Showing posts with label Merle Haggard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Merle Haggard. Show all posts
Monday, January 21, 2013
A Tribute to Hank Cochran by Jamey Johnson
There are many new country music fans these days. I have to admit I cannot keep up with all the new pretty boys who appear on the charts each year, I think they are all made in the same factory for all of their similarities.
One successful country singer that will not be mistaken for his cohorts is Jamey Johnson. Johnson looks like a throwback to the rock and roll sixties but sounds like one of the traditional country singers of that same era.
After the huge success of his recent double album The Guitar Song Johnson decided the time was right for him to vere even further off the expected path and do a tribute album. I will admit I did not know who Hank Cochran was but after listening to the songs on this album it is a sure thing that we all know this man's songs.
Johnson his voice as always sounding like Scotch rolling over jagged rocks is simply amazing in this album. Never wanting too much of the spotlight, and realizing how much respect there is in country music for Mr. Cochran, on each song Johnson is joined by a well known artist. The combinations work extremely well. If I had heard this album last month it might well have ended up in my list of the year's best.
All the songs on this album are done well but a few stand out. The first song to be promoted on the album was a version of Make the World Go Away with the angel voiced Allison Krauss. If you think this is an odd pairing of voices you are correct but it works on every level.
Also of great note is a version of I Fall to Pieces where Johnson is joined by Merle Haggard. Somehow I do not see Merle doing a duet with any of the male models in cowboy hats that are on he charts these days, Haggard knows and respects authenticity and his joining Johnson here tells you all you need to know.
Willie Nelson, one of the last living of the original outlaws, is a great friend of Cochran's and lends his voice to two wonderful songs "Don't you ever get tired of hurting me?" as well as the Cochran standard "Livin for a song."
This is a wonderful album and a great tribute too, if one looks at the list of songs on the album they cannot help being surprised that all these great songs were written by one man that few in this generation have ever heard of. If changing that is the goal of this album, mission accomplished.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Essential David Allan Coe
Since I have put Sirius XM in my truck I have found that one of the channels that I enjoy the most is Outlaw country. One of the artists often featured is David Allan Coe. I have heard the name before but was not knowledgable about what he sang.
David Allen Coe was one of the members of the original outlaw country group. Not with the stature of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson indeed but he certainly seems to have been a member of the following.
Today I heard a song by him called You Never Even Called Me By Name. This song has much to offer the country fan. With several verses the most important would be one that speaks about Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride and Merle Haggard with a catchy chorus. Perhaps what seperates this song the most however is the last verse, a very self aware verse where Coe speaks about the writer of the song and his telling him that it was not the best country song in the world as it missed some country cliches such as Momma, Trains, Prison, Trucks and Being Drunk. As one might imagine the writer added a verse which included those items and Coe was happy to sing the new verse for us.
Is this silly. Yes. It still is an acknowlegement of what country music used to be and what many of us still enjoy.
I came home and looked him up on Spotify and listened to this album. The first of these songs is entitled The Ride and I realized that I had heard this as well on Outlaw country. Another very good song telling of a ghost encounter with Hank Williams the original.
Yes perhaps a few too many songs are written about beer but this is not literature and there are no pretensions. It is what it is. And it is very good at what it is.
On Willie, Waylon and Me Coe takes us through his life of listening to sixties and seventies country rock. The Burritos, Roger Mcguin and the Byrds, and the Eagles and even tips his hat to true rock icons such as The Beatles, The Stones and Janis. It is an effective song.
More country even is Long Haired Redneck and perhaps most country of all is If That Ain't Country in which he talks about a rural upbringing with cliches like a hard working mama and cars in the yard. It is not a sad song though it is a song that tells with pride where he comes from. If Coe really comes from this background I do not know, what I do know is there are many who have been from that place in their youth and a song that does not aplogize for it but tells of it with pride must have appeal to many folks not written about in Rolling Stone.
David Allen Coe is a fine singer. He also knows exactly who he is. That is something to be valud and indeed even cherished.
David Allen Coe was one of the members of the original outlaw country group. Not with the stature of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson indeed but he certainly seems to have been a member of the following.
Today I heard a song by him called You Never Even Called Me By Name. This song has much to offer the country fan. With several verses the most important would be one that speaks about Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride and Merle Haggard with a catchy chorus. Perhaps what seperates this song the most however is the last verse, a very self aware verse where Coe speaks about the writer of the song and his telling him that it was not the best country song in the world as it missed some country cliches such as Momma, Trains, Prison, Trucks and Being Drunk. As one might imagine the writer added a verse which included those items and Coe was happy to sing the new verse for us.
Is this silly. Yes. It still is an acknowlegement of what country music used to be and what many of us still enjoy.
I came home and looked him up on Spotify and listened to this album. The first of these songs is entitled The Ride and I realized that I had heard this as well on Outlaw country. Another very good song telling of a ghost encounter with Hank Williams the original.
Yes perhaps a few too many songs are written about beer but this is not literature and there are no pretensions. It is what it is. And it is very good at what it is.
On Willie, Waylon and Me Coe takes us through his life of listening to sixties and seventies country rock. The Burritos, Roger Mcguin and the Byrds, and the Eagles and even tips his hat to true rock icons such as The Beatles, The Stones and Janis. It is an effective song.
More country even is Long Haired Redneck and perhaps most country of all is If That Ain't Country in which he talks about a rural upbringing with cliches like a hard working mama and cars in the yard. It is not a sad song though it is a song that tells with pride where he comes from. If Coe really comes from this background I do not know, what I do know is there are many who have been from that place in their youth and a song that does not aplogize for it but tells of it with pride must have appeal to many folks not written about in Rolling Stone.
David Allen Coe is a fine singer. He also knows exactly who he is. That is something to be valud and indeed even cherished.
Friday, January 28, 2011
American Masters - Merle Haggard
PBS runs a great series of in depth retrospectives of influential artists across many spectrums. This was an excellent program.
Telling the story of Merle Haggard was very revealing. Not just as an artist, as a singer that my parents listened to but as a microcosm of a class of people born in the twenties and thirties with simple tastes and patriotism in great quantities.
It is not a stretch to understand the appeal of Haggard and how his followers of that time are the economically stretched but culturally conservative population that are still difficult to understand.
Haggard was shattered by the sudden death of a father he adored. He was a troubled youth ending in prison at San Quentin. A 1958 concert by Johnny Cash made him see what h wanted and that perhaps could take him there.
He was talented and it did happen. The peak year may have been 1970 when Okie from Muskogee swept awards of Country Music.
His music is timeless. His voice is much better than one thinks. When you listen to Sing me Back Home his voice is as good as many of the greats.
When my daughter was born about that time Haggard released a song called Think about a Lullaby. It was not a hit. It was however the perfect song for a Dad to sing his baby to sleep with.
For that alone I will always have a memory and connection to Merle Haggards music. From my parents listening on the weekends when I was little to singing his song to my newborn daughter.
This show told us much about him we did not know. That was enjoyable. For me however it reminded me of many things I needed to remember. That was priceless.
Love you Dad. I do still remember the songs you sang.
Telling the story of Merle Haggard was very revealing. Not just as an artist, as a singer that my parents listened to but as a microcosm of a class of people born in the twenties and thirties with simple tastes and patriotism in great quantities.
It is not a stretch to understand the appeal of Haggard and how his followers of that time are the economically stretched but culturally conservative population that are still difficult to understand.
Haggard was shattered by the sudden death of a father he adored. He was a troubled youth ending in prison at San Quentin. A 1958 concert by Johnny Cash made him see what h wanted and that perhaps could take him there.
He was talented and it did happen. The peak year may have been 1970 when Okie from Muskogee swept awards of Country Music.
His music is timeless. His voice is much better than one thinks. When you listen to Sing me Back Home his voice is as good as many of the greats.
When my daughter was born about that time Haggard released a song called Think about a Lullaby. It was not a hit. It was however the perfect song for a Dad to sing his baby to sleep with.
For that alone I will always have a memory and connection to Merle Haggards music. From my parents listening on the weekends when I was little to singing his song to my newborn daughter.
This show told us much about him we did not know. That was enjoyable. For me however it reminded me of many things I needed to remember. That was priceless.
Love you Dad. I do still remember the songs you sang.
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