BOB DYLAN ON COUNTRY MUSIC

Good ole Bob Dylan!
On his newest release 'TOGETHER
THROUGH LIFE", there's a bonus disc
from his radio show. It contains a great
selection of blues and country songs,
along with his PRICELESS commentary.
Among his nuggest of wisdom, is his
take on country music...
regarding the track by George Jones
and Melba Montgomery -
"LET'S INVITE THEM OVER"

I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC, BUT I SAY WHAT
HAPPENED TO IT? YOU HEAR A SONG LIKE
THIS, AND IT'S OBVIOUS IT'S ABOUT REAL
PEOPLE AND REAL EMOTIONS AND REAL
PROBLEMS. THAT'S ALL THAT'S THE COUNTRY
MUSIC WE LEARNED TO LOVE. NOW DAYS,
THEY WANT TO SWEEP ALL THE PROBLEMS
UNDER THE RUG AND PRETENDS THEY DON'T
EXIST. WELL GUESS WHAT FOLKS,
THEY DO EXIST.
AND IF YOU TRY TO SWEEP THEM
UNDER THE RUG, THEN THEY JUST GONNA
POP UP SOMEWHERE ELSE...SO WE MIGHT
JUST AS WELL FACE IT AND LISTEN TO THE
OLD STYLE COUNTRY MUSIC, THE REAL COUNTRY
MUSIC YOU KNOW,ABOUT

DRINKING AND SLEEPING AROUND.

THAT'S MY KIND OF COUNTRY MUSIC.

and also, in response to a listener's request
for Bob to play garage bands, he says

WHAT EXACTLY IS A GARAGE BAND?
I'VE RECORDED SONGS IN MY GARAGE,
AM I A GARAGE BAND?

Rolling Stones Reissues Coming May 4th!

This blog is just CLIMBING THE WALLS!

These are the four that are coming out in the first batch.

And what I'm really bummed about is having to wait till the fall

for Exile on Mainstreet to be reissued with something special,

and it better not be just a "Special Box" to carry all the new

reissues!

Here is the Creative Arc:

Beggars Banquet

Let It Bleed

Sticky Fingers

EXILE ON MAINSTREET

Goat's Head Soup

It's Only Rock'n'Roll

Black And Blue

What I'm sad about is that Beggars and Let It Bleed

are Abkco. I did manage to find a DSD remastered

Japanese version of Let It Bleed that is TOTALLY worth it.

Very warm and it sounds almost like vinyl!

Obviously Exile is the top of the arc, and then it goes a

bit downhill, but not much! Don't read the crap that some

sites write (Allmusic), about how alot of the tracks on Goat's

Head and Sticky Fingers and It's Only Rock'n'Roll are filler

or B-tracks.

You have to remember that these were ALBUMS.

In the days before I-tunes, people listened to these as

a cohesive unit. So with that in mind, when they come

out, pretend they're 2-sided. When you get to what would

be considered side 2, turn it off, leave the room, maybe refill

your beverage, scratch yer ass, and listen to the rest of it.

In anticipation, here's a link to a great audiofile

website that delves more deeply into the actual studio

sounds of the best Rolling Stones albums.

MusicAngle.com

Happy Birthday Loretta Lynn!

A country legend with over
70 hits, an oscar-winning
movie based on her auto-
biography, and a re-invention
by Jack White makes Loretta
Lynn a one-of-a-kind artist.

Born April 14th 1935, in Butcher Hollow,
Kentucky, Loretta made her mark as
not only a performer, but as a writer
of the kind of classic songs about love,
life, men, drinking and everything
in between with an often personal
twist.

I'd like to start off on this post with
her first hit "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl"
It's about a girl who was done wrong
by her man, so she becomes a bad
girl. Loretta wrote about the
seamy side of life, without ever
being perceived as a sullen woman.
Her rare gift was always being able
to maintain her dignity inspite of
the situations her man might have
put her in. The lyrics never specify
too much, but it's obvious that being
a "honky tonk" girl is akin to being
a "Barroom Babe". Fill it to the rim.
And she wrote this all by herself in 1960!

She would frequently work with Owen
Bradley, and become a good friend to
Patsy Cline.

Get her Honky Tonk Girl Box Set

In this - Part One of a great
documentary, Loretta show her
childhood home, and there's a great
clip of Kitty Wells performing!

Merrill Moore

Jerry Lee Lewis is going to pop up alot in this
blog. Sorry, he was a big influence on the Stones.
He's a touchstone for all of us. I figure if he's
still around, and Keith is still around, there's
hope for the rest of us!

One of Jerry's Lee's big influences was
Merrill Moore. Like most pianists, he started
early- at the age of 9 in Des Moines. I think the
biggest influence on Jerry Lee's playing, is Merrill's
muscular pumping playing style. All these
country and blues guys started playing in some
pretty tough juke joints, gambling joints, and
for lack of a better word, "Man-Bars".
If anyone remembers the scene in the Jerry Lee Lewis
movie where he plays behind chicken wire in a bar
for protection, that was no joke. As a result
most of these musicians learned to play "No Matter
What"! Bottles breaking, guns blasting, knives-a
knifing. It's exciting to think that at one time
people were literally playing as if their lives
depended on it.

I wish there was more available on cd from him
aside from one title, a great compilation from the
Bear Family "Boogie My Blues Away"

Here's one of hell of a cowboy...Merrill Moore.

Jerry Lee Lewis Is My Sun!

This morning I discovered my Peace Lily
bloomed. Did it face the window towards the sun? No. It faced towards
this picture of Jerry Lee Lewis. It was standing proud and tall.

In fairness to the Peace Lily, it was a cloudy rainy day.

Patsy Cline- Passes On March 5th 1963

Why Patsy Cline Matters

Today was Patsy's last day with us-
March 5, 1963 just about a decade after
we lost Hank Williams Sr.

I keep feeling compelled to listen to her
song "A Poor Man's Roses". Her vocals are so
simple, as are the lyrics (written by
Bob Hilliard and Milton De Lugg).
There's nothing so evocative as the
image of "a rich man's gold" and a "
poor man's roses" ...truly down-home
lyrics.

But I really want to talk about her
biggest hit "Crazy".
Unlike most country songs at that
time, it has a simple paired-
down orchestration.

According to Owen Bradley, the label
wanted a track for Patsy that wasn't
overtly country- something they could
sell on the pop stations, so even though
they had a 3-track set up (sophisticated at
that time) they minimized most of the other
instruments, prominently keeping the piano
of Floyd Cramer. Although Floyd was
known for his fluid slip- piano playing,
he kept it low key, for a late nite
smokey barroom, 4-in-the-morning-feel.
The emphasis is on the vocals.

Willie Nelson had written the track for
Patsy. Thank god,
Owen Bradley had loved it,
because Patsy didn't.

Maybe she thought it was too
young for her. Patsy was on her
second marriage, about to hit thirty,
and in those days, that was considered
middle aged.

The track was unusual, with a steady
chromatic rise, echoing in subtle way
the theme of "crazy love".
This wasn't your usual
A-chord D- chord progression
and there wasn't any pedal-steel.

About a month after suffering a
serious car accident, Patsy had returned
to record "Crazy". She had a hard
time singing the high notes- due
in part to injuries to her ribs, and
not being able to copy Willie Nelson's
vocals on his demo. Supposedly,
she had returned a week later, to
record the vocals in one take
completely differently.

The song would go on to be a hit
on the country and pop charts, and
go on to re-define what the
definition of a "country" song was
and could be.

Happy Birthday Faron Young!

The great Faron Young was born February 25th, 1932
near Shreveport LA.

For those of you not familiar with Faron, he started
out in the shadow of Hank Williams, literally and
figuratively. Why does Faron matter? He had
the twang and yodel vocally of Hank, but a bit
smoother. You can probably hear alot of contemporary
singers in Faron. He also managed to keep a
career going thru the 80's, turning his down-home
country music into a pop direction.

Faron grew up outside of Shreveport, raised on his
family's farm. Learning to play guitar early
helped him land a spot on the Louisana Hayride
as a perfomer. He hooked up with Webb Pierce
and found a long lasting friendship, touring and
dueting with Pierce.

It was June 1952 where he had his memorable
run-in with Hank. Faron was dating
a young lady named Billie Jean Jones, and
he had brought her to the Opry for a performance.
Well, once Hank had seen Billie Jean, he made
it pretty clear to Faron, that she was no
longer his. There's a great description of
all of this in the must-read book by Colin Escott
"Hank Williams" - the Biography. At some
point, Faron claimed that Hank had made his
point with a gun. But they seemed to remain
friendly.

One of Faron's best songs (ever!) is "Goin Steady"
Again, according Escott's book, there is some
idea that the song, (even though it is credited
to Young, who himself was a great songwriter),
was actually written by Hank, and might have
been some kind of payback, maybe for Billie Jean?
Whatever the case, (it does sound like a Hank song),
Faron gives it the bounce it needs, probably doing it
faster, and more fun, than even Hank might have
done it. Hank, with his back pain
and general state of alcohol intoxication, might
not have been able to do a song called "Goin' Steady"
without some residual physical and emotional
angst. He would record "Your Cheatin' Heart"
in September of the same year.

Back to Faron...what a great education it must
have been performing on the Hayride and the
Opry. He got to learn from best. His
vocals would later take on a George Jones
depth. Faron was also the first to record
a Willie Nelson song "Hello Walls"

Some of the other stand out songs from Faron
are "Sweet Dreams" the "Honky Tonk Song"
and plenty of other songs with honky tonk
material. As you can see in some of these

videos, Faron had some great costumes!

There's plenty of Best of's available to buy, or
if you really want to splurge, there's a Bear
Family box set " The Classic Years"

with all of his early material.



We lost Faron December 9th, 1996.
We miss you already.

Happy Birthday Johnny Cash!

Happy birthday to Johnny- born February 26th, 1932

in Kingsland Arkansas.

Just a few words on why Johnny Cash's legacy

is so big- not only to country, but to rock'n'roll as well.

He was the original outsider in image and

music. His vocals weren't pretty. He sang-spoke

in a common man voice- for the rest of us.

I loved how he always instroduced himself to the

audience, like a regular feller'.

What makes him so memorable was he found the

connection with the greatest American metaphor-

the TRAIN. Always going somewhere, moving forward.

Most of his songs had that chugga-chugga rhythm,

so once you heard a Johnny Cash song, you immediately

knew it was the Man in Black. The railroad meant

freedom, hobos, the chance at adventure.

Johnny also looked different than most country performers-

while everybody else wore rhinestones, he was in black-

a man, who had traveled to the edge, and came back

alive- lived to tell.

What's really amazing is that anyone lived thru the

tour that Jerry Lee Lewis did (his first) with Johnny Cash, Carl

Perkins and Wanda Jackson thru Canada in 1957.

They must have went thru alot of "Pep" pills.

Here's a clip of Johnny, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison

and Jerry Lee performing a song for Elvis (another train

song) on Johnny's Christmas special.

Another thing that was great about Johnny-

how many performers could have had

done a really memorable TV variety show with performers

like Dylan, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton?

Yes, he had alot of different variations-

country singer, gospel singer, prison reformer, variety

show host, outlaw, folk singer, drug addict,

good husband, bad husband, rockabilly pioneer,

perfomer of Trent Rezner and Depeche Mode songs,

but he always remained true to himself and

to his audience.

Check out his really big boots (he was 6-2)

at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Annex

in New York City.

Happy Birthday Nicky Hopkins!

It would be wrong to not wish a Happy
Birthday to one of the most amazing
pianists ever!
Nicky Hopkins was born February 24th 1944
in Harlesden, North West London.

Hopkins started playing with Screaming Lord
Sutch's Savages, and he's worked with many
great bands over the years, but I think
he gave the Rolling Stones their defining
sound on "Between the Buttons", "Their
Satanic Majesties", "Beggar's Banquet",
"Let It Bleed" and "Exile On Mainstreet"

Out of all the pianists that the
Stones have worked with, Nicky Hopkins
effortlessly created a rock sound
with a dash of country and boogie-
woogie. Keith has said Ian Stewart
could only do the straight-ahead
boogie-woogie in major chords, and
Billy Preston's speciality would
be a pounding blues-y sound. Nicky
was somewhere perfectly in the
middle. His piano riffs were the
perfect compliment to the Stones
sound, as they never got in the way
of Mick's vocals, or Keith's guitar.
He could be very melodic or just
play standard rock'n'honky-tonk.

Check out a rare version of Angie.




Nicky passed away in Nasvhille, due
sadly to complications of a life-time
of Crohn's disease September 6th,
1994.

This is a link to a great fan-site
Rocksoff.org with a bio, some
footage from Sympathy for the Devil, and an extensive solo recording list. Another great album- "The Tin Man Was A Drummer"

Whole Lotta Shakin' Is Born- Thanks Jerry Lee!

I had to cover this moment in the history of music.
During the week of February 22, 1957...

Jerry Lee Lewis is a force of nature...and still here
as a living legend.
So on to our story...

Jerry Lee had already been signed to Sun Records
in 1956, and had done session work as well as
recording "Crazy Arms". Somewhere along the
way, he must of heard "Whole Lotta Shakin" maybe
at a club? The song is originally credited to Dave
"Curlee" Williams and James Fay "Roy" Hall.

Nobody could have given this song, the kind of life
Big Maybelle could when she recorded it in 1955.
It's much slower, bouncy relaxed. (Her own back-
ground is equally interesting, but I'll get to her on
her on another post in Exile In Blues. She performed
and sang in a touring company called THE
INTERNATIONAL SWEETHEARTS OF RHYTHM!
They were a mixed race female swing band.)
She sounds like she's having fun, there's piano
sax, horns, a fairly uptempo standard blues
number. (Quincy Jones is credited as the
producer) So wonderful. As bold and powerful
a singer as she's known as, it's her ballads like
"You'll Be Sorry" and "You'll never Know"
that I love. Here's a link to "Whole Lotta Shakin"

I highly recommend the Okeh Sessions





Back to Jerry Lee- in many of his interviews he mentions
his hanging out at black music clubs, and he obviously
learned all the classic elements of blues, boogie-woogie
and honky-tonk, and fused them into a monster of a
pumping left hand capable of holding that beat,
and the right one doing some fierce rolls.

In Nick Tosches' book "Hellfire", he writes of a
performance in Arkansas on
February 22, 1957, where Jerry Lee
found the right spirit for "Whole Lotta Shakin"
at a club with his band. Just to put all this in a
time frame, his idol, Hank Williams had just died in
1953, and Jerry Lee had been at Sun Studios in
December with Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny
Cash jamming and recording the moment for
the Million Dollar Quartet sessions.

Poor Jerry Lee, he must have been busting for
his moment in the spotlight. A few days after
his gig in Arkansas, while in the studio, they
suggest recording "Whole Lotta Shakin".
It's just Jack Van Eaton drumming and Roland
Janes on guitar along with Jerry Lee. According
to the story, they used the first take, but I have
another version on cd called "Rockin' The Blues"

The widely known version has more echo and fiercer
with a fiercer pounding rhythm.

Jerry Lee sounds oddly relaxed, totally
in control. The lack of a bass intstrument means
nothing for the Killer. Whether it's his playing, or
maybe some foot pounding action, there's plenty
of solid earth under there. The alternate version
sounds slightly drier, and the guitar is more prominent.
Jerry Lee's vocals sound less menacing. You can hear
how young he is. I love how his solo is completely
different. That's his big thing. Never play anything
the same. The big blow-out at the end is also
much calmer than the main version.

To be continued on the release date of March 1,
back in the year of our lord, 1957

Happy Birthday to Gene Pitney

No one would consider Gene Pitney a country
star, but... he did 2 albums with George
Jones in the late 60's.

The late Gene Pitney was born today, February
17th 1940 in Connecticut. Pitney was known
as a teen-idol, but he was so much more.
Not just a puppet of some producer like Phil
Spector, Gene was a great songwriter, all-around
musician as well. Some of his own songs are the
Crystals, "He's A Rebel" and "Hello Marylou".

Pitney had the honor of being the first performer
to record a Jagger/Richards original "That Girl
Belongs To Yesterday". He was in England
in the early sixties, and Andrew Loog Oldham,
who was managing the Stones at the time, was
doing some publicity work for Pitney as well, and
made the connection.

I think Pitney got pigeon-holed by his image
and tortured vocals. Most producers and labels
wanted to put him in the "teen-idol" slot, but
in the long run, a categorization like that
could end up being severely limiting.

The albums that Pitney did with George Jones
kind of showed the road he could have gone on,
much as someone like Jerry Lee Lewis, who
in the second act of his life went country, without
going completely "Nasvhille". Of course Jerry Lee
was so volatile, he never would have let anyone put
him in a small category.

Pitney would go on to have a fairly successful career
in Europe, recording albums in Italian and Spanish,
as well has touring extensively in England.

Here's the version of "That's All It Took" with George
Jones from Youtube. Enjoy-

Moe Bandy- Happy Birthday!

Moe Bandy might not fit in with the type of

artists I'd profile on this blog, but he has some

great songs.

Born February 12, 1944 in Meridian, Mississippi,

he had the great luck to move to San Antonio, Texas

where he would try to become a real rodeo performer

bucking broncos, and roping bulls. (None of

them fancy robot bulls you saw in the

movie "Urban Cowboy"). The obvious

hazards of that profession led him to music.

His first single was "Lonely Lady", but it was his

second single, recorded in Nasvhille that hit paydirt-

"I Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today"

This is why I love the early country artists-

they divided most of their songs into these

complex categories...

DRINKING or CHEATING.

(Of course Moe did write some rodeo songs as well.)

Some of Moe's songs-

"It's A Cheatin' Situation"

"Here I Am Drunk Again" and more....

Moe comes from a real honky tonk background,

influenced by Hank Williams, but mostly George

Jones. Music for real cowboys.

He seems to have a full touring schedule in Branson,

where he opened a theater, and across the country.

Moe's touring schedule

EVERYBODY SHOULD DO A COUNTRY ALBUM!

I wasn't going to post this, but after watching the

the grammies, which as usual were fairly boring,
I have to admit Kid Rock and Carrie Underwood

were pretty rocking. It's always hard to tell how

bored the crowd is. I just thought it was fun to hear

a current country singer sing about Cuervo

and having had a such a wild night, they couldn't

remember having done certain things. And

I ain't talking about Kid Rock. It's great

to see Alison Krauss and Robert Plant

get so many awards.

This brings me to my post about Marianne Faithfull.

As I was excitedly looking at my tickets for her show

at City Winery in NYC March 27th, & 28th,

which by the way there's still some tickets left,

I was thinking that she should do a

country album. After all, she spent enough

time soaking in semi-country fumes off of

Mick and Keith all those years.

Then I remembered

she kind of did!

"No Regrets" was her comeback album of sorts.

In the UK it was called "Dreamin My Dreams"

"No Regrets" was the recent reissue with a few

extra tracks. Those extra tracks were pretty

damn great. She had written a weird country

song called "That Was The Day", with

some strange lyrics...

"that was the day that the coke came to nashville,

that was the day I laughed till I cried.. "

Not sure what exactly that means. I think it makes

sense when you're dope-sick.

Marianne also covered

Kitty Wells "It Wasn't God That Made Honky

Tonk Angels" The other stand out tracks are

Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonite" , "Dreamin

My Dreams of You" and Waylon Jennings song,

"This Time".

This was her return to work after 10 hard years

of drug problems after her break-up with Mick.

I've known alot of people with heroin problems,

and it takes a long time to feel somewhat

normal. M.J. sounds a bit unsteady and slow,

like her internal rhythm is off. I think once she

got herself more steady, and tapped into her

inner sense of humor, and anger, M.F. struck

gold in her more recent work. You can find

her best tracks on "A Perfect Stranger...the

Island Anthology" and for the more adventurous

"Kissin Time" has her paired with Beck, Billy

Corgan and others.

Now that she's emotionally digested most of

the crap from her youth, her voice would

be perfect for a real country album.

I'm thinking a producer like T-Bone Burnett

or even better, DANIEL LANOIS! Look

what he did with Dylan's "Time Out Of Mind",

he knows how to deal with a craggy voice-

create a real moody noirish feel.

Just imagine....steel guitars, some slap

bass. Heaven!

Marianne...I'll be near the front row

at City Winery...gazing longingly at you

on March 27th blowing you air-kisses.

Go buy her new album "Easy Come, Easy Go"

xxxx

GEORGE JONES SONG BOOK

Cool score yesterday at a Used Bookstore- This is why it's great to check out your local used
book stores. I found the GEORGE JONES
Very Best songbook, along with a biography of
Gene Vincent, which I will be reviewing shortly.
These songs are early 1980's era George Jones.
I usually don't go past the 80's but George is
one of the few artists who still maintained the
creative quality in the later years. I strongly
urge you to get the Burn Your Playhouse Down
and The Bradley Sessions, which were both
recorded at the same time. The duets with
Keith Richards are obviously the best, but
tracks with Marty Stuart are pretty damn good
too. George (like Keith) has a unique voice
that just gets better with age. Please Keith,
if you do make another solo album, can it
be country? PLEASE! Back to George...
the best songs in this book "I Always get lucky
with you", and She thinks I care" and "Say It's
Not You" are all simple, mostly 3 chord
affairs. Emotional, in an understated way.
Perfect for 2:00 am drinking.

You know what else would be really perfect too?
Being able to get RFD-TV in my neighborhood,
with Time Warner Cable.
Marty Stuart has a show on, and
even though I'm in the NYC area, I'd
still like to be able to get Rural America's
Most Important Network, too! I could
be watching the Praire Farm Report
right now.

BUDDY HOLLY'S LAST TRIP FEBRUARY 3, 1959

As an artist that grew up, in and around
country music (in Texas) yet became a
founding father of rock'n'roll,
Buddy was a huge influence on
both genres of music.
Don't let this be a sad day.
Let Keith Richards chear you up.



Also, if you're in New York City, check out the
Rock 'n Roll Hall Of Fame Annex, which has
Buddy's suit with a pair of pretty cool
black shoes displayed on a dummy. Then,
walk down to 5th avenue and the corner of
west 9th street, where Buddy lived with his
wife for the last 6 months of his life, and
just imagine him running in to Bob Dylan
in a couple of years.