C&W artist that can make you happy to ONEFIVE!

[g.]

After checking out a thread on the gtr forum that talks about a deceptively simple (and well produced and arranged) tune by Steve Earle - GUITAR TOWN - I dug out the dust-gatherin' CD by the same name and set to work learning the main riff and seeing how I would subdivide it if notated. After figuring out the Fender VI (main riff axe; but could easily be played on a baritone or D-tuned guitar) and bass parts, I just found the album so vital in themes, lyrics, and delivery, that I thought it would be cool to trot it out at a gig, provided I can get the guys to actually negotiate the odd meters and groupings of measures.

 

And I got to playing along with the entire album and singing. GUITAR TOWN ferinstance really works great with tremelo, bright bride pickin' and a 5 or 6 string... But lots of these tunes are amazingly fun to play - whether doing the original parts which are often sly twists on two-steppin', or kinda playing some of this and some of that.

 

As you can imagine, in Montana, it pays to at least know a few C&W classics and be able to do them in back-to-roots Hank Senior style. And I've always had a hankerin' for cowpunk (Rank and File etc) and too-rebel-for-Naxville cats like Dwight Yoakum (Pete Anderson kills!) etc. But maybe Steve Earle is my fave for really havin' the rebel yell as well as the yodel, themes that real grownups can sing without feeling like phoneys, and a true-to-the-heart ethos.

 

I love this guy! And this album. Who do YOU love?

[Guitarzan]

i have been wanting to check out "rising outlaw" by Hank Williams 3rd. i believe thats the title.

has anyone heard any of this?

i dig Hank senior as well and i agree that Pete Anderson is a hot player.

i can't remember alot from Guitar Town but it must be good because it spent some time on my turntable in the 80's, and at that time i was a metalhead!

[73 P Bass]

On my way back to the shop, while I was in radio no-man's-land, I checked into the "Country Station". Musically the songs were great. I couldn't stand the vocals or the lyrics, but that's just me.

Do you ever wish you could turn the vocals off on the radio?

I'm really thankful the college station plays that Alt Country stuff.

[davebrownbass]

George Jones.

 

Allison Krauss and Union Station.

[bruiser_dup2]

I'm with you on Steve Earle. Great songs. I've been a rocker all my life, but I can listen to and play Earle's stuff. My band is working on "Goodbye Is All We've Got Left To Say" for a gig.

 

Lucinda Williams writes some great tunes, too. I don't care for her voice, but I've heard other people do her songs and liked them.

 

I thought of a new joke the other day while learning a bluegrass tune:

 

How is playing bluegrass music like driving from Canada to Mexico? It's root-five all the way! Ba-dum! (that's Route 5 for non-westerners)

[rumpelstiltskin.]

i'm down with merle haggard. i had to go to a wedding back home so i couldn't see him down on the coast at the beau rivage casino.

 

i wish i could've seen his parker fly.

 

robb.

[ihategarybettman]

Country faves include many already mentioned here (Steve Earle, Hank Williams I and III, and Dwight Yoakam/Pete Anderson), plus three more: Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Junior Brown. The Man in Black and Patsy are legends, and Junior's just sick-good on his guit-steel, not to mention one the funniest songwriters out there. If you don't know about Junior Brown yet, check him out. I also love the Texas Tornados, who had a rockin' Tejano/Country thang goin' on.

[jeremy c]

My vote is for Lyle Lovett.

 

Is he considered country by the country music fans?

[SteveC]

Many different artists have been mentioned, but when I think of a 1,5,1,5 type of gig, I would say George Strait. I've seen him live a couple times and what a sweet bass gig. No singing, no fancy stage show (smoke and lights for those who saw Pure Country) just stand by the drummer and play.

 

I also like the "country swing" style he does.

[g.]

Lyle Lovett is often lumped into the Texas sinegr/songwriter group but has graced many a C&W-oriented movie soundtrack. But yeah, he's a little too smart and sly for mainstream country and his band simply reaks of skill and fun. He's practically the rural Tom Waitts.

 

Junior Brown, what a KILLER. Talk about a monster performer! Playing both necks of his gtr/slide gtr improvisationally, totally independent of the vocal stylings he delivers with much aplomb; his band can lay out and the music just cooks like no tommorrow. This guy is also too smart for Napsville, comes more from Texas swing.

 

Some other real great people listed here, most of them considered fringers and outlaws. {And where's Willy? ; }

[Dak Lander]

Ya gotta get a hold of some Fred Eaglesmith. His live albums, complete with monologues are the best. Studio stuff is good but doesn't have the vibe of his live stuff. That shit's awesome & he has a killer mandolin player, Willie P. Bennett, playing that little thing like no one else I've ever heard.

 

You want some pretty good Steve Earle stuff playing with The Del McCoury Band, pickup up The Mountain.

 

Oh...Anyone else listening to Hayseed Dixie?

[The Bear Jew]

I'd play for David Allan Coe anytime.

 

"If that ain't country...."

 

Oh yeah, Neko Case, too...

[ihategarybettman]

Daklander, Hayseed Dixie are great. I'm a huge AC/DC fan, but even I was surprised by how well their songs translated to a bluegrass format.

[Dak Lander]

Originally posted by ihategarybettman:

Daklander, Hayseed Dixie are great. I'm a huge AC/DC fan, but even I was surprised by how well their songs translated to a bluegrass format.

Yeah, if you're not aware, they are doing, basically, a flipflop and taking some traditional songs and some originals and essentially electrifying them. I've heard some partial clips and one complete song from the album during a radio station interview. This new album is under the name Kerosene Brothers as the band name.

[Funk Jazz]

Originally posted by   :

As you can imagine, in Montana, it pays to at least know a few C&W classics and be able to do them in back-to-roots Hank Senior style.

what part of Montana are you in?

[way2fat]

Hayseed Dixie is good. The originals, Run C&W, are also excellent, featuring former Eagle Bernie Leadon on electric banjo and a dude from Dr. Hook singing Motown hits Bluegrass style. I too, was amazed at how well Motown and Bluegrass work together. But hey, both groups were generally rural southerners that wrote songs about going north to work in the factories.

[bottle12am]

If one country bass line ever got to me, it's 'Workingman's Blues'... the original studio version cut by Merle.

 

Absolutely blew me away. It was as if Flea was born in rural TN.

 

See if any of the studio monkeys today would shower enough love into a song to work out a bass line like that, or a touring bassist have enough nerve to suggest interpreting a bassline like that.

 

Outside of a few rebels, it don't happen like that no more.

 

BTW -- Kudos to Tim McGraw. As much as I loathe the man, his inability to play/write, and his "I'm over 40, but I'm still pushing the open-shirt, tight jeans look til the pec and glute implants fall out", least he cut an album with his road musicians, rather than said studio monkeys ("Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors")

 

...and another thing...a bit OT

 

While I'm cringing at the current state of Nashville, anyone heard the Rachel Proctor song, "Me and Emily"? Is it not a total rip-off of Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis"?