You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2010.
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Country Music Hall of Fame,
Class of 1961
Fred Rose (1898-1954) progressed from vaudeville performer to Tin Pan Alley songwriter, then after collaborating on some cowboy-type songs with Western movie actor Ray Whitley began to consider the possibilities in the world of country music. That was a good career move, eventually landing him in the Hall of Fame as one of the three inaugural inductees.
About the record: Brunswick 3714, recorded Nov. 21, 1927, in Chicago. Release date unknown, possibly 1928.
This song isn’t country. It’s an example of the Chicago jazzy pop style that Rose favored back in the late 1920s. (That’s him on the piano, too.) But how about that title, and those lyrics – pretty durned suggestive of the often less sophisticated but more blatantly emotional material that he’d master as a prime songwriter, pioneer publisher and patient producer, all in the country field. Compare “So Tired” to the later “Tears On My Pillow”; see if you don’t agree they’re quite interchangeable.
Fred Rose’s Hall of Fame profile
Next up: Hank Williams
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Country Music Hall of Fame,
Class of 1961
The inaugural members of the Country Music Hall of Fame were Rodgers (1897-1933), songwriter/producer/music publisher Fred Rose, and singer/songwriter Hank Williams. I’m profiling them, and all subsequent multi-member classes, alphabetically.
About the record: Victor 21142, recorded Nov. 30, 1927, in the Victor Studio in Camden, N.J. Released March 2, 1928.
Jimmie Rodgers’ first record consisted of the two songs recorded in August 1927 at country music’s Big Bang, in Bristol, Va., and sold moderately well. “Blue Yodel,” the A side of his second record, is the song that made the Mississippian a star.
Jimmie Rodgers’ Hall of Fame profile
Next up: Fred Rose
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July 9-11
Why this weekend? It was a year ago Friday that I and several of my friends and colleagues received pink slips from the word factory. This seems as good a song as any to mark the anniversary.
About the record: Columbia 4-45660, recorded June 5, 1972, at House of Cash Studios, Hendersonville, Tenn. Released the following month, eventually reaching No. 2 on Billboard‘s country chart. LP debut was on Any Old Wind That Blows, Columbia KC-32091, released January 1973. Eventually reached No. 5 on Billboard‘s country album chart.
In the ’50s, budding songwriter Jerry Chesnut lived in Florida and for a time worked for a man named Oney. Fast-forward 20 years, and here’s Oney immortalized in Chesnut’s ode to the working man. It’s kinda scary, the degree to which Cash seems to relish how he’s about to go out with a bang. But, not altogether unsatisfying, if you know what I mean.
Special note: It’s good to be back at it here at 3 Chords a Day, after a couple of weeks off. I’m still not completely caught up, so I won’t be posting daily just yet — you can expect 6 or maybe 9 chords a week for the next little while. Whatever the frequency, I’m going to celebrate the Country Music Hall of Fame by linking each post with the roster of inductees, in order of enshrinement. So when next you hear from me, it will be in the nasal voice of Hall of Famer No. 1: Jimmie Rodgers.
