Astralcat
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Edited Sep 27, 2015, 11:47
Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 11:48
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OK. The one genre that largely defeats me in appreciation value. Rock moments with a C & W element I'm fine with eg. CSN/Y, Manassas, (not the fucking Eagles ! NO WAY), Byrds, Waterboys etc, but what should I check out to really see if I can get it once and for all. I tried Gram Parsons once and didn't dig , but I felt like that about The Incredible String Band once who I now adore. I know the usual recommendations are Johnny Cash (liked some I've heard, not all by any means), so what would any HHeads with this particular inclination suggest for me to check out and suss this conundrum once and for all ?
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Stevo
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 12:04
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Outlaw stuff - the 70s etc update on the honky-tonk sound including people like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson,
Charlie Rich especially the 60s Smash recordings and up to around '72.
Dolly Parton especially the early stuff talking about her poor background.
George Jones in general.
Honkytonk from its original era.
Western Swing Bob Wills, Milton Brown and so on.
Ernest Tubb's voice is a bit of an acquired taste but band is good.
Hank Williams should go without saying and I think the Drifting Cowboys were an archetypal band for what developed into rock.
Marty Robbins' gunfighter ballads and trail Songs. Great guitar throughout.
Jimmie Rodgers the early era#s greatest practitioner possibly, and pretty close to the blues.
Johnny Cash is also great and covers quite a bit of time.
will probably think of others if i put my mind to it
Stevo
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Astralcat
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 12:16
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Thanks Stevo. Going to be a quite a big check out task, but I'm keen and eager for a new musical challenge. I will do some cd research around your suggestions via the library website.
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IanB
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Edited Sep 27, 2015, 09:07
Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 12:25
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Not an expert but "I Am Shelby Lynne" is a must have
The various volumes of Country Got Soul are all good and provide a nice overview of a lot of artists worth delving into in their own right like Eddie Hinton and Dan Penn.
All the first four or five Bobbie Gentry albums are worth having
Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through The Night"
EDIT ...
Tift Merritt is wonderful
Louvin Brothers for some of the roots of Gram Parsons
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Astralcat
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 12:27
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Nice one Ian. On the list !
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IanB
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 12:29
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I am no kind of expert but that's what I like. Have added a couple of other things. I really love Tift Merritt's voice.
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Sin Agog
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 13:03
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I recommend you listen to this old show of mine for some of the older, more ethereal country strains, before it became bedraggled, besmirched and benighted by bumper sticker-sporting creationists. Actually, there were probably a fair few of those types around back then, too, but believing in the divine is often a boon in creating divine music. I always felt that the boiler room of the U.S. could be found down in the basement of the south. Those cats seem to have a line to the id the Yankees up north are arguably too heady and self-conscious to access. https://archive.org/details/75Simon-EarlyCountryMusic
Steve-O's list is bang-on, by the way. Marty Robbins is one of the more engaging storytellers in music (maybe second to Jake Thackray), and catchy as hell. Western Swing is a pretty wonderful genre. Take all the joyful revelry of Fats Waller and the like, play it on country instruments, and you have thee perfect musik. Plus they used gee-tarr distortion before The Kinks or the Beatles were even born: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxq2WmrE7cE
I wanted to do one on freaky psychedelic country, peopled by the likes of Henry Flynt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LstLpd_iVWA) and the kind of crazy one-offs you find on series like Twisted Tales From the Vinyl Wasteland like Exorcism, but I never got around to it.
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Captain Starlet
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 13:41
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Just think, if The Eagles had topped at a Little Chef the future of C&W could have been changed forever!
I'm not a huge fan of the mainstream stuff but there's some great country music which I find more akin with Americana and Bluegrass.
Then again, still love a bit of Johnny Cash
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Popel Vooje
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 13:52
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Of the ones that have been recommended so far I'm familiar with Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, the Louvin Brothers, Bobbie Gentry and Johnny Cash, and whilst the latter did make some brilliant albums and some fairly drab MOR ones (particularly during the late 70s/early 80s) I'd recommend all of what I've heard by the others unreservedly.
I'd also add Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, Michael Nesmith's early albums with the First National Band, and - if your definition of country is broad enough to encompass bluegrass - the Stanley Brothers and early Flatt & Scruggs and the Dillards (not to mention the two superb albums Foug Dillard made with Gene Clark).
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood occasionally made some decent stabs in a C&W direction (such as their covers of "Jackson" and "My Elusive Dreams"), as did Glen Campbell, but the bulk of their material probably couldn' t be defined as country.
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caldervalium
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Re: Country & Western Challenge
Sep 26, 2015, 13:57
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For a slightly left-field treat, check out the 'Rubber Room' compilation by Porter Wagoner. Death, disaster, infidelity, betrayal, and on the title track (memorably covered by Alex Chilton) a questionable take on insanity. Great fun.
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