XP Also: We needed 15 minutes about this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTP9__vi3d4
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:05 (four years ago) link
I was fine with the coverage of the American Recordings - there's no need to for it to be pumped up more than it was. However I'm also not super crazy about them as a body of work. I love what it did for his career and his performances such as they were were laregely great. But after the first album of covers it felt more and more like Rubin was just getting the old man to do tricks. It scratched the surface of him as a performer, and I was kinda salty that it made people feel like they were Cash fans now that he was singing the songs they already knew. Then again it probably got a lot of people to go back and appreciate him so there is that. idk. maybe it's just me.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:35 (four years ago) link
No, not just you.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:38 (four years ago) link
Realistically, how many “Delia’s Gone”s was he going to come up with?
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:41 (four years ago) link
They were a mixed blessing to be sure. On the positive end he gained a new audience, paved the way for other comebacks (Merle, Loretta etc), and established a lineage between, you know, Tom Petty, Beck, Soundgarden etc. and the Carter Family in the American Music Canon.
OTOH, this at the cost of the broader spectrum of his work, gaining many fans who didn't and/or wouldn't look further or dig deeper. I like to say that Cash is always "The Favorite Country Singer of People Who Don't Like Country (Otherwise)", and The American Recordings is where that started.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:52 (four years ago) link
Think it may have started well before that but yeah
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:53 (four years ago) link
David Cantwell's marvelous Haggard biography ponders the question of what might've happened to Hag's career if his (solid) '90s albums had gotten the tenth of the hipster massaging afforded to Cash (NB: he does not begrudge Cash's success0.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:54 (four years ago) link
Speaking for myself, Haggard >>>>> Cash, always and forever.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:55 (four years ago) link
Hard to argue with
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:58 (four years ago) link
I think Cantwell's recent Tanya Tucker piece for the New Yorker put it pretty well:
Because it’s a late-career country-music comeback, “While I’m Livin’ ” is bound to be compared to Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings.” But Rick Rubin, the producer of the Cash album, succeeded in part by shrinking Cash’s complexity to a kind of two-dimensional rebellion. Carlile and Jennings have done the opposite: Tucker has never sounded so well-rounded.https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/tanya-tuckers-new-album-might-be-the-best-of-her-long-underrated-career
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:01 (four years ago) link
(xp)Although there was that recent flapdoodle when Bob Dylan said that he preferred Buck to Merle.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:03 (four years ago) link
Alfred otm. In some ways, Cash sounded to me like he was trying to get to where Merle had already been for about a decade.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:03 (four years ago) link
Idk if Kristofferson warranted all the screentime he got bh
Merle is obviously, at the very least, a better songwriter than Cash. This seems indisputable.
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:12 (four years ago) link
Better guitar player too
I love Cash & Merle equally for different reasons Personally I really love Cash’s appreciation & love of music (despite my misgivings abt the Rubin stuff) he had that Elvis quality where it was clear that he worked hard to honor not just the song but the writer/the emotion in his delivery - Peace in the Valley or Sunday Morning Coming Down, you feel how much he enjoys those songs. And his live prison albums at Folsom & San Quentin capture the electricity he had when he could really connect with an audience. Lot of Elvis similarities imo.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:15 (four years ago) link
(xp)Probably should add better bandleader as well
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:16 (four years ago) link
Preferring Hag doesn't mean I don't like Cash, let me be clear.
What this series did was kick my ass about finally buying and streaming second-tier worthies like Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley, not to mention blasting Patty Loveless' Honky Tonk Angel for the first time in years.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:17 (four years ago) link
Yeah Cash is great, in different ways
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:18 (four years ago) link
Agreed. VG otm
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:19 (four years ago) link
I thought the Tucker single I reviewed a few weeks ago pretty blah but I'll return.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:20 (four years ago) link
Where Cash triumphs is in the creation of a mythopoetic self that absorbed a century of country tropes and traditions; his voice lent the amalgam gravitas (can you imagine, to take a minor example, Waylon or Willie or Hag on U2's "The Wanderer"?). To call him inflexible and one-note, as I've seen elsewhere, isn't just wrong but beside the point.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:22 (four years ago) link
He was def not one note. So many novelty songs, for one thing
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:26 (four years ago) link
He’s one of those one of those people whose legend looms so large that it may sometimes seem that the only options are to accept it all lock stock and barrel or be forced to knock it down a peg.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:29 (four years ago) link
Tanya Tucker’s new album seems to have the almost the same cover as Bruce Springsteen’s.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:34 (four years ago) link
Tanya's album is my favorite of this year so far, it's very much in her lane but in a rich, joyful way. I love it so much.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:53 (four years ago) link
oooh there's the endorsement I needed
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:54 (four years ago) link
btw Reba McEntire's album released earlier this year is marvelous too
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:55 (four years ago) link
Just listened to the first track of that TT album and it sounded pretty good so I will take VG’s word and give the whole thing a whirl.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 20:56 (four years ago) link
Okay, that banjo passing ad at the beginning of every episode I could have done without.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 21:25 (four years ago) link
Many Generations of "Wagon Wheel".
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:00 (four years ago) link
Which was co-written by Ketch Secor. It all makes sense now. Perhaps this was already explained upthread.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:17 (four years ago) link
ohhh THATS what that song was?>:(i woke up one morning with “comin my way outta north caroline” in my head and i was SO annoyed
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:22 (four years ago) link
Even better, he fleshed out the original Dylan skeleton while he was in prep school.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:25 (four years ago) link
AP Carter didn't go to prep school.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:27 (four years ago) link
I just watched _The Third Man_ in full for the first time
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:32 (four years ago) link
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:39 (four years ago) link
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/biggest-oversights-in-the-ken-burns-country-music-documentary/
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 22:39 (four years ago) link
Thanks. I don’t know much about Don Williams, used to get him confused with Don Gibson, but I love this song he wrote and performed when he was more of a folkie with the Pozo-Seco singers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSybml7XsH4
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:06 (four years ago) link
Hm. Maybe he didn’t write it.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link
Nope. And only sang backup and strummed guitar probably. Still, I only learned about the Pozo-Seco Singers recently and for me they really hit the spot of old school Renfaire folk rock.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:11 (four years ago) link
I went the other way. I bought a Pozo Seco record back in the 90s, but never investigated Don Williams solo until he died a couple years back. A bit about how Don had a big west African fanbase would've been worth including in the series, imo.
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:20 (four years ago) link
There's a tiny subgenre of future Country guys in Psych bands like that, including Jerry Jeff Walker in Circus Maximus and Steve Young in Stone Country. Townes Van Zandt supposedly played bass for the 13th Floor Elevators on occasion.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:24 (four years ago) link
Okay I think I got it straight now: Don Gibson was the Sad Poet and Don Williams was the Gentle Giant.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:26 (four years ago) link
I saw Townes Van Zandt open for Jimmie Dale Gilmore at The Bottom Line once and I have to say, while I am usually pretty tolerant of people’s eccentricities, he kind of freaked me out a bit.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:30 (four years ago) link
I liked the story about how when he worked with the Cowboy Junkies, he asked had any of them shot up on a horse.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:35 (four years ago) link
I actually lived in Austin for a few years, but hardly ever crossed paths with any of the notables, although I did see Joe Ely in a coffee shop once and almost housesat for Steve Young while he was going on a State Department tour of Mongolia or something. Then a few weeks after I moved back to NYC I walked out of my office on 52nd street and saw Jimmie Dale Gilmore pass right in front of me.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:39 (four years ago) link
I think maybe I did laundry once with someone who lived in a place as Lucinda Williams used to live and had one of her shirts/famous people I have known
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:42 (four years ago) link
Good thing I wasn’t asked to be a talking head on that show or I would have really wasted time.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 September 2019 23:43 (four years ago) link
lol
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 30 September 2019 00:00 (four years ago) link
I might have recited the lyrics to Gary Stewart’s “Single Again,” then gotten a little emotional and said “That’s good!”
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 September 2019 00:07 (four years ago) link