Posts Tagged Country Music

As I have said before, one of the things I appreciate most about real Country Music (not the pre-packaged bullshit they market today) is the wonderful balance between the sacred and the profane: Willie Nelson following “Whiskey River” and “Blood Mary Morning” up with “Uncloudy Day”, Johnny Cash singing “Folsom Prison” and a “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” It is real.

No one does it better than Hank Sr.  In honor of Holy Week, here is a boring video of a great song.

Enjoy!

The Tramp on the Street
recorded by Hank Williams                          [3/4 time]
written by Grady and Hazel Cole

C                            F
Only a tramp was Lazarus sad fate
G7                     C
He who lay down at the rich man’s gate
F
He begged for the crumbs from the rich man to eat
C            G7          C
He was only a tramp found  dead on the street

F
He was some mother’s darlin’ he was some mother’s son
G7                   C
Once he was fair and once he was young
F
Some mother rocked him her darlin’ to sleep
C           G7           C
But they left him to die like  a tramp on the street

F
Jesus who died on Calvary’s tree
G7                    C
Shed His life’s blood for you and for me
F
They pierced His sides His hands and His feet
C           G7           C
And they left Him to die like a  tramp on the street

F
He was Mary’s own darlin’ he was God’s chosen Son
G7                   C
Once He was fair and once He was young
F
Mary she rocked Him her darlin’ to sleep
C          G7           C
But they left Him to die like a tramp on the street

F
If Jesus should come and knock on your door
G7                         C
For a place to come in or bread from your store
F
Would you welcome Him in or turn Him away
C               G7              C
Then the God’s would deny you on the Great Judgment Day.

      (lyrics and chords cf. Classic Country Lyrics)

 

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“Hank Williams, you wrote my life.” ~Moe Bandy

Hank Williams, Sr., invented country music and no one has ever done it better. It would be difficult to pick a favorite Hank Sr. song, but this would come damn close.

On a cool Monday morning, Hank seems like just what the doctor ordered.

Enjoy!

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The soundtrack to my 60s childhood was less Beatles and more Hank Williams Sr. I am talking about the years before puberty when most of the music I listened to in cars and homes was played by my mother or by my uncles and aunts.

It is funny now how often I can hear a song I think I have never heard and suddenly find that I know all the words. For more than 40 years the words have been hiding somewhere, dusty and forgotten.

At work, I have a Hank Williams Sr. Pandora station I often play. Over and over again I find myself smiling as I listen to a song I know by heart but have not heard for more than 40 years.

Lefty Frizzel must have been the favorite of some adult in my life. Each song feels, like my mother-in-law De recently said about Willie Nelson, “like a comfortable old shoe.”

Enjoy!

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Living in the North Country I hear little country music on the radio. There are a number of stations that play that “Contemporary Country” music but none that play “real” country: Waylon, Willie, George, Hank Jr., Merle, Jerry Jeff.

Thank God for the internet! There are a few “Classic Country” stations I stream on my computer and on my iPhone. And there is, of course, YouTube.

I have been on a Jerry Jeff Walker kick of late. I saw Jerry Jeff play in big bar somewhere outside of Austin, Texas, almost 30 years ago. It was an evening of  real Texas beer and bar-b-que and real country music.

On the last Monday in August, I cannot think of a better singer or song.

Enjoy!

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A movie about an aging country star should, by definition, be great. And while Jeff Bridges got the Oscar he should have gotten for The Big Lebowski, lets face facts, Crazy Heart was a bit of a disappointment. Except for one thing, it introduced us to Ryan Bingham… a real cowboy and one great country voice.

On a beautiful summer day, what could be better than a great new country classic.

Enjoy!

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I “discovered” Guy Clark when I was living in Chicago in the early 1980s. Someone gave me a cassette tape of his. I took it to Houston with me and then up to Michigan where I would listen to it on evenings when I was feeling homesick for all things Western.

If I remember correctly, I probably had just a couple of dozen cassette tapes in those days: Waylon, Willie, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Buffett, Springsteen, Tom Waits, Dylan and that one Guy Clark one.

Clark has long been popular with song writers and critics. A number of artists have had hits with his songs including The Highway Men who covered “Desperadoes Waiting on a Train.”

“Hemingway’s Whiskey” is one my favorite Guy Clark songs. On the last Monday in July and my youngest brother’s birthday, it seems like  just the thing.

Enjoy!

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A Monday morning is admittedly an odd time to post a song like “Whiskey River.” But since it is one of Willie’s signature  songs, the one he starts each concert with, I am posting it anyway.

This clip is from the 1986 Farm Aid concert. I saw Willie in concert a number times in the early 1980s: in Nashville at the Tennessee State Fair with my friend Bob; at Willie’s 4th of July Picnic outside of Austin, TX; in Saginaw, Michigan; and in the Twin Cities a couple of time. I loved every concert.

His first three songs were always the same: “Whiskey River” followed up by “Blood Mary Morning” followed by “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

As I have said here before, one of the things I have always enjoyed the most about Country Music as opposed to most  other kinds of music is precisely this mix of the sacred and the profane. It is real. Real life and real faith… like Johnny Cash singing “Folsom Prison Blues” and a gospel tune. Only true Country (white man’s Blues), Delta Blues, and the music of John Coltrane have this simultaneous mix of the sacred and profane. I love it.

So on a Monday morning… maybe a little Willie Nelson singing “Whiskey River” makes sense after all.

Enjoy!

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Music Monday has been on a bit of a hiatus again…. By nature, I do not think of music as essential art form for me. I am always in the mood for poetry, or fiction, or even a trip to an art museum. But music is something I find I can go for long stretches without… but not forever. So maybe it is essential for me after all. That is probably why I keep returning to Music Monday here.

When I am in the mood for music, my first choice is country… real country. Not to sound like an old man (but hell, I guess I am) Waylon, Johnny, Willie, Hank, Sr & Jr., George, and Merle are real country music. What’s played on country music stations today is just something you find in piles on the ground in cow pastures.

This has long been one of my favorite Waylon tunes. It seems like a perfect way to kick of the return of Music Mondays and the last week of February.

Enjoy!

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On the last day of October, the day before All Saints Day, I am feeling nostalgic about artists that have passed.

Willie and Merle made this song famous. Their’s remains the best version. But hearing this great song, sung by the great song writer who wrote it, seems like a perfect way to end October.

Enjoy!

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Hank Williams Sr. along with Louis Armstrong and Bob Dylan occupy the creative center of American music. Every American-born performer has to write, play, and perform within their respective shadows… and always will. That is the way of great artists, they influence all who come after them.

On a busy and beautiful Labor Day weekend, what could be better than a classic by a classic. If you don’t like Hank Sr., well, hell, you probably don’t have a soul or a heart… cold or otherwise.

Enjoy!

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