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When's a country song a COUNTRY song?


Mark Blackburn

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Thanks, "leftyaxeman." I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy (nice weapons of choice in that equipment list!)

Your first guitar instructor was quoting Duke Ellington who famously observed, "There are only two kinds of music: good and bad." 

Two songs for you, sir -- by singer/songwriter & guitar giant, Vince Gill: Oklahoma Border Line and What the Cowgirls Do, played consecutively -- each featuring virtuosic solos -- the first, dedicated to his hero

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When did a  "Nine Inch Nails" song become a COUNTRY song?  When Johnny Cash made it his own -- ten years ago, just before his death at age 71. His birthday is tomorrow.

His last video, HURT, is a countrified, anthemic, gospel reading -- more haunting (to my eyes and ears) than the day it was recorded. Assisted by masterful editing that Johnny didn't live to see, this video is deservedly his most-watched -- nearing 44 million

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Satellite radio is playing Wynonna Judd's recent rendition of I'M SO LONESONE I COULD CRY --  arguably the best song composed (words & music) by Bob Dylan's life-long hero, Hank Williams.

Wikipedia's long list of important singers who've tried their hand at this one, begins with Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and of course, Bob Dylan.. But no mention of Ms Judd.

Well, it's a 'guy song' that she succeeds in making all her own -- with a spare but lovely arrangement -- true to the song's country roots --  with a campfire-simple harmonica solo on the musical bridge. 

Coincidentally or not, my wife just informed me that this season's DANCING WITH THE STARS (for 15 years our one shared guilty pleasure on TV) will include Wynonna Judd in its lineup. My wife quotes her as saying, about her weight, 

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It is perhaps George Gershwin's most recorded melody from his 'jazz opera' Porgy & Bess -- SUMMERTIME.  Yet my all-time favorite version is still a 'country funk' rendition by the greatest-ever guitarist/singer/songwriter (and actor!) Jerry Reed. A live duet with his hero Chet Atkins. Both dead and gone, but not forgotten.  Accompanied by two other guitarists -- Paul Yandel on Chet's signature model Gibson 'country gentleman' and by someone good armed with a green customized Fender Strat (wish I knew his name). 

Posted I know in the previous incarnation of this thread (when it drew a comment from our erudite moderator about Chet's 'fretless' guitar). The "views" total for this posting just topped 100 thousand. So.  For those who can appreciate a moment in time when 'country' musicians celebrated Gershwin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Country music was the last resting place for the virtuosic instrumental. And often the greatest singers were great pickers too.  Does that tradition continue?  Coincidentally (or maybe not) the next offering at YouTube is Brad Paisley and Australia's greatest guitarist Tommy Emmanuel playing Merle Travis' CANNONBALL RAG.  In some ways at least, life just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

 

 

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27 years ago, some young, unheard-of bluegrass musicians, future 'fiddle' great Mark O'Connor (doubling on gut-string acoustic guitar) Jerry Douglas his equivalent on Dobro (resonator) acoustic steel guitar, and banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, gave a small TV audience on

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A friend in California just watched that (above) and shared this -- from a James Taylor appreciation night arranged by his best friends -- including Country duet partners Allison Krauss and Jerry Douglas performing one of J.T.'s earliest 'countrified' ballads.  Stuff this good transcends genres and is timeless too, isn't it?

 

 

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If a new song tells a good story -- like this one (below) WHEN YOU GET TO ASHEVILLE, then regardless of the instrumentation/arrangement, you may be sure you're listening to Country music.

---  

Steve Martin is (arguably) the greatest-ever comedic actor; certainly the most erudite

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Well there I was in Hollywood

Wishin' I was doin' good

Talkin' on the telephone line

But they don't need me in the movies

and nobody sings my songs

Guess I'm just wastin' time.

Well then I got to thinkin'

Man, I'm really sinkin'

And I really had a flash this time:

I had no business leavin' [and]

nobody would be grievin'

If I went on back to Tulsa time.

 

The get-up-and-dance number (the Ladies' favorite) from Eric Clapton's

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I love so much of what you've posted here, Mark. I'm sure you've heard this but mention of both Paisley and Krauss just begs this to be posted. Great tune. Shades of He Stopped Loving Her Today with a very cool twist. I love it...

 

 

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Before he teamed with my favorite Broadway musical composer Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein wrote three of my all-time favorite ballads with the 'dean' of Great American Songbook composers, Jerome Kern. (They also wrote the first great truly American musical, 'Showboat.')  I was 16 when my mother sang the words to "The Folks Who Live On the Hill" (I'd been picking out the notes on guitar after hearing the melody for the first time, played by nylon string classical guitar virtuoso Charlie Byrd).

Mom sang the original words, intended for a West End London production, "Darby and Joan, who used to be Jack & Jill . . . "  Lyricist/singer Peggy Lee changed that to "Baby and Joe, who used to be Jack & Jill," in her definitive recording with the "Nelson Riddle Orchestra conducted by Frank Sinatra." 

So what has any of this to do with this WHEN'S A COUNTRY SONG thread? As I type this Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Eric Clapton's brand new version -- 'countrified,' with steel guitar and Nashville-style strings -- the way Eric's good friend Willie Nelson would record it -- as a Country swing tune (the way Willie's friends, Big Ray Benson and "Asleep at the Wheel" would play it). 

Admittedly, to give it a Country feel, the rich melody and harmonies by Jerome Kern (every note a chord, in the hands of great jazz pianists and guitarists,) has been dumbed down somewhat, for Mr. Clapton's intended audience.  And yet . . . it works, doesn't it?  And thus it reaches a new potential audience of millions of younger listeners, some of whom may be moved to ask our favorite question:  Who wrote that song?

 

 

 

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