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.