Music: Sunday Mornin’
JC doin' Sunday Morning Coming Down. Written By Kris Kristofferson.
Have a good one.
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Music: Hank Williams - The Daddy of American Music
The clip above is from Honky Tonk Blues - The Story Of Hank Williams.
From Wiki: Hank Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who has become an icon of country music and one of the most influential musicians and songwriters of the 20th century. A leading pioneer of the honky tonk style, he had numerous hit records, and his charismatic performances and succinct compositions increased his fame. His songbook is one of the backbones of country music, and several of his songs are pop standards as well. He has been covered in a range of pop, gospel, blues and rock styles. His death at the age of twenty-nine helped fuel his legend. More...
And here's a link to an interestin' article from the New York Times last Sunday. Enjoy.
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Music/Livin': Sad Day at Southern Brand
Jerry Reed has passed on.
To me Jerry Reed's music has a joy and energy that's rarely been matched. And he seemed like such a fun lovin' fella, I couldn't help but smile every time I'd come across a clip of the "hairy-legged, guitar-pickin' man." To this day, I start bouncin' and kickin' and gigglin' whenever "Amos Moses" or "She got the goldmine, I got the shaft" comes on.
Mentored and urged to play more guitar in his unique finger-picking style by the great Chet Atkins, Jerry was that rare cat who could do it all and seemed to make everything seem effortless, from acting to great guitar to writing great songs, Jerry's magic came at you like it was the most natural thing in the world. A redneck renaissance man.
I remember watching him act with Burt Reynolds in W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, and get directed by Burt as a real bad guy in Gator. He was a laugh riot in The Waterboy with Adam Sandler. And he was great in a flick Dom Deluise directed where he played a cop (Hot Stuff - theme song by who else? Jerry Reed), and I loved him with Robin Williams in the comedy The Survivors as a crook.
Musically, just like with acting, he made it all look easy. From the funk-country-- (did he invent that? I think he did!) that drives When You're Hot You're Hot, to the country boogie jump of East Bound & Down (From Smokey and the Bandit where he was redneck-unforgetable as Cletus Snow - The Snowman)
He wrote Guitar Man and then played on it when it was recorded by the King, as well as U.S. Male at the same session.
Amos Moses is swamp-boggie-country-glam - I mean this cat from Alabama could do it all. The wiki entry is linked here. This man was more than just a sum of his achievements, wide and varied. He was 100 percent an American Original. Got a long way to go but a short time to get there. RIP wild man.
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Music/Livin': Been Caught Surfin’ - Checkin’ out the websites of the Country Music Legends
Waylon.Dot Com - Say it out loud. Kinda rolls off yer lips don't it? Waylon's website is real good. Seems like they dug out the ol' family album, raiding it for pictures and puttin' 'em on the website, saying: "come on in friends - this way into our lives". The galleries alone are incredible. Album Covers, Showbills, every single album Waylon ever made -- (and that's alotta albums) plus a gallery of his Backstage Passes (just about the best darn backstage passes ever made.)
The site is goooood loooookin'. It feels like it was made by yer techie redneck uncle, the one who storms into Radio Shack and doesn't wanna be bothered by them guys in the knit ties with the cross pens and - he just goes right to the transistors and the radar detectors.
The best thing about it is the 'family' feel to it. You can click over to home-style info on Shooter. You can check out every darn record cover Jessi Colter ever made (Further proof that she is the foxiest woman ever to grace country music). There's a link over to the WaylonPedia, which is like a wiki but with a beard, if you can imagine such a thing. It gets a 'lil confusing there, with links to waylonandwillie.com that actually lead to Waylon's old site-- but no worries, ya'll can figure it out. The 'Outlaw Connection' link takes you to Waylon friendly sites and in the 'Store' section you can buy a Waylon flyin' W guitar pick and bumper sticker (but not a Flyin W T-shirt -- what's goin' on with that?). The Waylon dubya is waayy cooler than the Van Halen logo (obviously Weezer thought it was great as well). But hands down, my favorite thing on the site is the shot of Waylon and Buddy Holly from one of those old photo booths. Waylon was in Buddy's second group of Crickets after the original guys left. He took Waylon under his wing and showed him the ropes. That pic is priceless.
Another outlaw's site worth it's weight in whiskey is Willie's, willienelson.com. Willie is selling live music wristbands. You can carry the whole concert he did in Monroe LA, on 10.25.07 or Huntsvillie Al from 11/01/07 in a wristband that houses a USB memory stick containing a whole Willie show. Say you go to a concert and you liked it so much you wanna take it home with ya? Well straight off the soundboard here comes the show on one of them 'lil cause-y rubber wrist bands, like Lance Armstrong or Bono wear, 'cept this money goes to the charity known as the Redheaded Stranger (a worthy cause). The wristband is full up with the show you just saw (or the show you missed--- there's a bunch of dates available on the site). Very interesting item and very weird too.
Johnnycash.com has got a little more of a commercial vibe to it. But it's nice, very nice. The merchandise is top notch. They've got a onesie with "I Crawl the Line" written on it. C'mon! That's great stuff. For those of ya'll without rugrats, a onesie is one of those tiny wraslin' outfits they make for babies. Like the ones Jerry "The King" Lawler wore, but without them Lane Bryant-style leggings. They also got Johnny Cash radio which pops up the second you get on the site. Bill Miller hosts it and does a fine job of taking you through the career of the Man in Black. It's deep in content, it's got tons of design and thought to it and my favorite part of it is the Bio section. The site keeps opening windows, which is a little inconvenient, but it's worth it for stuff like this. Just click on the 60s or the 70s and you'll dive into the most detailed description of Cash's career imaginable. The site uses real pretty fonts and the "Cash" typefaces are top notch although it's a lil bit difficult to navigate through.
George Jones? That's next week. What's that? Merle Haggard? Ol' Merle's site is under construction. But when it's read, I'm ready too.
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Music: Johnny Cash - One Piece At A Time
You know they built that car - the one from "One Piece At A Time." They built her for Johnny Cash. The song was written as an homage of sorts to the Detroit auto workers who built Cadillacs, but could never afford to purchase one. Wayne Kemp wrote it. He played lead guitar for George Jones and wrote a buncha great tunes, including "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised" for Johnny Paycheck. According to blogger Ted Baylis, Bruce Fitzpatrick, (standing far right in the pic) owner of Abernathy Auto Parts and Hilltop Auto Salvage in Nashville, TN, was asked by the promoters of the song to build the vehicle for international promotion. Bruce had all the different models of Cadillac mentioned in the song when it was released, and built a Cadillac using the song as a model. The car was presented to Cash in April of 1976.
We stumbled upon a video Johnny did for that thing - and well, maybe a video wasn't quite the right thing to do at that point. Starts out real cool with a performance, and then at about the 45 second mark, the home movie clips start. I don't know what 'ol Johnny was on but he's shakin' it on the hood like a gal in a Sir-Mix-Alot video. But man, he's still Johnny freakin' Cash. As for the car, they had her parked out in front of the House of Cash (check out Steve Menke's great Johnny Cash site) for a few weeks way back when, wonder where she is now.
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