You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2010.
Click to listen
Feb. 28: Remember a couple of weeks ago, when in a discussion of country drinking songs I said this was one of the best? Today, on the 44th anniversary of its release as a single, you get to judge for yourself.
Click to listen
Feb. 27: Released 20 years ago today, here’s the seventh chart-topping single in the career of Ricky Van Shelton, one of the neo-traditionalists of the mid-‘80s who helped to shake the Urban Cowboy out of country music. I always liked the sound of his originals — like this one from the pen of Tony King and Chris Waters. And his numerous covers (such as “Hole In My Pocket,” “Life Turned Her That Way” and “Don’t We All Have The Right”) updated those songs while staying true to the classic country sound. Give it a listen, and learn more about Shelton’s travels from Virginia to Nashville stardom here.
Feb. 26: Hey! Why aren’t you wearing black today like you’re supposed to? That’s right — today would have been Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday, and his final producer, Rick Rubin, wants the world to sartorially honor the Man in Black upon the release of the last of the American Sessions material. Thanks, but I’ll go against the grain and pull three obscure numbers from my favorite Cash era, the days when he was a man who occasionally performed in white — as a Sun Records artist. Hear and learn more about ‘em on the jump.
Click to listen
Feb. 25: This classic from the pen of Bob McDill has to be the only country song to namecheck American literary giant Tennessee Williams. On this, the 27th anniversary of the playwright’s death, let’s hear it again, using the occasion also to praise Don Williams and his fellow members of the newly minted 2010 class of the Country Music Hall of Fame: Ferlin Husky, Jimmy Dean and – it’s about dang time — Billy Sherrill.
The Country Music Association announced the quartet’s selection this week. Read Peter Cooper’s Tennessean story to learn more about Don Williams, “the gentle giant”; Husky, Nashville Sound pioneer and primo entertainer; Dean, TV impresario whose fame transcended music to also include the breakfast meat case at the supermarket; and Sherrill, who wrote and/or produced some of country music’s most memorable songs.
Today marks Williams’ 3 Chords a Day debut. But we’ve heard from his fellow inductees before; in Sherrill’s case, several times. Here are links to previous posts on Husky, Dean and Sherrill. Congratulations, gentlemen.
To listen, click on the player at left
Feb. 24: Surely that’s a typo, you say — a Beatles cut on a classic country blog? Nay, verily, it’s no mistake. In honor of what would have been George Harrison’s 67th birthday, here’s a song from the Carl Perkins songbook they recorded in 1963 for their BBC radio show. There are those who say the Fab Four sang with a Southern American accent. If that’s true, they no doubt picked it up from wearing the grooves off the records of Perkins and other early rock ‘n’ rollers.
Click to listen
Feb. 23: Eddy Arnold, the tuxedo-clad, orchestra-accompanied international crooner, began a two-week run at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel’s Empire Room 40 years ago today. RCA Records took that occasion to award him a gold plaque to mark the sales of 60 million records since his first single in February 1945 — an amazing average of 2.4 million records per year over a quarter-century. This one, from his checked-shirt Tennessee Plowboy days, generated a fair number of those sales. “Just A Little Lovin’ (Will Go A Long Way)” was one of the five Arnold records that reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s country chart in 1948 and, collectively, held the top spot for 40 weeks that year.
Click to listen
Mine is just another scene from the world of broken dreams. Oh, the night life ain’t no good life.
But it’s my life.
Feb. 22: Nothing like setting a mood. Ray Price and some of Nashville’s finest musicians entered the Quonset Hut the evening of Washington’s Birthday in 1963 to begin work on one of country music’s first concept albums, built around this bluesy slice of behind-the-swinging-doors life.
From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., they laid down four of the 12 songs, wrapping up with this gem that would be the album’s title and lead-off track. It was written by “a boy down Texas way,” as Price describes him in the album version’s two-minute spoken intro. You might have heard of that boy — Willie Nelson, a tunesmith of growing fame who wrote for Price’s publishing company, Pamper Music. At the session, Price, who was at the peak of his career as a performer and recording artist, was as always in fine voice. But the real star of this cut is steel guitarist Buddy Emmons, who kicks things off and — along with drummer Buddy Harman and pianist Pig Robbins — provides all the atmosphere you can handle.
