We’ve lost another one of the all time greats. Eddie Arnold past away at a care facility just outside of Nashville. It’s sad to lose another true legend. Mr. Arnold had an incredible voice–smooth, smooth, smooth. Take a listen to “Cattle Call” for proof. Although his voice was unique and unmistakably his, it wasn’t gimmicky in the least. He could just have easily been another Sinatra or Dean Martin…that’s how clear and clean his voice was. For proof, again just listen to one of his classics, “Make the World Go Away”.
Does anyone know what Lacy J. Dalton has been up to lately? She has one of the coolest most distinct voices I can think of. I was banging around on the guitar earlier today and started playing 16th Avenue, which is probably her biggest hit. That’s such a great song, and I haven’t heard it in years. I’m not 100% sure that I remembered all the lyrics correctly. There is one line in particular that really struck me as a good, so I definitely remember it.
They’re cowboys, drunks, and Christians
Mostly white and black and blue
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me about Pandora Online Radio. I went there to check it out, set up an account, listened to a ton of great classic country songs along with some newer stuff that I actually like. I waited for my account to get disabled and Pandora to ask me to pay for using their service.
It didn’t happen. Pandora really is 100% free, and it is the greatest!
No matter what kind of music you like, they have it. I haven’t moved far beyond the traditional country and old time country stations, but I’ve created my own station and mixed in some of the newer stuff that I love. Check it out…at FREE, you can’t beat the price!
I just heard Midnight Girl in a Sunset Town and looked up The Sweethearts of the Rodeo on Wikipedia, mostly to see if they were still touring. I couldn’t get much information about touring there, but I did learn that they took their name from an album by The Byrds. I’d bet that most people aren’t aware that Janice was married to Vince Gill during his rise to fame (and hers). Not sure what happened there. I was living in the Nashville area at the time, but I don’t remember hearing much about it scandal wise.
Anyway, I dig most of The Sweethearts’ songs. Catchy and stylish. I also learned that they released an album for Sugar Hill records. I’m thinking of checking that out. Sugar Hill puts out a lot of good traditional type stuff, and apparently they were dropped from Columbia because they wanted to experiment with some bluegrass, etc.
I was at my folks’ house in Nashville at the end of the week and they’d Tivo’s Marty Robbins–Seems Like Yesterday on PBS. If you have any doubt about how prolific and talented Marty Robbins was, you need to check this out. My mom couldn’t believe that he was singing live in all of the performances they showed. But sure enough, he’d make little jokes to the guys in the band in between lyrics. He was just that good.
Is it just me or does Ray Price’s I Won’t Mention It Again sound a lot like For The Good Times, or is at least an attempt to? I like this song, but I don’t like when artists do this..try to basically sell me the same thing over again. Then again, Buck Owens made a career out of that, and I love him, so maybe that’s not an entirely fair statement.
In my opinion, this is the best of those “Jerry Jeff train songs” that Willie Nelson sang about in “Luchenbach Texas”. The Highwaymen also did a version of this song where they all sang different verses, but I still like Jerry Jeff’s version best. This song reminds me a lot of my grandfather, as I’m sure it does a lot of people.
One day I looked up and he was pushing 80
Brown tobacco stains all down his chin
To me he’s one of the heroes of this country
So why’s he all dressed up like them old men?
There’s one line in particular that reminds me of my grandfather. He used to take me with him to the golf course where I’d caddy for him and his golfing buddies.
I’m visiting some friends right now who aren’t very big country music fans, but they have a three year old who apparently is. They bought a Johnny Cash CD for their little boy, and it’s all he wants to listen to. I’m not sure where he gets his moves, but he definitely is a performer. I don’t think Johnny Cash ever played a Flying V or did any shows in a diaper, but I could be wrong. Enjoy the video!
I’m watching the replay of last week’s episode of Lost. I’m still trying to figure out the significance of Claire and Kate listening to Patsy Cline’s “She’s Got You”. The only thing I can think of is that Patsy Cline died in a plane crash, but the characters on Lost aren’t dead, at least we don’t think they are.
“She’s Got You” is my favorite Patsy Cline song, mostly because of the way she phrases this line…
I’ve got your memory
Or has it got me?
I really don’t know, but I know
It won’t let me be
I always wonder how many people appreciate classic country songs when they appear in movies and tv shows. I usually think, “man, I LOVE that song!”
I was sittin’ in this beer joint down in Houston, Texas
We’s drinkin’ Colorado KoolAid and talkin’ to some Mexicans
These opening lines were all I needed to hear to know that I was going to love this song. If you haven’t heard it before, do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s more of a story than a song, but it’s a great story. Yeah, you can read the lyrics, and get the story, but as is the case with any good story song, it’s Johnny Paycheck’s delivery that really makes this song. Without giving too much of the story away, I can post Paycheck’s valuable advice at the end of this song.
Now let me tell you–if you’re ever ridin’ down in south Texas
Decide to stop an’ drink some Colorado Kool-Aid
And maybe talk to some Mexicans
And you get the urge to get a little tough
Better make damn sure you got your knife-proof ear-muffs.
I meant to write about this song a couple of weeks ago when I posted on Merle’s “Big City”. It’s another one of my favorite songs that shows up on my mix while I’m running and hurting. I do, however, find it ironic that this song is all about weathering the storm and coming out the other side better for it. After all, Keith Whitley ended up drinking himself to death. I know someone who had encounters with him in the days leading up to his death, and by their accounts he wasn’t weathering his personal storm very well.
Regardless, I find this song very inspirational. I’ve always liked songs that don’t sound tough until you listen to their lyrics (Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” for instance). “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” has one of the toughest, hard nosed lines of any country song in my opinion:
I’ve fought with the devil
Got down on his level
But I never gave in, so he gave up on me
In the end, he’s confident he’ll win, and actually seems to relish the fight
I’ll put this cloud behind me
That’s how the man designed me
Ride the wind and dance in hurricane
I’m no stranger to the rain
It’s really sad that Keith Whitley died so young. He was a great songwriter and singer. I’d love to have heard the songs he would have written if he’d continued to live, especially having made it through the tough times he was having when he died.
I’ve had the house to myself this week, so I’ve been able to do a few things I don’t normally do. (1) stretch out in bed, and (2) leave the radio on at night. I like the XM America channel a lot, and it’s been on nonstop in our bedroom since Sunday. Last night I woke up to a live version of Merle Haggard’s “Misery and Gin”–one of the all time classic drinking songs.
Here I am again mixin’ misery and gin
Sittin’ with all my friends and talkin’ to myself
There’s another really great line in the song too…one that shows how much of a poet Merle really is:
I light a lonely woman’s cigarette
We start talkin’ about what we wanna forget
I’ve written here before about the time I worked for UPS over Christmas and rode around with another guy who was a huge Merle Haggard fan. “Misery and Gin” was his favorite Hag song, and he did a solo of it for me every day.
Thinking about more great love songs for Valentine’s Day, Dan Seals tune “One Friend” is a great one. I love it when people write songs from a different angle, and this is definitely a love song that comes from a different place.
‘Cause when we were together,
It made the dream come true.
If I had only one friend left,
I’d want it to be you.
One thing I’ve never really understood is whether or not these people are still together. It seems like they are in some of the lyrics, but others make it seem like they’ve broken up.
Download Juice Newton’s “The Sweetest Thing” on iTunes or DRM Free on AMAZON!!
I just heard Juice Newton’s “The Sweetest Thing (I’ve Ever Known)” on our cable’s classic country station. What a great love song! I need to put together a list of my favorite classic country love songs for Valentine’s Day…this one will definitely be on there.
All the heartache and temptation only make me love you more
The sweetest thing I’ve ever known is loving you
For some reason, Juice Newton always reminded me of Sondra Locke, the woman who was in all Clint Eastwood movies. I don’t know how I made that connection, because if you’ve ever seen “Every Which Way But Lose” you know that Sondra Locke couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that “Big City” is my favorite Merle Haggard song, but it has to be up there with “Kern River” and “If We Make It Through December”. This song really captures The Hag’s rebellious side without being overly abrasive.
I’m tired of these dirty old sidewalks
Think I’ll walk off my steady job today
and my favorite
And keep your retirement and your so-called social security
I usually keep my iPod on “shuffle” when I’m running. Yesterday the live version of “Big City” came on when I was finishing up my run and hurting the most. Merle is one tough dude, and it comes through in his voice. It really helped me finish up the end of that run.
Download Before The Next Teardrop Falls by Freddy Fender on iTunes!
I was just watching the old 1990s movie “Rush”. I never noticed that it featured the Freddy Fender song “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”. It’s funny listening to this song now because I’m trying to learn Spanish. When I was a kid, I knew most of the Spanish part of the song, but I didn’t know what any of it meant. Now, I can’t sing the Spanish parts of the song, but when I hear it, I know what most of it means.
Anyway, I thought it was pretty crazy that Before the Next Teardrop Falls was on the soundtrack. I’d only seen the movie once before, and at the time country was just “country”. I didn’t really differentiate between new and classic.
Cal Smith’s Country Bumpkin just came on my cable classic country music channel. I enjoy listening to this channel while I’m working, mostly because the quite often play a song I’ve completely forgotten about, and they always have little interesting tidbits about the artists…stuff like “Janie Fricke enjoys eating Mexican food.” Seriously, that’s one of the tidbits they list.
Anyway, one of the tidbits for Country Bumpkin was that it was the CMA song of the year in 1974. What?! I’m sorry, but this song is terrible. Just the fact that “bumpkin” and “pumpkin” are both used in this song are crazy. I’ve voiced my opinion about this song to several people over the years. I just can’t get past it. As I posted before, I love “The Lord Knows I’m Drinkin’”, but I don’t like Country Bumpkin at all. Sorry Cal.
Download “Merry Christmas Y’all” by Asleep at the Wheel on iTunes!
What I love most about Asleep at the Wheel’s “Merry Christmas Y’all” is that they did a Christmas song that stays true to their sound–plenty of fiddle and steel guitar. This is one you can get up and dance to! And if you’ve ever had the opportunity to see Asleep at the Wheel live, you know that they aren’t a band that lets you sit still for very long.
Not only do they stay true to their sound in this song, but they stay true to Texas. They could just have easily titled it, “Merry Texas Christmas to You All”. This song is about a TEXAS Christmas. Like he says in the song, they don’t have much snow down Texas way, so they wish they could send everyone a gushing oil well.
Download Buck Owens Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy on iTunes!
Well, we’re getting really close to Christmas now, and in my listening in the last few weeks, I’ve realized there are a ton of classic country Christmas songs that I haven’t included on my list that I probably could have. The other day I heard the Garth Brooks version of “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy”, and it made me realize why I put this song on my list…
It’s not because I love the song necessarily. It’s because I love BUCK OWENS! The Garth Brooks version just didn’t do it for me like the Buck Owens version does. Maybe Dwight Yoakam could have done it justice?
Download Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree on iTunes
This song isn’t just a country Christmas classic, it’s a Christmas classic period. Case in point, just last night we were out to dinner and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree came on. My wife, who was born in South America and only lived there and south Florida until a couple of years ago knows every word. She doesn’t know any other country songs, but she knows this one.
I just heard Midnight Girl in a Sunset Town and looked up The Sweethearts of the Rodeo on 
Enjoy the video!
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