear the soft southern winds in the live oak trees
And those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me
Hank and Tennessee
I guess we’re all gonna be what we’re gonna be
So what do you do with good ole boys like me?

Do yourself a favor and listen to these YouTube videos! This is true Country Music. Just beautiful. And cool, cool, cool.

3 Comments
September 27, 2019

Three notes and the truth

by chuckofish

So I don’t know about you, but for the last two weeks I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ newest 16-hour documentary, Country Music, as it premiered on PBS.

Screen Shot 2019-09-26 at 9.32.18 PM.png

It was 90% pretty great. The first episode and the last episode seemed a bit tacked on and the narrative muddled, but the rest of it, which was pure history, was wonderful.

I learned a lot and I was reminded of a lot I had forgotten. I especially enjoyed the commentary by Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee,  and Ricky Skaggs. It was a treat to see them.

I was not brought up on country music. In our house we listened to classical music and broadway musicals. We had some Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte and Tijuana Brass records. Our older brother bought Beatles records and Bob Dylan records, but when he learned to play the guitar, he branched out quite a bit. Our mother never really approved of his interest in country artists and didn’t understand why he would try to sing like Jimmie Rodgers. But through him I became acquainted with Doc Watson, Bill Monroe  and a host of bluegrass and country musicians.

Years later, when my own children were little, we started listening to country radio in the car (better, I thought, than the Backstreet Boys) and we became fans. We even traveled to Nashville several times and went to the Grand Ole Opry! It was all great fun and my children learned something about a whole other great segment of the country.

And it was great fun to go down memory lane, so to speak, with Ken Burns.

Here’s cousin Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Uu1B6O3HE

You don’t know me, but you don’t like me/ You say you care less how I feel/ But how many of you that sit and judge me/ Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

That just says it all, right?

Anyway, if you didn’t watch the documentary, take a look. I’m sure it can be found at PBS or streaming somewhere soon.

Have a good weekend. I think it will be a rainy one here and, therefore, probably a quiet one. Maybe we’ll get out out the old CDs and listen to some Johnny Cash. Sounds like a plan…

2 Comments
March 13, 2013

Lost Highway

by chuckofish

The original rolling stone, you know, was not Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger. It was Hank Williams.

hankw

I’m a rolling stone, all alone and lost
For a life of sin, I have paid the cost
When I pass by, all the people say
“Just another guy on the lost highway”

Most people think old Hank Sr. wrote that song, since he wrote so many famous songs during his sad, short life, but he did not. Written by Leon Payne, “Lost Highway” was recorded by Hank Williams in 1949 at age 26 and he came to personify that “just another guy on the lost highway”.

I was listening to an old burned mix the other day and I heard Beck’s version of Williams’ poignant “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and that got me thinking about one of America’s greatest singer-songwriters.

What a great song! (I like Beck’s version.)

Widely considered country music’s first superstar, Hiram “Hank” Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. Never much of a singer (in my opinion) he wrote many American classics, such as “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Hey, Good Lookin'” and “Move It on Over,” as well as Christian classics like “I Saw the Light.” He died of a heart attack at the age of 29 in 1953 in the backseat of his Cadillac on the way to a show. It was really no surprise, since he had been abusing his poor, frail body for years with drugs and alcohol, trying to dull his constant back pain due to spinal bifida.

He packed a lot in to his short life span though, didn’t he? His mysterious talent has always interested me. How can the same man who wrote “Honky Tonkin'” and “You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave)” –jarring, jangling chart-toppers–also have written the contemplative “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Lost on the River”? Human beings are amazing.

Hear the lonesome whiperwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I’m so lonesome I could cry

I’ve never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die
That means he’s lost the will to live
I’m so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I’m so lonesome I could cry

Beautiful. I think John Keats would agree. He died at 25. Hopefully they are talking shop in heaven. I like to think so.

P.S. Hollywood made a movie of Williams’ made-to-order drama-filled life in 1964. It starred George Hamilton and was called Your Cheatin’ Heart. It was pretty homogenized and I think they could do a whole lot better. I’m surprised they haven’t tried again. James Franco? Ryan Gosling? It could be Academy Awardsville for you.

7 Comments
October 4, 2012

Fabulous Superlatives

by chuckofish

My ship has come in. An email from a co-worker came around asking if anyone wanted 4 free tickets to see Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives on Friday night. I jumped. No one else probably knew who Marty is.

BUT YAHOO.

He’s been touring since he was twelve years old, and I’ve been a fan almost that long. For awhile Johnny Cash was his father-in-law. How cool is that?

Besides being a country music star and famous musician, Marty is a renowned collector of artifacts that represent the history and cultural heritage of country music. As such, he donated a treasure trove to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. “The costumes, the guitars, the set lists, the manuscripts that the Country Music Hall of Fame couldn’t get to out in the hinterlands, I simply bought and stored,” he said. “I still see it as American culture-and our culture, as country musicians.” A collector and a generous one. My hero.

Rock on, brother! I can’t wait to see you on Friday.

Here’s Marty on David Letterman’s show…Watch the whole thing and notice who the drummer is–Harry Stinson!

9 Comments
January 6, 2012

We’re gonna howl at the moon

by chuckofish

I have a 20-minute drive to work (17 when I hit the lights right) and so I listen to a lot of music while I drive. I listen to everything from Gilbert & Sullivan and classical music to soundtracks and country, with the occasional Eminem thrown in for good measure. Today I happened to be listening to an old favorite from country’s glory days in the 1990s, Hal Ketchum.

The boy had borrowed this CD (and scratched it up some) recently and had returned it, not to its jewel case, but to my car for some reason, and so I was listening to it. It is so good! He has a great country vibrato that I am always partial to.

With 15 top 10 singles to his credit, Hal is not a super-star by any means. He is no Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson, no Kenny Chesney. But he has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1994 and, according to his website, he often hosts the “Opry Live” show on GAC. He’s had a good career and is still, despite health problems, making music. And that’s the thing, right? Here is a little Hal to brighten your day. (And you’ve got to love those woolly caterpillars over his eyes!)

3 Comments