Country & Western

[exdmd]

One of my favorite Patty Loveless recordings. The legendary Russ Pahl on pedal steel.

 

 

[Iving]

Great topic and thread

 

The OP encourages a broad approach!

And doesn't prohibit multiple suggestions in one post.

Apologies for any liberties.

Hopefully you'll understand.

 

As a Brit I feel something of an interloper on Country & Western.

In the mid-1970s as a 13/14 year old at a boarding school,

I used to lock myself away to listen to seminal Rockabilly,

when all my peers, if they liked music at all, barely thought beyond the charts.

(OK maybe a couple of nerds were into Prog Rock.)

A few years older, I used to sneak out

(it was like escaping from and gaining re-entry to Colditz)

to see some of the old guard still doing the rounds -

Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley and the like.

I've always had a guitar or two.

I'm an online dealer in records and CDs with a good reputation.

More than all of these combined

I have an authentic appreciation of music including Country.

How do I know?

Goosebumps.

That's how.

 

My "take home message" about Country is that it's the most hardcore music there is.

I mean we've all been to the candy store or lost a sweetheart.

Country music is often stereotyped as twee or trite.

But its narratives are oh so real when -

what you never thought would happen to you -

well -

happens to you.

 

It's like ...

you just cannot understand "Sunday Morning Coming Down"

unless you've been there -

in the darkness.

You have to have the T-shirt to get the full dose of emotional identification.

You know you're lucky to be alive at all.

Only you and other survivors understand.

 

On of my sons died last year - of his own addictions - just before his 29th birthday.

 

I'll stick to the Country music aspect of the story.

 

I won't say that certain music got me through the last 18 months or so

(the whole thing got stupidly protracted and toxified by the incredibly blunt and irrelevant Inquest)

but some songs and their lyrics became so incredibly sympathetic

that now they sit in my mind as Darling Companions.

 

The first I'll mention is Iris Dement's "The Night I Learned How Not To Pray".

Please - you don't have to understand religion or faith to understand the song.

None of us chooses who lives or dies -

not even parents in the matter of their own children.

Iris writes as the sibling of the deceased.

But you can imagine the parents' horror as the little brother is taken from the scene in the car.

And you get the notion that adjustment is a process that takes decades -

assuming you survive it yourself -

and assuming it ever ends at all.

It's a most subjective thing - losing a child.

Only someone with an overlapping experience could understand -

or so it seems -

and how it seems is how it lands and counts.

 

 

The second is Waylon, Willie, Kris and Johnny with "Born And Raised In Black And White".

My lost son and his successful, independent, slightly older brother were like chalk and cheese.

None of us can design the personalities of our children.

Who would want to.

Doesn't make it any the less curious how we all turn out.

Or render any of us less lovable.

 

 

So Country music can be a friend.

Just lets you be with something.

Channels the emotion.

Is impartial.

Has wisdom.

 

Unlike the small brigade of deadbeat sociopath-crusaders here who assume a moral right to make you feel like you've got a dirty secret if you like a system tweak that sounds better to your own ears ... Explain yourself!

 

 

I'm not afraid of truth - my own truth - my own subjective truth.

Country music - like no other kind - can remind me that it's all I have.

 

That's me done. Thanks for listening.

[Sal1950]

Father time is without mercy.

What I wouldn't give to be able to book a ticket to see Merle Haggard live one more time.

I've never seen anyone take command of a stage and make it all seem so easy at the same time.

RIP Merle,  God Bless

 

[Allan F]

On 12/16/2019 at 7:48 AM, exdmd said:

When I was a teenager learning pedal steel I wore out this album copping licks from Tom Brumley. Recorded live and try to find a mistake by one of the musicians ... there are none. Used to be sold by the Country Music Hall of Fame store but you can get the CD at Amazon now on the Sundazed label.

 

My brother Neil was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2016.

[exdmd]

Neil Flanz was and still is a great picker!

 

 

[Jud]

Your brother played with Gram and Emmylou (and no doubt other artists I love).

 

Goddamn.

[Allan F]

6 minutes ago, Jud said:

Your brother played with Gram and Emmylou (and no doubt other artists I love).

 

Goddamn.

 

To this day, Jud, I believe that he views the Grievous Angel tour with Gram and Emmylou as the highlight of his career.

[Jud]

On 12/19/2019 at 4:42 AM, Iving said:

 

The first I'll mention is Iris Dement's "The Night I Learned How Not To Pray".

 

The entire album this appears on, "Sing the Delta," is great. Available on Qobuz US & UK, no doubt elsewhere.

 

 

[wgscott]

On 12/18/2019 at 7:43 AM, christopher3393 said:

 

Whoa, Nikhil. Hold yer horses, pardner. 😊 No, not serious, and no,not mocking this thread. I thought it was very funny. It is very irreverent,

 

One person's humor (which, BTW, I appreciate) is another's incivility.

 

Hence the problem.

[christopher3393]

Yep. Maybe especially with iconoclastic humor.

 

No worries, I took it elsewhere: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/27143-song-of-the-day-or-welcome-to-the-add-generation/?do=findComment&comment=1015430   🐮

 

Back on track: here's a nice account of Gram and Emmylou's first encounter: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/going-out-guide/wp/2015/01/08/emmylou-harris-back-where-it-all-started/

 

 Parsons tested Harris with one of the trickiest country duets he knew, George Jones and Gene Pitney’s “That’s All It Took.”

“She sang it like a bird,” Parsons told Fong-Torres, “and I said, ‘Well, that’s it.’ And I sang with her the rest of the night, and she just kept getting better and better.”

 

 

[sphinxsix]

Blessed are the ones with a sense of humor. Also iconoclastic one 

Since it seems that it is allowed on this thread, let me post one more Zappa 'country' song 

 

 

I admit I'm not a fan of the genre. Interestingly I share with @christopher3393  fondness for some Willie Nelson's songs. It started with this cover of Dylan's composition:

 

 

OK.. I also have Johnny Cash's 'American Recordings' I-V whose producer Rick Rubin proposed a recording deal to Cash actually after seeing him live during the same Dylan's 30th Anniversary concert.

[Allan F]

 

IMO, one of Gram and Emmylou's best duets. Was nominated for a Grammy.

[Allan F]

Earl Scruggs and Friends:

(Earl Scruggs, banjo; Glen Duncan, fiddle; Randy Scruggs, acoustic guitar; Steve Martin, banjo; Vince Gill, electric guitar; Marty Stuart, mandolin; Gary Scruggs, harmonica; Albert Lee, electric guitar; Paul Shaffer, piano; Jerry Douglas, dobro; Leon Russell, organ; Glenn Worf, bass; Harry Stinson, drums)

 

 

If you like bluegrass, you gotta luv this!

[exdmd]

My favorite Emmylou Harris song, from the concert video "The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris". Alison Krauss in top form. Great pedal steel by Greg Leisz..

 

 

[Allan F]

Emmylou's Tribute to Gram

 

[Sal1950]

Just grabbed Faith Hill - Cry  in DVD-A  5.1 surround off ebay.

Can't wait to get and play it!!!

[bobbmd]

Hey there  y’all: anything by Cash(HIM & Roseann) especially the stuff Rubin produced but try the duets with Dylan/ also the Ken Burns documentary Country Music soundtrack/ plug Outlaw Country into TIDAL A+3 ROON Qobuz or channel 60 on Sirius AND the Bakersfield Sound on all the above good listening except if your CFO is around

[Sal1950]

2 hours ago, bobbmd said:

AND the Bakersfield Sound on all the above good listening except if your CFO is around

He probably listens to Country when no one is around to catch him "slumming".

Country is just not Kool they tell me. BS I say. 

[bobbmd]

@Sal1950 you got that right-especially if she is in the vehicle with you... and I don’t consider it slumming either

[Allan F]

 

[bobbmd]

@Ralf11 hello where did you find that Grateful Dead/Alice cooper at reeds ranch album July 3&4 1983 where the dead sing ‘green green grass of home’ on your post#32 in country&western nov 2018? I can’t find it anywhere and even the dead page of concerts in 1983 don’t list anything for July 3/4 1983 couldn’t find it on Qobuz will try on TIDAL

thanks bobbmd

[bobbmd]

@Ralf11 OOPS my bad I guess it’s 1969 sorry for the bother

[Ralf11]

it's on YouTube - see the link

[Booster MPS]

Very surprised that several contemporary artists changing the genre for the better have not been mentioned.  The Highwomen album (Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires) was one of the stand out albums last year.  Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, and Sturgill Simpson are each stand out artists.  They are the face and sound of the future.

[Sal1950]

On 12/26/2019 at 2:20 PM, Sal1950 said:

Just grabbed Faith Hill - Cry  in DVD-A  5.1 surround off ebay.

Can't wait to get and play it!!!

Got this Faith Hill album a week or so back. I've played it a few times now, her singing and the sound on this DVD is beautiful, it will get a lot of plays here..