Country Radio Classics

Yee haw!  I wrote about this Robert Earl Keen classic last year when I did a series of post called the Twelve Days of Classic Country Christmas.  I was looking at my visitor stats last night, and people seem to be really interested in this song along with Dolly Parton’s Hard Candy Christmas, so I figured I’d write a post to pop up right up onto the front page with the video this time.  Hopefully I’ll get around to doing a demo of how to play it within the next couple of days.

I’m doing a little shopping from home here on Black Friday and was looking on Amazon for DVDs (great deals there by the way on some big titles).  While I was there I browsed around the music section and found a couple of things for myself along with a couple of things I already own.

Buying:
The Conway Twitty Collection. This box set is half off at Amazon…$25 for 89 tracks on 4 discs!!! I probably have bought every one of Conway’s biggest hits at least twice, but this gets you a ton of Conway!

Chris LeDoux American Cowboy. Box set has 53 tracks on 3 discs for $19.49.

I’m getting the Creedence Clearwater Revival Box Set as a gift for a friend, but may actually end up getting this for myself as well.

Statler Brothers 30th Anniversary Celebration. Box set has 62 tracks on 3 discs for $22.99

I already have George Strait–Strait Out of the Box, but I’m throwing it up here because it’s on sale for $24.99 today, which is a heck of a deal.

I also noticed a few Christmas Albums on sale. I have a TON of Christmas music already, so I won’t be buying any, but there are some great deals out there…Oak Ridge Boys Christmas for under $6, Vince Gill Let There Be Peace on Earth for under $5, and Alabama Christmas for $6.

All of these (especially the Box Sets) make great gifts, and you can’t beat these prices!!!

This is one of my all time favorite Merle Haggard songs. I think he does an excellent job of painting a mental picture in this song, and I love how slow and deliberate it is in contrast to the swift and mean water the song describes. Hag is a real poet.

I’d all but forgotten about this song until one of my buddies was moving out to Seattle. He was driving cross country with his dad, and he gave me a call when they crossed Kern River. He left me a message of him singing the song. Totally unrelated, but he called me on his way back when he saw the stopped at the first Cracker Barrel he saw to eat. Apparently they don’t make biscuits right out West! Haha!

I remember reading somewhere that Merle got the idea from this song when he stopped for breakfast one morning at a cafe he used to eat at on his way to go fish Kern River, and he thought, “I’ll never fish Kern River again.” Of course, that doesn’t make nearly as good a story as one about his girlfriend dying while swimming, so he changed it up a little.

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I saw the Bellamy Brothers play at an Earth Day festival in Nashville in 1989 or 1990–somewhere around that time.  I could not believe how many hit songs they had.  I don’t remember how long they played, but I know it was hit after hit, and I knew every word to every song.  It’s cool when you go see someone play live and realize how big of a fan you are.  I checked out the selection the next time I was a record store (remember record stores?) and was happy to see three Bellamy Brothers greatest hits albums.  I bought all three and have enjoyed them ever since.

There were a couple of songs I hadn’t heard before buying the albums but grew to love anyway. My favorite is “Hillbilly Hell”, which is a response to Tex Ritter’s “Hillbilly Heaven”.

They had a band without a steel guitar
Not one good ol’ girl stood at the bar
No jukebox and no beer
Am I the only redneck here?
And the parking lot was full of foreign cars

He asks he devil why he ended up in Hillybilly Hell, and one of the reasons is that he hasn’t yet sung a duet with Willie Nelson. Now that’s funny! Check out this song, although I’d definitely recommend getting at least one of the Bellamy Brothers greatest hits albums.

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The only version of this song I’ve ever heard is on Together at the Bluebird Cafe with Guy Clark and Steve Earle.  Admittedly, that’s the only Townes Van Zandt album I have.  This is a great story song about a poor girl who comes into town to get a job to help support her dad, who dies while she’s working and saving.  After that, “she turned to whorin’” and, in classic country music style, is found dead beneath the stairs.  If you didn’t listen to the words you’d think it’s a lullaby or something,  but it’s actually a pretty rough story.

I don’t know a whole lot about Townes Van Zandt.  I mean, I know that he wrote Pancho and Lefty, and If I Needed You, but I don’t know that much about him personally.  I checked out the Wikipedia page about him, and it sounds like he had a pretty tumultuous life.  Kind of tragic.  Makes me feel a little bad for enjoying his songs that were written with so much pain at their source.

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I grin every time I hear Robert Earl Keen’s “The Bluegrass Widow”, mostly because I love the version he does on The Live Album where he talks about becoming a bluegrass expert while skipping school and riding around drinking beer with his friends.  He himself calls this song, “quite possibly the worse bluegrass song ever written.”  

Yeah, the story he tells about the song is way better than the song itself, but it’s a great story!  And he does a pretty decent job of including a lot of great bluegrass song titles in the song. I don’t know of another singer/songwriter who can write a silly song just as easily as he can write a line of pure poetry.

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Here’s a “new” country song that I absolutely love, by a “new” artist that I absolutely love. Actually, Fred Eaglesmith isn’t all that new, but by my standards anything produced 1990+ is new. I first heard Fred Eaglesmith on WDVX, which is a great alt country, classic country, bluegrass station based out of East Tennessee–dare I say the pride of East Tennessee.

I’ve played “Spookin’ the Horses” when jamming with friends a couple of times, and people really love it. Of course, I can pull off the high level of drama that Fred Eaglesmith is able to, but I do a reasonable job with it. I think I’ll put that in the queue of “gee-tar” songs to figure out.

The video quality on this one isn’t great, but the sound is decent…enjoy!

I talked to my dad yesterday afternoon, and he was in a hurry to get off the phone because he was getting ready to go to a jam session with one of his coworkers and some of her friends.  I thought that sounded fun, and he said, “Yeah, but it’s a little intimidating because Bobby Bare is going to be there.”

What?!  Man, what I wouldn’t give to sit down for a jam session with Bobby Bare! Jealousy factor was very high yesterday around my house. I haven’t talked to him yet to see how it went, but I’m sure it was a really good time. My parents are really into karaoke, and my dad likes a lot of Bare’s stuff…I wonder if he showed him how to sing one of his own songs.

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I started this blog, at least the first incarnation of it, about three years ago, and I was mostly inspired by my complete frustration with the state of modern country music. I initially had it over at blogspot.com, and when I moved it to this domain I slowly ported over the older posts here. Back when I started, I couldn’t find another person blogging about classic country music to save my life.

I’m VERY happy to report that there are some others out there who love classic country music and are now blogging about it!!! Misery and Gin is a new blog, but I love the layout and the fact that Highwayman is such a huge Merle Haggard fan. Pure Country Music has also added a blog to their site, and they post pretty frequently. These are some must read sites if you’re a real country music fan–subscribe today! Due to my infrequent posting lately, these guys can help fill in the gaps with some great insights and music recommendations.

Make sure to visit them and support their advertisers!!!

I’ve said before that I love hearing a song that I’d completely forgotten about.  In this case, I just heard a song I’d forgotten, but always disliked.  It did make me smile to hear it though…

Heaven’s Just a Sin Away by The Kendalls ranks up there for me as one of the worst country songs ever. That voice is like nails on a chalkboard! I always hated it growing up, but back then you didn’t change the radio station much–you just suffered through the bad songs. It came on Pandora this afternoon and I suffered through it just for old time’s sake.

The reason the song makes me smile is that it reminds me of an old….uh….”friend” who despised it. She thought it was horrible because of the message it sent. It’s old country, and it’s a cheating song–get over it. The funny thing is that this girl didn’t have a problem acting out the horrible acts described in the song in her own life, but she hated hearing about those same acts referring to Heaven because, of course, she was a church-going girl.

Oh the irony!

But I’m gonna be a diamond some day.  I was cruising around on YouTube and found this great video of John Anderson’s version of “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal” featuring clips of old Cary Grant movies.  Pretty entertaining!

This is yet another great song written by Billie Joe Shaver.  I still can’t get over how many great songs he wrote.  There’s some great guitar and fiddle work in this version, and of course John Anderson’s voice fits the song perfectly.

John Anderson on Amazon

I’ve been clicking around on YouTube a lot lately looking for classic country videos…there’s plenty there.  I found this Billie Joe Shaver clip from Austin City Limits circa 1984.  Wow…I’d give anything for a chance to get to see him play live.

I already miss Jerry Reed so much.  You can read about his history here.  I’d prefer to give you my favorite Jerry Reed story as told by the man himself…

When I was a kid I listed to Live at Exit-In over and over and over.  Seriously.  He told a lot of funny stories on that album, but my favorite one is the one that shows how humble and down to earth he was.  As an intro to “Guitar Man” on the album, he told about being on a fishing trip when he got word that Elvis was recording the song and wanted him to play on the album.  His reaction–”I’m going to play with The King!  And don’t you kid yourself for a minute…he WAS The King.”

Just the fact that Jerry Reed was so honored to get to play on an Elvis record says a lot about him, especially considering Reed was probably the best sessions picker in Nashville at the time.

And if  you’re looking for me to post some videos showing you how to play some Jerry Reed songs, think again.  Son, that is not a possibility.

I’ve updated a couple of older posts with video instructions on how to play a couple of country songs.
Loving Her Was Easier and Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way are up.

Video seems to work really well, so I hope to add more soon. Next up is “Crazy Arms” by request. If there’s anything you’d like to see, just let me know and I’ll give it a shot. I can’t guarantee how fast I can get it posted, but then again I’m doing this for free. LOL!!!

For years, probably 15 years, I’ve listed Willie Nelson as my favorite musician/artist.  I just realized while driving to Atlanta the other day that Waylon Jennings is actually my all time favorite.

By a long shot.

“Shine” came on my iPod on the while I was driving, and when it was over I changed the setting from shuffle to play only Waylon songs.  I love every single one of them–hard driving, simple, and honest.  Not that Willie isn’t honest, but he’s sounds a lot more media-savvy than Waylon, don’t you think?

I remember talking to a guy a while back who said that The Dukes of Hazzard Theme was Waylon’s best song…huh?  I named about 15 Waylon songs that were better right off the top of my head, and he said, “wow, you’re right…I didn’t realize how many great songs he did!”

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I finally came to the realization that it would be easier for me and easier for you guys if I posted videos of how these songs are played. That way you can play/sing along if you want. So this is Pancho and Lefty, which was a huge hit for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. The song was written by Townes Van Zandt, and I’d really encourage you to get a copy of one of his versions of this song as well. Enjoy the video, and if there’s a song you’d like to learn, drop me a line in the comments or contact me and I’ll do my best to figure out the song and post it.

When I was a kid my dad played in a little local band that played bluegrass and classic country music.  Now this was in the 70s, so classic back then meant real classic–like Johnny Horton.  The, ahem, “leader” of this group was a real Johnny Horton fan.  In fact, I’d say he fancied himself as a modern day mountain man.  The band they played in reminded me a lot of the Lester Roadhog Moran tapes by the Statler Brothers, both in the quality of the music and the ego of the frontman.

Anyway, my buddy Newscoma posted this classic Johnny Horton video, and it tickled me to death.  I swear the videos being played on CMT in the mid-90s were even more lame than this.  Enjoy Johnny Horton!!!

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Growing up in Nashville I remember a commercial for a local car dealership, Richard Smith Buick Pontiac and GMC, playing on the radio a lot.  I think John Anderson may have been the guy singing the theme.  If not, it was a guy who sounded exactly like him.  I even remember the words to most of the commercial…

Richard Smith Buick Pontiac GMC is on the back of almost every car and truck in front of me.

It’s on my sister’s firebird and my brother’s GMC so I’m headin’ down to Richard’s dah dah dah dah dah dah dah

Cause he’s a tradin’, tradin’ crazy…yeah he’s a tradin’.

Richard Smith Buick Pontiac and GMC…the craziest tradin’ dealer in Middle Tennessee and he’s a tradin’!!!!  Tradin’ Crazy!!!

It was loosely based on the hit song Swingin’.  John Anderson was pretty big at the time, so it doesn’t seem like he’d have done a commercial for a local car dealership, but I guess it’s possible.

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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

Pretty cool line.