The Siderunners have some wonderful words about Buck Owens at the Evil Genius Chronicles. Read the whole thing.
It’s great when one of today’s bands recognizes and pays tribute to the roots of the genre.
-k-
Technorati Tags: buckowens, evilgeniuschronicles, siderunners
Oh, to be able to write a tribute like Jack Sparks just posted about Buck Owens.
Make no mistake, though. What he did between 1963 and 1967 was pure. The exposed wires from the Buckaroos’ amped up guitars were the frayed nerves of hillbilly men and women who worked too hard, drank too much, and desperately clung to the hope that tomorrow might be different. People still bought the sappy treacly shit that came out of Nashville, but Buck drove them bananas, like Hank Williams had done the previous decade. If Buck and Harlan Howard made a song about a guy getting in a bar fight or leaving his wife, it was because they saw it happen the night they wrote the song. If the guitars were wide open and high on treble, it was because that’s what the dancers were demanding out on the dance floor.
And, putting today’s “country” in its proper niche:
You’re probably going to see a bunch of assholes like Chesney, Adkins, and Urban coming out on stage with red, white and blue guitars in the next couple of weeks; don’t buy any of it.
Read the whole thing; I’m glad this ol’ blog can even link to such good words.
-k-
Technorati Tags: buckowens, jacksparks
After the basketball games, after tonight’s chilies rellenos, I think I’ll create an appropriate little Pandora station, sit back, and Twist the Knob in memory of ‘ol Buck.
-k-
Buck Owens, legendary country music star, star of Hee Haw, has passed away at age 76.
The Bakersfield Sound, different but still country, was one of his trademarks.
From the article, some of Buck’s observations:
Owens himself could be rebellious, choosing among other things to label what he did “American music” rather than country.
“I took a little heat,” he once said. “People asked me, `Isn’t country music good enough for you?’ ”
He also criticized the syrupy arrangements of some country singers, saying “assembly-line, robot music turns me off.”
Turns me off, too. RIP, Buck, and thanks for years of good music.
-k-
Technorati Tags: buckowens
Heard on XM-13, this snippet from a Stampley/Bandy song:
I’m having two beers for breakfast
After a night on the town.
I’m having two beers for breakfast,
If I can manage to hold them down.
Coulda’ been my theme song, in the days of my misspent youth.
-k-
As if the spit-shined turd of the Country Music Awards show wasn’t enough, tonight, after football on CBS, they’ve got a painfully self-aggrandizing cluster-eff celebrating 40 frickin’ years of doing this stuff.
With any luck, Pajamas Media, Podshow, et.al., won’t see such a milestone.
But, PT Barnum may have been right.
-k-
UPDATE: OK, so it’s the Academy of Country Music, not the Country Music Awards. So it is now wannabees saluting occasional greatness. Never mind that the greats couldn’t be there, or maybe wouldn’t. Or definitely wouldn’t.
Technorati Tags: CBS, CMA, Country Music, Pajamas Media, podshow
Let’s rename the “Horizon Award” to the “Dust over the Horizon Award”, in honor of those, who after winning the award, were chased off by fans of real country music. Fans carrying tar. And feathers. And listening to their iPod-safe music.
-k-
Technorati Tags: Country Music
At the CMAs, in my farewell viewing, that fine ballad by
The Fruit Guys, entitled You Can’t over Love. The closest to country music on the whole show.
Other than that, 3 hours of my life I ain’t getting back.
-k-
Technorati Tags: Country Music
I figure if the iTunes store can send me a “Music Tuesday” mail-o-gram, that I can highlight an album weekly here on the ol’ tbbs[1] blog.
I like a lot of different music genres, but if I had to give up all but one, I’d have to keep country music. Country is not this over-produced, diluted swill that so-called country stations play nowadays. It is music that has its roots deep in the American spirit, where you can hear roots of gospel, bluegrass, blues, and even occasionally Celtic strains. Yep, country has ‘em all. But we haven’t mentioned good old honky-tonk music, which brings us to this week’s pick:
Forever Always Ends, by Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys.
This album was made in 1999, even though I just came across it in the last few weeks. Absolutely some of the wry-est lyrics you’d want to hear, backed up by real steel guitar, dobro, and drums. The album’s review is available here. I’ll excerpt just a little snippet:
Man, oh man, will the embarrassing farce that is contemporary country music ever end? Today’s batch of interchangeable hunks and bimbos that are being Xeroxed out of Nashville have as much to do with what makes country music special as The Starland Vocal Band did with channeling the rebellious spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
and later…
As a powerful antidote, we’d like to present you with Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys. Hailing from the Missouri side of Kansas City, Rex and the boys will remind one and all that true grit honky tonk is alive and well.
This review sums it up much better than my poor prose ever could, you can buy the album at the link above, or from the iTunes store. Buy from the website if you can, the artist gets a little more moola that way, I think.
The band’s website is at this Flash-enabled link. Flash isn’t my favorite thing, but as Flash goes, this is pretty good.
Any album that has a song called I Walked in While He Was Changing Your Mind has gotta be great.
Check ‘em out!
-k-
[1] tbbs = ten billion butterfly sneezes. But you knew that already.