ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a)
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
RATING ★★★★★
Whilst today's song is again from That Danged Country album, the one that has been haunting me for the past few weeks, it is one of the least country songs on it. With the only instrumentation being a lone guitar, the song features call and response singing between a male lead and a mixed choir. Although choir singing does have a history in country music, on record dating back to the Carter family's recordings in the late '20s, the singing here sits more firmly in gospel music. It is not exactly the kind of song that one would normally associate with Flatt and Scruggs, especially considering Scruggs' banjo is nowhere to be heard.
Showing posts with label country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label country. Show all posts
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Johnny Cash - I Got Stripes
ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a)
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
RATING ★★★★★
Another morning and another country song (there do seem to have been a lot of them recently). Again it is the story of an outlaw, one who is caught on a Monday, at the very start of the song, and is sent to prison. Like many country songs, his outlaw status is more inferred than stated but what is inescapable is that he is suffering. This, of course, is a theme that seems pretty widespread in country music, taking many forms whether it be suffering in death, suffering in work, suffering in love. Johnny Cash helped set the standard for post-war country music, particularly with songs and themes such as this.
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
RATING ★★★★★
Another morning and another country song (there do seem to have been a lot of them recently). Again it is the story of an outlaw, one who is caught on a Monday, at the very start of the song, and is sent to prison. Like many country songs, his outlaw status is more inferred than stated but what is inescapable is that he is suffering. This, of course, is a theme that seems pretty widespread in country music, taking many forms whether it be suffering in death, suffering in work, suffering in love. Johnny Cash helped set the standard for post-war country music, particularly with songs and themes such as this.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Marty Robbins - El Paso
ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a) CD
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
RATING ★★★★★
I was rather unsurprised to find more country in my brain this morning. Quite why it was this song, I do not know. I've heard better and catchier in recent days. Not that it's all that bad. Of course it is yet another tale of a drying gunslinger (there do seem to be a lot of them), although this time with a Mexican twist. It might in fact be the pretty Mexican guitar styling that made this one stand out.
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
RATING ★★★★★
I was rather unsurprised to find more country in my brain this morning. Quite why it was this song, I do not know. I've heard better and catchier in recent days. Not that it's all that bad. Of course it is yet another tale of a drying gunslinger (there do seem to be a lot of them), although this time with a Mexican twist. It might in fact be the pretty Mexican guitar styling that made this one stand out.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Lefty Frizzell - The Long Black Veil
ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a)
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
RATING ★★★★★
Today finds me waking to another country song that, being Sunday, seems somehow appropriate. This one is another dark tale of a doomed man, sang by another country legend, Lefty Frizell. His clear voice with just the slightest hint of a lisp, wanders over a cleanly-strummed guitar that is framed by a minimal bass and some light drumming which echo with a sound Sun studio-like slap. Through all of this, a haunting pedal steel guitar slides, ghost-like, the spectre of the doomed figure of the tale, as he watches his best friend's wide mourning at his grave. It is a simple, elegant song that, although written in the '50s, seems of an earlier age.
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
RATING ★★★★★
Today finds me waking to another country song that, being Sunday, seems somehow appropriate. This one is another dark tale of a doomed man, sang by another country legend, Lefty Frizell. His clear voice with just the slightest hint of a lisp, wanders over a cleanly-strummed guitar that is framed by a minimal bass and some light drumming which echo with a sound Sun studio-like slap. Through all of this, a haunting pedal steel guitar slides, ghost-like, the spectre of the doomed figure of the tale, as he watches his best friend's wide mourning at his grave. It is a simple, elegant song that, although written in the '50s, seems of an earlier age.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
[repetition]
It has only been a few days since Marty Robbins' Big Iron last stole into my head as I woke. It's always a little disappointing when the song is not a new one, although it does save some time.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Buck Owens - Under Your Spell Again
ORIGINATION Essential County & Western (v/a) CD
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT dead certain
RATING ★★★★★
I'm still slowly working my way into country music and so my knowledge is pretty slim and my ear not very well trained. Even still, from this vantage point Under Your Spell Again sounds about as perfectly country as can be. It is a perfect mix of pedal steel, fiddle, snare-led drums and sweet, sweet harmonies. It is the kind of song that one almost instinctively knows, where every change is exactly where it ought to be and every vocal can almost be sung along with on the first listen. Such archetypal songs are rare indeed. I've known it for less than five days and it has already buried itself deep into my brain.
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT dead certain
RATING ★★★★★
I'm still slowly working my way into country music and so my knowledge is pretty slim and my ear not very well trained. Even still, from this vantage point Under Your Spell Again sounds about as perfectly country as can be. It is a perfect mix of pedal steel, fiddle, snare-led drums and sweet, sweet harmonies. It is the kind of song that one almost instinctively knows, where every change is exactly where it ought to be and every vocal can almost be sung along with on the first listen. Such archetypal songs are rare indeed. I've known it for less than five days and it has already buried itself deep into my brain.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Marty Robbins - Big Iron
ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a) CD
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING ★★★★★
I first came across and enjoyed Big Iron on Johnny Cash's American IV album of 2003. Having not looked at the sleeve particularly closely, I did not realise it was one of the many covers he made during those recordings. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to come across the original version of it this week, on a damn fine compilation of recently copyright-free country and western music.
Marty Robbins, the writer and performer of that original, seems to have been a colourful individual, with a life that included not only being a country music star, but also the war in the Pacific, hosting his own television show, acting and race car driving. His version of the song feels considerably faster than Cash's and, with plenty of guitar picking, a high-tone upright bass and swathes of vowel-heavy backing vocals, has a lighter air. In some ways that lightness seems to clash with the tale of a killer and his death, yet there is something infectious in the bouncing tempo and the delightful guitar picking that is hard not to like.
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING ★★★★★
I first came across and enjoyed Big Iron on Johnny Cash's American IV album of 2003. Having not looked at the sleeve particularly closely, I did not realise it was one of the many covers he made during those recordings. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to come across the original version of it this week, on a damn fine compilation of recently copyright-free country and western music.
Marty Robbins, the writer and performer of that original, seems to have been a colourful individual, with a life that included not only being a country music star, but also the war in the Pacific, hosting his own television show, acting and race car driving. His version of the song feels considerably faster than Cash's and, with plenty of guitar picking, a high-tone upright bass and swathes of vowel-heavy backing vocals, has a lighter air. In some ways that lightness seems to clash with the tale of a killer and his death, yet there is something infectious in the bouncing tempo and the delightful guitar picking that is hard not to like.
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