Country Music & Me

[howeird]

I was raised in Suburban NYC (Lawn Guyland) where the accepted musical forms were rock, pop, folk, easy listening, classical, showtunes, and your religion's liturgical music. Country Music was an oxymoron. Or just a moron.

We moved to Seattle, and despite the fact that the nearest cowboy was on the other side of the mountains, there were two or three country music stations on the radio. Pop stations occasionally played "cross-over" tunes. I ignored them, shunning them as music for people who dropped out of 4th grade to pursue a life in the rodeo.

Even when I worked in rural Oregon and Washington where I covered rodeos and took the mug shots of the rodeo queens, and most of the "music" on the radio was country, I detested it.

And then I heard, as I was channel surfing, an announcer introduce a song which he claimed was called "Work Your Fingers To The Bone, And What Do You Get? Bony Fingers" which was then played live for the studio audience. I can't remember when or where that was, but ever since, my attitude changed. There were people in country music with the same warped sense of humor as me.

One thing led to another, and I sought out country novelty songs. And then that leaked into finding singers I enjoyed. Reba MacEntire sings in my key (an octave higher). So does Anne Murray. And Dolly Parton. Which brings me to a little twist - the first time I heard "I Will Always Love You", it was Dolly on the soundtrack of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her version still makes me all misty-eyes, and when Whitney hijacked and completely eviscerated it, I was livid. That was after I discovered Dolly did not only sing it, she wrote it. She wrote the whole musical. I'm impressed.

Then there was the country which I didn't know was country. In 1973 I was in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Astoria, OR community theater, and to pass the time during gaps in the rehearsals, the guy who played Schroeder taught us a bunch of John Prine songs.  "Grandpa Was A Carpenter", "4-Way Stop Dilemma", "Dear Abby" and my favorite "Please Don't Bury Me". Somehow a song taught you you by Schroeder doesn't click as country. I learned "Illegal Smile" as a protest song in college.

And then there's Jimmy Buffet, who has come up a lot of clever lyrics and catchy tunes. One could argue that his music isn't really country, so I will. :-)

What got me going on this topic is I was in the car yesterday in a Dayquil haze, and the clever lyrics of a particular country song got me to thinking about a Facebook meme:

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I like country music, but it has a problematic history tied to the early history of radio licensing. It started as an evolution of anti-intellectual anti-black old-timey music radio, and quickly evolved into big business fake everyman music.

I guess that's why I like Euro-country. All the twang, and usually not nearly as much cynicism.

[howeird]

Good points. I always shuddered at the way Charlie Pride was tokenized.

Have not heard much Euro-country, except a stray bullet from Germany, which ricocheted without hitting anything. Links?

[bovil.livejournal.com]

There's a good Pernilla Andersson playlist on Youtube.

Anna Bergendahl is a young Swedish country/gospel singer gaining recognition here in the states.

Rednex (who you likely heard at Best Buck in the Bay) are techno-old-timey, and cover a lot of early country.

That's what I can pull off the top of my head. There's also a lot of amazing Nordic rockabilly, but that's a bit different.

[howeird]

Thanks!

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

There's some great country music. I think Bony Fingers is a Hoyt Axton song. Have you heard "You're the Hangnail In My Life (and I Can't Bite You Off)? How about Kinky Friedman? Shel Silverstein?

What bugs me is when country artists cover something cool but change a line that's borderline controversial. Like one time I heard a famous bluegrass duo cover Prine's "Paradise," and they cut "I'll be halfway to heaven with paradise waiting, just five miles away from wherever I am" because they're religious nutcases.

Utah Phillips used to say, "There's no such thing as Republican folk music," and I'd shout, "bluegrass!"

[howeird]

Yup, Bony is Axton. Heard Hangnail, but it didn't stick.

As for Kinky Friedman, a couple of his tunes have catchy titles, but that's about it.

Shel Silverstein as not, in my book, even remotely country. He had a dual career with wonderfully warped children's songs which I did not find out about until years after Dr. Hook released "Cover of the Rolling Stone". Yeah, I have the Old Dogs album, but the only thing country about most of those songs is the people who are covering them. I do, on the other hand, like Bobby Bare's stuff - you can't get more country than "Tequila Sheila". Funny thing is on Old Dogs he covers the most not-country song, "Time". I love Shel's diversity, and most of his lyrics.

I guess "A Boy Named Sue" is pretty much country.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

The Shel Silverstein album you might like that's pretty heavy on country is called Makin' a Mess. It was recorded at a time when Shel was dying and couldn't sing, so all the singing is by his old friend Bob Gibson who, it turns out, was also dying. Songs like Sure Hit Songwriter's Pen.

Was also thinking of stuff he wrote or cowrote that Steve Goodman recorded, like Three Legged Man and Vegematic.

Still Gonna Die was apparently conceived of - and recorded as - a country song, but I've found it works really well the way I do it, as kind of a Reverend Gary Davis style gospel song.

And then there's Father of a Boy Named Sue, which got zero radio play due to content.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there's 2 Old Dogs albums, and Shel albums by Bobby Bare, Bob Gibson, Dr. Hook, The Serendipity Singers. And last I checked, all of Shel's old albums had been reissued on CD. I think I have them all.