Down Every Road Average Rating: 53 total customer reviews...

One of my all-time favorite Haggard songs. There’s a lot to say about this song, not only the fitting performance of it, but how well written it is. You would probably get slapped in the mouth by any real country fan if you tried to make the assertion that this song isn’t country. Yet look what’s missing.

He doesn’t even mention how country he is. He doesn’t turn on the twang (I consider it an insult to my authentic Southern accent when people do that). He doesn’t throw in the word “ain’t” to try to convince us how country this song is.

But it’s country. It’s country because it’s an honest and (for the time it was written) accurate look at a segment of the American life everyone is familiar with. Sure, being a hobo may not be the ideal situation, but it’s not necessarily something to be ashamed of either.

When I listen to classic country music, I almost always feel like I’m getting a true and accurate glimpse of American culture and history. Haggard is especially adept at capturing the periods between the dust bowl and the 70s. I sincerely hope people don’t listen to what is being played on top 40 country radio these days and think it’s a true snapshot of American life.

I think I just heard them, one right after the other. The first one is pretty obvious: Conway Twitty’s “Lay You Down”. You could probably make a case that “Slow Hand” outranks this one. You wouldn’t get any argument from me…mostly because I couldn’t win.

The second song is one I never even considered to be dirty until I just heard it today for the first time in 25-30 years. When I heard it as a kid I didn’t really know how to decipher the double entendres, but song is full of them. You’ll be surprised to learn it’s a John Denver song…”Baby You Look Good To Me Tonight”. The lyrics are too naughty to be listed here among decent people, but look them up. They’ll probably cause you to blush.

I heard this song on the radio yesterday…another one I’d completely forgotten about. The Gatlins are known for their excellent harmony, and this song doesn’t disappoint on that front.

This song stands out from their other hits to me because it has a bluegrass feel to it. Most of their other songs were much more pop/crossover styled. “All The Gold In California”, for instance, sounds like it would fit in perfectly on a 1970′s AM station play rotation.

Then again, I can think of two exceptions. How were they excluded from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack? They’d have fit in perfectly with songs like “Houston” and “The Lady Takes The Cowboy Everytime”–great two step songs!

The Best of the Gatlins: All the Gold in California Average Rating: 12 total customer reviews...

Red Headed Stranger Average Rating: 88 total customer reviews...

Even before I could fully appreciate the simplicity, beauty, and power of “Red Headed Stranger” it was one of my favorite albums. I’m talking about from a very young age. My parents had it on wax, and I think the only two albums I listened to more were a Jerry Reed Live album and the Smokey and the Bandit soundtrack (if you ever doubted by credentials as a Jerry Reed fan, that’s something to consider).

There are two things about this album that really stand out, especially when compared to the music stuff being played on country radio today.

First of all, this is an album. Yes, the songs are good enough to stand on their own but there are multiple story arcs going on, and together the songs tell a single story. Not all albums that were albums back then did this, but at least they were able to contribute to a single theme back in the day (Waylon’s “Honky Tonk Heroes” for example).

The second thing that stands out, and is paramount, is that there is scant production. The songs stands for themselves without effects and over-arrangement.

Take note aspiring singers and songwriters. “Red Headed Stranger” is what fearless authenticity sounds like.

Billboard has a post about possible inductees for the Country Music Hall of Fame class of 2012. I think these are all pretty good nominations, but I definitely have some opinions. I’m actually very surprised that Archie Campbell and June Carter Cash aren’t already members of the Hall, so those two should definitely go in. And my third choice would be Jerry Reed, because SON!–I am a huge Jerry Reed fan.

I don’t think Kenny Rogers and the Oak Ridge Boys are bad nominees either. Definite talent there, and they made a huge impact on country music. And here’s a tidbit of information–after my post the other day on Roseanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache”, I found out that it was replaced at the top of the charts by “Elvira” by the Oak Ridge Boys.

Seven Year Ache Average Rating: 3 total customer reviews...

A lot of people would say “Seven Year Ache” isn’t really a country song. They may even say Roseanne Cash isn’t country. She lives in New York after all. But I think when your name is Cash you automatically get a little leeway.

Whether it’s country or not, “Seven Year Ache” is a terrific tune with great lyrics.

Don’t bother callin’ to say you’re leaving alone

‘Cause there’s a fool on every corner when you’re trying to get home.

I remember driving from Tennessee to Florida on vacation as a kid in 1981, and it seemed like this song was played every 20 minutes or so on every country radio station between Nashville and Panama City.

Usually an ear worm is a bad thing to have, but the one I had this weekend was pretty good. I can’t think of a better song than “Dixieland Delight” to have going through my head for 48 hours straight. Seriously, is there anyone out there who has ever heard this song and doesn’t love it?

Now, let’s return to a simpler time, when it was perfectly acceptable for a country music video to show the lead singer break down the 4th wall a la Burt Reynolds in “Smokey and the Bandit” and wink at the camera twice in 5 seconds.

Still…I think their best song.

The Hag had to cancel a show in Macon last night and is cancelling hi show in Columbus, GA tonight after being hospitalized. Hopefully he’ll have a speedy recovery and be back on the road soon!

Texas 1947 Average Rating: total customer reviews...

The thing I admire most about good song writers generally (and Guy Clark in particular) is their ability to paint a picture using very few words. “Texas 1947″ is one of my favorite Guy Clark songs because he’s able to do more than paint a picture in my mind–he actually creates a 5 minute movie as seen through the eyes of a six year old boy in the middle of the 20th century. And the poetry of this song is its ability to storyboard this movie with simple words creating unbelievably strong images.

This little boy (presumably Clark) has already had enough life experience to know something different is about to happen. He just doesn’t know what it is yet. He has a definite idea of exactly what a train is; how it looks, what it sounds like, and that it’s the most powerful force he can imagine. But he picks up on cues that make it clear to him something is amiss:

Well there’s fifty or sixty people they’re just sittin’ on their cars,
and the old men left their dominoes and come down from the bars.

The whole town is making a big deal out of whatever is about to reveal itself, and nobody knows exactly what to expect:

And you’d a-thought that Jesus Christ his-self was rollin’ down the line.

‘Cause things got real quiet, momma jerked me back,
But not before I’d got the chance to lay a nickel on the track.

And when the chorus kicks in, we can almost feel the train coming through the song. The pace picks up until the train has passed through town:

Look out here she comes, she’s comin’,
Look out there she goes, she’s gone,
screamin’ straight through Texas
like a mad dog cyclone.

Big, red, and silver,
she don’t make no smoke,
she’s a fast-rollin’ streamline
come to show the folks.

Look out here she comes, she’s comin’
Look out there she goes, she’s gone,
screamin’ straight through Texas
like a mad dog cyclone.

. . .Lord, she never even stopped.

I think the last verse of the song is the strongest part. It’s here that we find out this song is about much more than a six year old boy watching a streamline train come through his town for the first time. This song is about change. It’s about the realization of everyone in the town that the future holds something different, and for the listener there’s the hint that some of these people and these towns are going to be left behind as a result…maybe stuck in 1947 as the rest of the world speeds by.

She left fifty or sixty people still sittin’ on their cars,
and they’re wonderin’ what it’s comin’ to
and how it got this far.

The silver lining here is that the little boy gets a souvenir to remind him for the rest of his life (or as long as he keeps the nickel) of the day he saw this happen, what it felt like, and the significance of it.

But me, I got a nickel smashed flatter than a dime
by a mad dog, runaway red-silver streamline. . . train

Please, point me to something on country radio this well written that captures a moment in our history like this. Please.

Willie Nelson Sings Kristofferson Average Rating: 17 total customer reviews...

Back in the mid-90s I went on a date with a girl to see Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Asleep At The Wheel at an outdoor venue. Well, that’s a bit of a stretcher…we didn’t actually go to the concert. We were dirt poor college kids, so we sat on a bridge near the venue that gave us a peek at the stage. We could still hear everything, so no complaints from me.

Willie was headlining, and I could tell by her reaction (or lack of) to Asleep At The Wheel and Waylon that she didn’t appreciate this music on the same level I did. So to be fair, I shouldn’t have expected much from her once Willie came on.

Anyway, during Willie’s set he played “Me And Bobby McGee”, which got a great response from the crowd. Willie responded by saying, “we’re going to do a few more Kris Kristofferson songs for ya’ll.” Can you imagine the look of disdain on my face when my date looked at me and said, “What? That was a Janice Joplin song!”

The grown-up, mature me would have seen this as an opportunity to give this young lady a small piece of music education. But the lonesome, ornery, mean young man I was back then decided this would be our last date.