July 2005

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Twang Lives...

Filed under: Imported

"Well," I said. "All this white stuff on my sleeve is LSD."

He said nothing: Merely grabbed my arm and began sucking on it. A very gross tableau. I wondered what would happen if some Kingston Trio/young stockbroker type might wander in and catch us in the act. Fuck him, I thought. With a bit of luck, it'll ruin his life--forever thinking that just behind some narrow door in all his favorite bars, men in red Pendleton shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know. Would he dare to suck a sleeve? Probably not. Play it safe. Pretend you never saw it...

--From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson

Gregg Swedberg went to bed Sunday night, comfortable in the knowledge that his music director is too stupid to play, or even be aware of the band Drag The River. Which is the way things go in Mainstream Country Radio. The point I hammer home, ad nauseam, in this space is that Country music is many things to many people, and, comes from many strange and varied locales. When you work at a Mainstream Country Radio station, you stick your head into the sand, all the way up to your asshole, and buy the line that nothing is worth throwing on the radio unless it comes out of Nashville. Not only is Drag the River better as a band and a concept than anything coming out of Nashville right now, I'm sure they would overwhelm all those "Music City" acts with brute force, if not by smell. They drink before the show, during the show, and after the show; and like Dr. Johnny Fever, it just seems to make them stronger.

Chris Riemenschneider went to bed Sunday night, comfortable in the knowledge that Jon Bream had done a thorough cataloging of the lyrics of the last Mariah Carey album, but had never stopped to consider the 8 year odyssey of boozey road songs of regret and redemption that Chad Price and Jon Snodgrass seem to be able to churn out at will. There was a rough crowd at the Triple Rock Cafe Sunday night, and the two fisted out-state boys were shouting the words back at the band with bottles raised in the air, jumping up on-stage at roughly 2 minutes to 2, to slog through "Modern Drunkard" in perfect inebriated harmony, with guitar and pedal steel. Normally, a crowd with Asian chicks sporting tattoos in the shape of Texas, colored in with the pattern of the state flag, is Riemenschneider's gig. But, he's had enough of punk bands going country, so it's no wonder he misses the gems in the rock pile.

Ed Benson and Buddy Canon went to bed Sunday night, too fucking paranoid and stupid to give any thought whatsoever to anything but Big & Rich, and whether Faith Hill's bullshit attempt to go straight and play it twangy was going to bring the money rolling back in, now that Garth has retired to full time Dad-dom. While they spend every waking hour trying to squeeze any little bit of creativity in the genre through large product grinders with fine mesh dies, until there's nothing left but shapeless meaningless pulp that looks like the same shapeless meaningless shit they churned out last year, Drag the River charges around the country playing small clubs to rabid fans, most of whom are tangential travellers to the twang, having grown up worshipping at the altar of ALL as they charged their skateboards down the railings of the local public library. This tap into the vein of the demographic is organic and real, and their metamorphosis into Drag the River was a natural process that breeds lifelong loyalty, or repeat business...Ed.

Fuck them, I think. With a bit of luck, it'll ruin their lives--forever thinking that just behind some narrow door in all their favorite bars, men in skateboard shirts and Asian chicks with Texas tattoos are getting incredible kicks from things they'll never know.

Posted by Jack Sparks at July 26, 2005 1:43 AM

 

Away an bile yer heid

Filed under: Imported

From ESPN.com:

Colin Montgomerie shot 66, good enough to get him in the final group Saturday with Woods. But the Scotsman will start the round with four daunting strokes to make up.

He didn't even object to the premise that everyone is playing for second.

"I have to go along with that," Montgomerie said. "A lot can happen around here. But we all know if Tiger Woods plays the way Tiger Woods can play around this golf course, I'd have to agree."

Translation: Tiger Woods can eat a shit sandwich.

If this were a pro wrestling match, the announcers would be shouting, "these two men just don't like each other!"

The over-under on a piece of gamesmanship by Monty that brings out the New Zealand All Star Rugby player in Stevie and begins a succession of well-framed glares on ABC's bland coverage, is about hole 5 tomorrow. If Monty isn't in full red-faced ruddy anger by the time he gets his spikes off at the end of the round, tomorrow will be a complete waste. Get out of bed, I promise you it will be worth it. This man has acrimony against his American counterparts because of all that Ryder Cup bullshit, and, because he's never won the big one on his home turf.

I'm rooting for good TV.

Posted by Jack Sparks at July 15, 2005 4:12 PM

 

I don't need TV, when I have T. Rex...

Filed under: Imported

91. I Was Drunk, Alejandro Escovedo
There's only one Alejandro.

Throughout the first few songs of Alejandro Escovedo's set on Friday night at First Avenue, I kept thinking of David Bowie for some reason. This feeling that maybe Escovedo is the Bowie of roots rock kept weighing down on me. It's a goofy little comparison, but it just felt right. The music he allows to surround his lyrics is bendy and alien sometimes, while still feeling basic and rootsy. And his voice isn't really twangy when he sings, but it is when he talks. You get the feeling he could be anything at any time up on that stage, and each new song he played was different, but weirdly fit with the one before, as the night progressed. And Jesus, his voice...the man has Hepatitis C. You don't just take some Vitamin C and call it a bad mistake on that one. I was really worried that he'd have to limp through something up there, singing on heart and conviction, but good God was I wrong. Even if he didn't move and swagger too much, his voice crashed around the room, reintroducing himself as our weird ol' Texas spirit guide Uncle Alejandro, gone for awhile, but come back to visit. His rendition of "I Was Drunk," the 91st greatest Country Song of All Time, was outstanding, if not chilling in its desperation and tone. This is truly a masterpiece of isolation and pain, and it struck me for the first time what a brilliant move it was to never call out or record the name he's actually calling out in the song. It's all part of relating the pain and loneliness, and besides, it makes the song more universal in the end. Finally, he absolutely kicked my ass at the end, with a two song encore of "All The Young Dudes (written by Bowie--see? It wasn't just the dirty tap delirium and nausea that caused that thought)" and the Stones' "Sway."

Thu 07.21.05 Oklahoma City, OK Blue Door
Fri 07.22.05 Kansas City, MO
Sat 07.23.05 Kansas City, MO Davey's Uptown
Thu 08.04.05 Calgary, AB (CA)
Fri 08.05.05 Calgary, AB (CA) Night Gallery
Sat 08.06.05 Edmonton, AB (CA)
Sun 08.07.05 Edmonton, AB (CA) Gallagher Park w/ Edmonton Folk Festival
Fri 08.26.05 San Francisco, CA
Sat 08.27.05 San Francisco, CA 12 Galaxies
Fri 09.23.05 Austin, TX
Sat 09.24.05 Austin, TX Continental Club
Thu 09.29.05 New York, NY Irving Plaza w/ Jon Dee Graham, David Pulkingham & Matt Fish
Fri 09.30.05 Washington, DC 9:30 Club w/ Jon Dee Graham, David Pulkingham & Matt Fish
Sat 10.01.05 tba w/ Jon Dee Graham, David Pulkingham & Matt Fish
Sun 10.02.05 Philadelphia, PA Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Verizon Hall)

The people who live in the above cities are dumbasses if they don't go catch this guy's show when he comes to town. That's all we have to say about that.

Posted by Jack Sparks at July 11, 2005 3:11 PM

 

I Hate Lists part III

Filed under: Imported

As I sat under the newly arched, softwood ceilings of my favorite Minneapolis Mexican restaurant, El Mariachi, last night, enjoying my Chivo en Barbacoa, I realized that it was indeed Summer and that it was indeed time for me to vomit forth the 3rd Edition of my Top 100 Country Songs of All Time. Chivo en Barbacoa somehow roughly translates to slow roasted, spicy goat meat, and if you accompany it with frijoles refritos, a little rice, and the best shrimp cocktail in town, well gringo, it provides the fuel for the kind of feverish mind that likes to sit around and stir the Country Music pot.

Just to refresh some memories, this whole thing started 2 years ago as a sort of response, addendum, or tsk-tsking to one of the greatest pieces of Country Music literature ever written, Heartaches By the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles, By David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren. Entertaining, thoughtful, and painstakingly researched, this is one of the freshest reads you'll run into on any bookshelf. All you guys can relate when I tell you that I keep my copy right next to the crapper. It might be Number 3 on the all time pantheon list of things to read on the throne.

Anyway, lists like this always cause feedback. To wit:

Jack,
I just sat down with a six-pack of Schell's beer and the computer (there's a contradiction for you) and pored through your top 100 list. Can't say that I disagreed with any of them and I embraced many of your picks. In fact, I loaded up my MusicMatch Jukebox as soon as I read "Heart of Gold" and started spinning Neil songs like I was DJ at the Turf Club.
But I do have to whine/bitch/complain about one omission. No Neko Case? I know she's a relative newbie, but I also know you're a fan (read your interview with the Bloodshot exec on your site) and held out hope as the list scrolled that I'd see "Set out Running" or "The Virginian" or damn near anything else she's belted out over the years. I'm listening to "Canadian Amp" right now and just got chills up and down the old backbone hearing her cover "Alone and Forsaken." It could be the fourth Schell's, but I doubt it.
Love your work, keep fighting the good fight and all that.
PD
Minneapolis
p.s. Think anybody at K102 would pass a word-association test if you said "Van Lear Rose" to them? They'd probably think it's some damn flower in Faith Hill's hair at the last CMA banquet. The fuckers.

What no Gram Parsons? Where does Return of the Grievous Angel fall if it's not in the top 100?!?
DEC

Jack,
Excellent list. Except you go all the way to #82 before you get to a Townes Van Zandt song; and then you don�t go with �If I Needed You�. And where the hell is �Wichita Lineman�? For shame. Otherwise excellent (if slightly flawed) list.
JN

Down here in Oklahoma I get to thinking 'the lights are out' but then I came across your list and 'hello' there is hope, was especially gratified to see Terry Allen. In fact am driving to Ft Worth on the 19th to see him in person for the second time. The man doesn't tour much.
Keep up the good work.
PW

I was surprised that you didn't list one of David Allan Coe's song particularly his ode to Hank Williams, "Ride". And for the record, I am unfortunately a glutton for Pure Prairie League and "Amy". Can't think of another song that I love to sing along too...
other than that...loved your list.
MD

That's a great list. Gotta believe, though , that Lone Justice's "Don't Toss Us Away" is missing only because you are not familiar with the song. One listen (or a hundred) and you will add it to the list.
JMS

Jack,
Looking at last year�s list, which is a great list, there were a couple of songs I thought might be there but weren�t. If they are there and I missed them, I apologize.
London Homesick Blues � I only saw �Up Against the Wall� on there by JJW. I think that �London� and perhaps �Jaded Lover� rank higher for me on his list.
The Road Goes On Forever � I love Gringo Honeymoon as well and I suppose that �Road� is a cliché among REK fans but I gotta say that everyone who I play this song for goes insane. I�m going to see REK Sunday at some Indian casino picnic ground north of San Francisco on Sunday. I�m hoping for a good time!
Thanks again for the entertaining reading.
BB

Jack,
I don't just sound like Jimmy Buffet, I AM Jimmy Buffet, and I got one sexy tractor
Kenny C

Jack,
C'mon, Love us! We're edgy, we put a black guy and a midget in the act just like Kid Rock, just like Warner Brothers records told us to do. C'mon fella. Get on board the peace and love train and join the Muzik Mafia. We're really alternative man. I mean, I know one of us wears designer clothes the other a cowboy hat, just like Brooks & Dunn, Montgomery Gentry, Trick Pony, and Wham! But really, we're DIFFERENT! Love us!
B & R

As you can see, when you comment on Country Music, the responses come fast and furious, from all corners of the globe. Luckily, being a heavy hitter, I'm immune from criticism, or even accuracy. That being said, the criteria for this list is pretty simple: the song has to kick some ass. But, with that in mind, realize that there are country songs out there that I might think are number 142, so if they aren't on this list, it just means they didn't make my Top 100. As you can see, I do read my email, so if you have a Top 100, send it to me, I'm always interested in other folks' thoughts on the subject. Without further ado...

Top 100, 2003, Edition 1

Top 100, 2004, Edition 2

Jack's Top 100 Country Songs of All Time
1. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hank
2. Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny
3. Love's Gonna Live Here, Buck Owens
I'm going to do things a little differently this year, because I can. For my money, 3 men irreversibly changed the genre. Hank Williams modernized it. Johnny Cash personalized it. And Buck Owens electrified it. If there were cute graphics and org charts and crap like that associated with this list, these 3 men would be at the top, and everyone else would be flowing out from under them, with sharp cutbacks and squiggly lines in between. That's not to say that I'm ignoring everything that came before them in a chronological sense; rather, I think these 3 men did more to shape and finely tune what we think of as country music than most of the stuff that came before them. So if you have your banjo in the back of your Honda Hybrid on your way to the bluegrass festival, don't send me an angry email about all the hillbilly jugband stuff, I don't think I'm making all that outlandish of a statement. As for the songs themselves, they embody 3 very different themes and stories in the Genre. Williams' song is the ultimate pastoral cry of isolationism in a post-WWII overly industrialized world; Johnny's song is the ultimate song of personal suffering and regret; and Buck's song is the kind of misery-laced, in-your-face dance number that made honkytonks blossom like wildflowers for a short time in this country.
4. Walking the Floor Over You, Ernest Tubb
This is a terribly desperate song, which belies it's soft sweet recording. It's a beautiful example of a simple idea, made more complex through a highly skilled recording. Tubb was literally walking the floor over his wife who had temporarily walked out on him.
5. Crazy, Patsy Cline
I moved this song way up this year. Patsy Cline's recording is certainly a home run, but the song itself deserves this high of a ranking. Willie hit the bull's eye 3 times in 1961 with 3 of the most important and beautiful songs ever written in any genre. "Crazy" is such a little throwaway lyrical idea, too, very sparse and simple. But the multilayered recording makes it explode and seer your noodle with the pain and regret of the author. Unless something has changed recently, this is far and away the most played song on Jukeboxes in the history of America.
6. Dead Flowers, Rolling Stones
A lot of people in Country Music did booze and pills and heroin. So there ought to be a song in the Top 10 about that. Five honkies from England put the tonk back in things.
7. Together Again, Emmylou Harris
I don't know if my metaphor holds, but Emmylou has a kind of musical Virgin Mary quality to her when it comes to Country. Luxury Liner, Elite Hotel, Pieces of the Sky, these records helped SAVE country music during a very strange period; they held their own against the first ripples of a growing tide of commercialism, and have served as beacons for anyone seeking a source of inspiration for some authenticity and meaning in what they're doing...in other words Kenny and Shania have never listened to them.
8. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again), Tompall Glaser & the Glaser Brothers
Here's another one I moved way up, mostly because of the song. This is an amazing poem, thick with well used language and beautifully rendered in a chorus of Marty Robbins-esque vocals by the Glaser Brothers. If you put a gun to my head, I would tell you this is my favorite Country Song of all time.
9. Portland, Oregon, Loretta Lynn
Garth Brooks got out because he had too much money, his former marriages was in a shambles, his kids didn't know him, and there were probably days when he didn't know himself; but I also like to think that he got out on some level because he saw cannons like this pointed at the side of his boat. After Cash and Rubin created the masterpiece that was the first American Recording, it was only a matter of time before a few more classic-current hookups happened that produced fireworks. In five years, Van Lear Rose is going to be on everybody's list of all time greats, especially if clowns like Gregg Swedberg aren't just talking out of their asses about going after the suburban housewife as Country's core demographic. Loretta has always been the Country Joan of Arc for the modern housewife, true to her man and family, but not afraid to take a swing at the son-of-a-bitch, or the whore that led him astray, if she has to. This tune with its bombastic guitars and rhythm, and deceptively tame storyline, re-serves the notice that Loretta laid on everybody a little less than 40 years ago: mamma just ain't to be fucked with.
10. Blue Suede Shoes, Carl Perkins
Mystery Train aside, people really DO get into shouting matches about Carl Perkins. He's one of the first guys to take one for the team on a personal fame level, even though he probably had more talent in his pinky than about 90% of everybody he ever worked with. There are probably only 3,459,286 recordings of Blue Suede shoes out there, but, his is the only one where the guy singing it really means it, every word of it. This is a sweaty, bloody song, and it's Perkins' sweat and blood on it.
11. That'll Be the Day, Buddy Holly & the Crickets
It's hard to believe that West Texas Mysticism is best embodied by a skinny kid in a dark suit and horn-rimmed glasses, but that's just the way things are. You have to go sit in an old beatup truck at a gas pump at a station in Lubbock to truly appreciate what an absolute freak this man and everything he did truly were.
12. It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, Kitty Wells/The Wild Side of Life, Hank Thompson/Great Speckle Bird, Roy Acuff
13. Lovesick Blues, Emmitt Miller
Every list like this needs to meaty historic bullshit in it. There are some east coast jazz snobs who think all of country music is just one song re-recorded 6 million different ways. They point to 11 and 12 as their proof. Midwest and Deep South Country snobs point to 11 and 12 as the primordial veritas of Country in American history.
14. Help Me Make It Through the Night, Sammi Smith
Read what Cantwell and Friskics-Warren wrote about this song as they ranked it Number 1 all time. It's hard to add much to that, besides the fact that I like Willie Nelson's recording much better. Kristofferson, if he was anything, for a few years at least, he was the Country voice of the social and sexual revolution in America.
15. Knoxville Girl, The Louvin Brothers
He takes the woman he loves down to the river and kills her ass, and they sang it in soaring two party harmony, and roughly 3 gazillion people cover each year at State Fairs and folk festivals around the world.
16. Blue Eyes, International Submarine Band
The source of alt country has always been the competing stream of young people who stayed dialed into edgy rock and/or roll while picking their little hearts out to their favorite old timey records. The pioneer of this ethos was Gram Parsons, and "Blue Eyes" is the signature tune of a disaffected and disenfranchised, yet happy culture of hillbillies who picked it out their own way on their own terms.
17. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Bob Dylan
Dylan this, Dylan that, yada yada yada.
18. Screen Door, Uncle Tupelo
We had about 9 years in there when we all had jobs and mountain bikes and a cold case of beer in the fridge. Everybody had a little more respect for each other and their differences, and there wasn't some bobble-headed puppet in a suit telling everybody what was right and what was wrong. Then all hell broke loose on or about Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. Oh well.
19. This Land is Your Land, Woodie Guthrie
We had about 9 years in there when we all had jobs and mountain bikes and a cold case of beer in the fridge. Everybody had a little more respect for each other and their differences, and there wasn't some bobble-headed puppet in a suit telling everybody what was right and what was wrong. Then all hell broke loose on or about Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. Oh well.
20. Blue Yodel (T for Texas), Jimmie Rodgers
The singin' brakeman, yada yada yada.
21. He Stopped Loving Her Today, George Jones
What I really love about Nashville is things like the tribute to George Jones on PBS a while ago, where all the little shits trotted out and told the man to his face how much they loved him and appreciated his music and how much it inspired them, then promptly sang everything reading the lyrics off of teleprompters. What bullshit. You're telling me you can't remember the lyrics to this song? "He said, 'I'll love you, til I die...'" This song ought to make you feel uncomfortable about your own mortality and make you screw the cap off of a GOOD bottle of wine and climb into it, never to return. Give me the lawn mower keys baby, I'm drivin' to town.
22. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, Willie
Nashville STILL hasn't figured out what to do with this recording. It's STILL treated like a great big anomaly. Five million copies, scratching their heads...
23. Hello Walls, Faron Young
A pristine example of why jazz singers dig Willie, his poppy Blues hillbilly schtick that translates across all borders. Young's lunch-pail vocal adds just the right everyman quality this song needs.
24. Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash
June loves Johnny, yada yada yada.
25. Coat of Many Colors, Dolly
I vacillate on Dolly. On the one hand, you have one of the most important songwriters fo the 20th Century, especially from the feminine viewpoint. On the other, you have one the biggest preachers of the cult of "Success," akin to an Amway salesman, on the level where as long as YOU'RE happy and YOU'RE making money, nothing else matters. I'm oversimplifying things to make a point, obviously, but a lot of these phoney baloney Barbie Dolls singing about disabled kids and mascara in Country these days chant the mantra of Dolly like it washes them of all their sins, when the very obvious counter is that they haven't plumbed any of the depths her songwriting has. Whatever.
26. Stand By Your Man, Tammy Wynette
Burning bras, peace, love, dope, women's shelter, yada yada yada.
27. Sing Me Back Home/Mama Tried, Merle Haggard
You know I took Bruce Springsteen out of this year's list because something was bothering me and I figured out that he and Merle represent a lot of the same things in American music. When you see the two of them do it, you can imagine yourself doing, singing the same words about the same stuff. They represent us, whoever we are; you just get the feeling they'd blend in in your backyard barbecue. Bruce doesn't belong in a Country list, Merle does. Merle is Country's Bruce, Bruce is Rock's Merle. These are big epic tunes of simple men gone wrong bemoaning their loss of place in life's line, not at the front, not at the back, somewhere in the middle.
28. Husbands and Wives, Roger Miller
Roger Miller was so damned genius he could repeat two phrases twice, wrap it in some music, and blow your head off:

Two people lonely
Lookin' like houses
Where nobody lives

Blam! Just stop and paint that picture in your head. Nine words! Nine words!
29. Lookin' Out My Back Door, CCR
I first heard this song as a kid when my oldest brother would play it for me on his record player. Everything it meant to me then always comes flooding back over me when Dude gets his car back in "The Big Lebowski." The Cohen Brothers should be given a medal for that scene.
30. El Paso, Marty Robbins
This isn't a country song, it's an aria in the middle of an opera written by Verdi or some other dead Italian guy. The three greatest male voices in Country Music history were/are Ken Curtis (aka Festus), Larry Gatlin, and Marty Robbins. I'm not joking when I tell you if this song comes on my radio on a warm summer day when I'm tooling down the highway in my little pickup, I damn near drive off the road, howling at the passing traffic. Think about that cowboy singing "I, Pagliacci" at the cows in those old Texaco/Metropolitan Opera commercials.
31. Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin
Recorded just before she died, the first time Kristofferson heard it, he started to cry and told the guys in the studio, "she did that to me on purpose."
32. There Stands the Glass, Webb Pierce
33. Always Late (with Your Kisses), Lefty Frizzell
You don't have to listen to a whole lot of Pierce and Frizzell music before you realize that country has ALWAYS been about boozin' and fuckin'.
34. I've Got a Tiger By the Tail, Buck Owens
One of Country's greatest failings of the last 40 years or so is that Nashville has never had an answer for the combination of Buck, Don Rich and Doyle Holly when they were tuned up and plugged in and pouring kerosene all over everything. As loud and as fast as you want it. It's kind of like, no matter what Metallica does, Led Zeppelin still did it just as loud and creepy as anybody wanted it. The difference is, there hasn't been a Metallica for Country.
35. Good Hearted Woman, Waylon Jennings
(imagine you're standing in some 3 acre sized bar outside of a minor Texas city, blue jeans and boots soaked in beer, peanuts, and vomit, shouting over the music) "Man!.....shit....Waylon....fuck...Man...fuckin-A man...fuckin' A Waylon..."
36. Your Cheatin' Heart, Hank Williams
My favorite story from the American Masters bit on PBS was the story where Hank was laid up in his bed because of his back and he was getting drunk and shooting a pistol randomly out into the house. It's the kind of story I carry around in my pocket so I can bristle when some Nashville shit heel reminds me that it's a business. "Music is a business," they say. Yeah, I know you now.
37. I Never Go Around Mirrors, Lefty Frizzell
I just love this song. The ultimate Country self-deprecation song.
38. When You Say Nothing At All, Alison Krauss & Union Station
The reason Alison and Union Station get standing ovations when they perform at all the awards shows these days is because they're better than everyone else there.
39. Windfall, Son Volt
Number 38. Here's where I make my point about all this phoney baloney shit that I do on here and on the radio. Right now, the money grubbing losers in Nashville are trying to sell us a bill of goods called Big & Rich under the guise of the whole thing being an edge to embrace the edginess of hip-hop, punk, grunge, whatever. It's all pretty sad and ad hoc, mind you, but it's an attempt nonetheless. The point is, they had a very natural and organic opportunity back in the 90's with the music of Jay Farrar in both Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. The man was and is a real bridge between the musical types and cultural phenomena, and they flat out fart-fuck missed it.
40. Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine, Tom T. Hall
I'm going to quote myself from last year, I can't do any better:

39. Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine, Tom T. Hall
About five minutes after I posted the last bit of the list, last year, I was fucking embarrassed by the dearth of words on Tom T. Hall. He's another one of those artists who's enjoying a renaissance of his work right now, and the chief reason is the bedrock truth and reality to the things that he wrote. I've written about this part of Country music that's been lost by pursuit of demographics and meaningless record sales, but it's a simple idea: unique experiences, when written about thoughtfully, evoke common experiences, that play to common emotions. I don't know shit about old dogs, I hate children, and I've never drank watermelon wine, but somehow, I know exactly what he's singing about. Fuck you Kenny Chesney.

41. The Ghosts of Hallelujah, The Gourds
I put this here last year as a big middle finger to tradition and the old guard. I think something they've done has to go somewhere on this list. They get labelled as a jam band all the time, which really chaps my ass. I defy you to find albums full of 18 minute mandolin fugues in any part of their catalogue. This is a beautiful, up-tempo, hillbilly, faith song of sorts. Hallelujah brother!
42. Great Balls of Fire, Jerry Lee Lewis
Pure, unadulterated, devil music. Hallelujah brother!
43. Illegal Smile, John Prine
John Prine is probably the King of indirect mention on this list. There's probably 20+ places on this list where his direct influence is part of the song listed.
44. You're Still On My Mind, Byrds
Another close call where Country could have embraced something a little different and simply didn't.
45. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town, Kenny Rogers and New Edition
I think it's a rule, or a law, or an actual Amendment to the United States Consitution, that you have to sing this at top volume, drunk, somewhere. You don't just flip this on at a Sunday brunch or Wednesday afternoon tea party, say.
46. Pick Me Up On Your Way Down, Charlie Walker
I think this is the best honkytonk dance song ever. Charlie Walker is vastly underrated as a singer.
47. Up Against the Wall Redneck (Mother), Jerry Jeff Walker
Hillbilly hippies cling viciously to their visions of the man from upstate New York who reinvented himself as a Texas Hobo singer. As such, their favorite song is always his best song. I have a great weakness for most of the performances on Viva Terlingua, but I just don't know how you say anything he's ever done is better than this performance. Maybe better is the wrong word; maybe imprinted on the genre's conscience is the proper phrase. He wrote "Mr. Bojangles," but I'm fairly certain that he spent the next twenty years of trying to perform it by falling off the stage into the front row. This is a song one can sing drunk.
48. If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time, Lefty Frizzell
We'll go honkytonkin' and we'll have a time, bring along your Cadillac, leave my old wreck behind, if you've got the money honey, I've got the time.
49. Galveston, Glen Campbell
HERE is a GREAT example where Country embraced something different. Desert southwest psychedelia, cleverly masked in the songs of Jimmy Webb, peformed by a hillbilly guitarist by way of Los Angeles. Give it to me baby. See, what I'm talking about all gets back to a seemingly disconnected place: Nat King Cole recording "Nature Boy." It was a massive gamble and a crazy overlap, but hey, we're all smart people, we can handle a little musical stimulation, give it to us!
50. Heart of Gold, Neil Young
The first grunge album, a fantastic Country record, a beautiful song. I love the chord crescendo married to the harmonica.
51. Me and Billy the Kid, Joe Ely
It was just my way of gettin' even, with the man who shot my horse. August fucking 10th baby, August fucking 10th!
52. I Ain't Never, Webb Pierce
My friends ask the thunder what's wrong with me.
53. Hey Good Lookin', Hank Williams
Let me tell you something, the girl in this song gets nailed in the end. I hate being crude adn sexual sometimes, but Lord all Friday, if the shoe fits. This is the wolf in Chuck Jones' "Little Bad Riding Hood" getting lucky.
54. Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford
Country Music is filled with this Saturday afternoon Walt Disney Cowboy puppet shit about coal mines and rootin' and tootin' all sung in an almost omniscient baritone. This song has a sort of gritty realism that sets it apart, but be careful you don't divorce it from the pile of bullshit underneath.
55. Sing a Sad Song, Merle Haggard
This song should bring a tear to your eye. If you can get a hold of a live version, it will.
56. Flowers on the Wall, Statler Brothers
I swear to God this song got recorded and on the radio before anyone knew what it was about. This song would NEVER get made today, especially by the Statler Brothers.
57. Absolutely Sweet Marie, Jason and the Scorchers
Another opportunity missed. What's the count at now? Three, four?
58. Postcard, Uncle Tupelo
This song really describes some of the simmering aimlessness in my age group. Confusion and sensory overload, intertwined with loud, grungy guitars and ethereal pedal steel.
59. Lyin' Eyes, Eagles
And yer smiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile is a thin disguise...c'mon, we all like the Eagles. It's okay.
60. Farewell Party, Gene Watson
The ultimate Country self-pity song.
61. Detroit City, Bobby Bare
I don't say much in this blog at the end of the day, but Bobby Bare's kid really made me consider a theory. If we kooky, hipster, doofus alt country kids are anything, we're the children of the men who by day made the cars, and by night, made the bars.
62. Before the Next Teardrop Falls, Freddy Fender
I think pure immigration numbers, and inroads by acts like Los Lobos and the combo group Los Super Seven is going to inject a whole of Tejano and Conjunto into the Country into the coming years. So Big & Rich are probably going to have to switch their midget to a Mexican one at some point. Freddy Fender is a GIANT of American music, if for no other reason than he was always just Freddy doing Freddy stuff. The best part of this song is the Spanish language part. He feels more comfortable singing those words and they're the ones that get you in the gut.
63. Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn
Do you get that Loretta Lynn represents everything that is strong and real about women in this world and that all that shit coming out of Nashville represents just that, a bunch of shit? Lewis Grizzard wrote reams about how it's okay to ogle the "flat-bellies," but at some point, they just weren't real anymore, but somehow we all forgot that.
64. Suspicious Minds, Elvis Presley
There's no denying Elvis a spot somewhere on this list. I think we all hold hands and hold our breath that this was his truest and purest Country moment. I can live with that.
65. Behind Closed Doors, Charlie Rich
If you don't like this song, there's no hope for you.
66. Concrete and Barbed Wire, Lucinda Williams
You just have to get to that first "konkreet and barb'd wore" to get it.
67. Oh Yeah, Poco
A destroyed opportunity. I can't for the life of me understand what happened here. So much promise, so much waste. Oh well. Stay with the early stuff.
68. La Despedida, Terry Allen
This album changed the way I look at Country music. There's no reason to compromise with those dogs from Nashville. We don't need their shallow lies about change and innovation and this and that. It's all blah blah blah when you listen to shit like Kenny Chesney, then get yourself a heavy dose of Terry Allen.
69. Pocket Full of Gold, Vince Gill
Vince Gill is one of those Nashville guys who gets a pass because he can write, he can sing and he can choke the shit out of a guitar. And, he made the very honorable move of getting the hell off of that CMA Awards Show.
70. Hands on the Wheel, Wille Nelson
"...and fishin' for whales..." A mystery to Nashville still.
71. If We Make It Through December, Merle Haggard
I'm pretty dumb. I never really thought about this as a Christmas song until I started hanging around my friends in Trailer Trash, but it really is. It's a fantastic example of fear and hope.
72. Kiss An Angel Good Mornin, Charlie Pride
Charlie Pride is no less important than Jackie Robinson or Rosa Parks. He took great risks and bore a great burden. This song is simply fantastic from start to finish. If you aren't shaking your ass at the end, you're dead.
73. Lucille, Kenny Rogers
In a bar in Toledo, across from the depot. You know it, go on.
74. Tear-Stained Eye, Son Volt
Jay Farrar, yada yada yada.
75. Guitar Town, Steve Earle
Here's a situation where Nashville actually did try to embrace something a little different, and the vehicle let them down. That's not to say that Steve Earle didn't produce exciting and vibrant music when given the opportunity. But, had he lived just a slightly cleaner lifestyle, he might have kicked up some real dust.
76. One Road More, The Flatlanders
Just a good hippy country song. Embrace it man, embrace it.
77. Hot Burrito #1, Flying Burrito Brothers
Gram Parsons, yada yada yada.
78. Uneasy Rider, Charlie Daniels Band
I reached out and kicked ol' Green Teeth right in the knees. I think I wrote before that it's amazing how different Charlie Daniels appears to be from this version of himself. Oh well.
79. Amarillo By Morning, George Strait
This is a real goddamned rodeo song.
80. I've Been To Georgia on a Fast Train, Billy Joe Shaver
Thank God for Billy Joe Shaver. He belongs in his own Hall of Fame.
81. White Freightliner Blues, Townes Van Zandt
Everybody in Country Music spent 30-some years saying how great Van Zandt was without ever really giving him a genuine opportunity at the big time. Then he was dead.
82. Elmo Lincoln, Jack Ingram
A fantastic bit of storytelling.
83. I've Always Been Crazy, Waylon Jennings
Waylon's ultimate song of flawed indifference.
84. Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts), BR5-49
Another opportunity missed, then recaptured, then fucked up.
85. Drive (For Daddy Gene), Alan Jackson
Here's a great example of what Country music does well. It takes a simple idea and builds a complex web around it, then leaves you with nothing more than an after-taste of that simplicity.
86. Laredo Rose, Texas Tornados

Crumpled bills on the dresser
Father confessor
Knows the wages of sin

87. El Cerrito Place, Charlie Robison
Charlie hit the ball out of the park on his latest album with this song. It's everything "My Hometown" was, with about ten more layers. He might be the most underrated Country songwriter living today.
88. Lucille, Fred Eaglesmith
Convert to the religion of FRED.
89. Indianapolis, Bottle Rockets
Boy, did I ever get some shit for criticizing the Bottle Rockets recently. This is one of the greatest Country songs ever. It speaks of desperation and cars and roads and America and it's fantastic.
90. Gringo Honeymoon, Robert Earl Keen
There's only one REK.
91. I Was Drunk, Alejandro Escovedo
There's only one Alejandro.
92. Passenger Side, Wilco
More of that aimlessness of Generation X going on here. Brilliant.
93. La Grange, ZZ Top
I've never been sure what to think of ZZ Top. You just know deep down inside that there was a period of time when being around these guys was a serious of life or death decisions.
94. Amos Moses, Jerry Reed
Any song that has "alligator bait" in it gets my vote.
95. Good-Bye, Good Lookin', Robbie Fulks
Another opportunity missed, number 6? Fulks' virtuosity and irreverance could have added so much.
96. Amy, Pure Prairie League
I'm going with the email above. Bustin' Out was a fantastic album and there's a blinding combination of lyrical and musical talent on this song.
97. Backsliders Wine, Michael Martin Murphy
I've rediscovered this tune in the last year or so. What a great song about booze and regret.
98. Tampa To Tulsa, The Jayhawks
A terrific terrific tune.
99. Where the Devil Don't Stay, Drive By Truckers
Hopefully, this is a song that serves notice that things are going to change soon. This is all the bombast of Lynyrd Skynyrd, coupled with the thoughtfulness of Waylon, Willie, and Tompall.
100. Play a Train Song, Todd Snider
The greatest song about trains that's not about trains ever recorded.

Posted by Jack Sparks at July 7, 2005 8:34 PM

 

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