WILLIE NELSON

For a great many years, I avoided country music like it was the plague. The thing was, in my youth the only country I was exposed to was the 60's Grand Ole Opry style, with all the sequins, cheesy orchestration, and more slide guitar in each song than anyone could possibly need on a whole album.

Thankfully, the many years I spent on the retail end of the music industry allowed me to open my pallet to a much wider variety of music. Thanks to this, I belatedly became a huge fan of the Red Headed Stranger, Mr. Willie Nelson (as well as Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, and a host of other "country" artists with a bit more teeth than that schmaltzy crap).

For those of you who, like my former self, don't pay much attention to this particular style of music, here's the quick version of the beginnings of Willie's career. He moved from his home town in Texas to Nashville in 1960, hoping to land a recording contract. Things didn't work out right away, but he did manage to land a pblishing deal, and he began getting his songs recorded by other established acts, for whom they became big hits. "Crazy", "Hello Walls", "Funny How Time Slips Away". . . all Willie's.

After writing so many hits, he did get his contract, and released a handful of albums in the aforementioned schmaltzy style that was so big at the time. In the early 70's, he became one of the founders of the "outlaw country" style. This is the period that made him a legend. Basically, from this point on he's had full creative control over his music. Yeah, he may have made a few miss-steps along the way, but damn, the man is a legend for a reason.

Here's a batch of songs you won't find on his albums:

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Willie Nelson - "Philadelphia Lawyer" (Woody Guthrie cover) From the Folkways: A Vision Shared tribute album. (buy)
Toots and the Maytals with Willie Nelson - "Still is Still Moving To Me" From Toots' album True Love. (buy)
Willie Nelson - "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana cover) Recorded live in the studio for Triple M Radio in Australia.
Willie Nelson - "Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other" (Ned Sublette cover) The story goes, Willie got a tape of Ned's version in the 80s, which he played on the tour bus for some time, before recording, and shelving, his own version. Two decades later, when Brokeback Mountain became a hit at the theaters, he finally issued his version, stating on a press release "The song's been in the closet for 20 years. The timing's right for it to come out. I'm just opening the door." This one would later be included on a compilation of Willie's tunes, but it's such a great song that I'm breaking my own rule and including it here.
Willie Nelson and Calexico - "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)" (Bob Dylan cover) From the I'm Not There soundtrack. (buy) If Willie and Calexico record together again, could they call themselves Wil-co?
Ziggy Marley with Willie Nelson - "This Train" From Ziggy's album Family Time. (buy)


I'm not going to try to list all of his work, but here's a few albums you might want to pick up:

Red Headed Stranger, 1975 (buy)
Stardust, 1978 (buy) (covers album, not my personal favorite, but it was huge)
Honeysuckle Rose, 1980 (buy) (soundtrack)
Crazy: The Demo Sessions, 2003 (buy) (his earliest recordings)
Countryman, 2005 (buy) (reggae album)
Two Men with the Blues, 2008 (buy) (Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis)
Naked Willie, 2009 (buy) (60's-era songs, remastered without the schmaltz, much like The Beatles' Let It be. . .Naked)
Lost Highway, 2009 (buy) (compilation w/ "Cowboys are Frequently. . .")

Willie is always on tour. Check out his website for dates, and get out to the shows.



In completely unrelated news, I recently had a conversation with someone who is close to Irish band The Frames. I was told that, while nothing is official yet, there has been talk of hitting the studio later this year, and touring to celebrate their 20th year together. Yippee!

GOOBER & THE PEAS

It's hard to describe the music of Goober & The Peas, unless you've had the pleasure of experiencing it for yourself. It's most often referred to as "cowpunk", and I guess that's about as accurate as you can get.

The band, led by Dan John "Goober" Miller, formed in Detroit in the late eighties. They pretty quickly became local favorites, thanks not only to the great music, but also their humorous, energetic, and messy, stage show.

While they obviously aped Hank Williams' fashion sense, they also had a bit of a Spinal Tap thing going with their drummer, "Doc". I can't really say how many Docs there were over the years, but the one most often mentioned is a guy who was only a Pea briefly, but would later change his name to Jack White and form The White Stripes.

During their time together, the band put out two full length albums, and a couple of EPs. Although everything is out of print at the moment, I'm not going to put anything up from the albums. Those can still be found in the used record stores.

The first EP was only available on vinyl for a short time, and is now downloadable for free from their website (or, now, from mine). All of the songs on the EP were later re-recorded and put on the debut album.

They also had a total of two songs on compilations. Between those two, and the six tracks from the first EP, here's nearly all the Goober rarities I've come across:

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Goober & The Peas - "Dear Grandpa" (EP version)
Goober & The Peas - "Funky Cowboy" (EP version) - one of their biggest hits
Goober & The Peas - "Druthers" (EP version) - one of my personal favorites
Goober & The Peas - "Consider Me" (EP version)
Goober & The Peas - "Hot Women (Cold Beer)" (EP version) - another big hit
Goober & The Peas - "Dear Grandpa (Reprise)" (EP version)

Goober & The Peas - "MacArthur Park" (Richard Harris cover) From 20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions! compilation.
Goober & The Peas - "Consider Me" (live) From the Live at the Hamtramck Pub compilation.

Here's the video for "Funky Cowboy", so you can get an idea of what the live show was like:



Keep an eye out for these:

The Complete Works of Goober & The Peas, 1990 (EP)
The Complete Works of Goober & The Peas, 1992
A Christmas Eve Get Together with Goober & The Peas, 1992 (EP)
The Jet-Age Genius of Goober & The Peas, 1995

These days Goober is fronting a new band, Blanche, along side his wife, Tracee. He has also appeared in a handfull of movies, most notably as Luther Perkins in Walk The Line.

For more info on the band, check out their website.

STEVE EARLE

Steve Earle has lead an interesting life, to put it mildly. He was born in Virginia and raised in various places around the US, though he's most often identified with Texas. He dropped out of school in 9th grade, in order to pursue a career in music.

It took more than ten years for him to become known as a performer - along the way he made a living writing songs for other artists, and he became friends with several other like-minded musicians including Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark.

He also had a heavy drug addiction for many years that nearly ended his career. After taking some time off in the early nineties to clean up, he came back with a vengeance, releasing his most creative, diverse, and fiercely political albums in the years that have followed.

Though he tends to be listed as a country artist, his work varies from folk to bluegrass to rockabilly, to straight-forward rock. I've also seen him referred to as "outlaw country". If you're not familiar with the term, think of it as the country boy's gangsta rap.

I had written him off as just another country act, until I heard "Copperhead Road" in the late eighties. That song lead me to buy the album, where I discovered his style was so much more broad than what I had assumed. Hell, The Pogues are his backing band for one of the tracks on that album.

Here's a batch of songs that you won't find on his albums:

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Steve Earle - "Ellis Unit One" From the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. (buy)
Steve Earle - "Open Your Window" From the Pay It Forward soundtrack. (buy) Not a movie that I would recommend to anyone (even though I'm a fan of Kevin Spacey's work), but the song is good.
Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band - "Copperhead Road" (live) A very different version than the original rocker. Released on "The Mountain" single.
Steve Earle and the Dukes - "Two Girls" (Townes Van Zandt cover) Steve's latest album is a full-length tribute to his friend, Townes, who passed away in 1997. This is an older cut from a various artist tribute called Poet, (buy) which is scheduled to be re-issued in July.
Steve and Justin Earle - "Candy Man" (Mississippi John Hurt cover) From the tribute album Avalon Blues. (buy) Steve recorded this one with his son, who has followed in dad's footsteps and put out several critically acclaimed albums himself.
Steve Earle - "Six Days On the Road" From the Plains, Trains and Automobiles soundtrack.
Steve Earle - "Walking Down Death Row" (Pete Seeger cover) From the tribute album If I Had a Song. (buy)
Steve Earle and the Dukes - "When Will We Be Married?" (live) A traditional song which was made popular in recent years thanks to The Waterboys. Recorded for a BBC broadcast in 1988.

Buy some Steve Earle:

Guitar Town, 1986 (buy remaster)
Exit 0, 1987 (buy)
Copperhead Road, 1988 (buy) (buy remaster)
The Hard Way, 1990 (buy)
Train a Commin', 1995 (buy)
I Feel Alright, 1996 (buy)
El Corazón, 1997 (buy)
The Mountain, 1999 (buy) (with the Del McCoury Band)
Transcendental Blues, 2000 (buy)
Jerusalem, 2002 (buy)
The Revolution Starts Now, 2004 (buy)
Washington Square Serenade, 2007 (buy) (buy deluxe)
Townes, 2009 (buy) (buy deluxe)

Steve is currently touring in the US & Canada, with dates around the world in the fall. Details are on his official site.

In local-ish music news, Joey Arroyo will be performing during an in-store appearance at Hoodlums in Tempe on Saturday. Details at his website, or the Hoodlums website.

k.d. lang

How's this for an extreme change from the last post. Going from the hard-edged adrenaline pumped American rock of Henry Rollins to the torch-song and twang of Canadian songstress k.d. lang.

Katherine Dawn Lang hails from Alberta, Canada. She began her career in country music there, forming a Patsy Cline tribute band called The Reclines. The Reclines quickly moved away from just being a cover band, and released their debut album, A Truly Western Experience, in 1984.

In the years since then, k.d. has gone solo, become a world-wide headliner, and taken on many different styles of music. Though still often categorized as a country act, these days she's more often singing torch songs, or jazz standards, or dance music.

Here's some of the songs that aren't on her albums:

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k.d. lang - "Golden Slumbers / The End" (Beatles covers) From the soundtrack to the kids' film Happy Feet. (buy)
Madeleine Peyroux with k.d. lang - "River" (Joni Mitchell cover) From Madeleine's album Half the Perfect World. (buy)
k.d. lang - "Miss Chatelaine" (St. Tropez mix) A dancier version than the one on the album (from Ingénue) released as a single.
k.d. lang - "Surrender" The main theme from the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
Ann Wilson with k.d. lang - "Jackson" (Lieber/Wheeler cover) Ann is the lead singer of Heart. This is from her solo album, Hope & Glory. (buy)
k.d. lang - "So In Love" (Cole Porter cover) From the benefit album Red Hot + Blue (buy), which also has covers by The Pogues, Kirsty MacColl, Sinead O'Connor, Tom Waits. . .
Tony Bennett with k.d. lang - "Keep the Faith, Baby" k.d. recorded one full album with the legendary Tony Bennett, and has made guest appearances on 3 of his other albums. This is from Playing with My Friends. (buy)

Buy some k.d. lang albums:

A Truly Western Experience, 1984 (buy) (with The Reclines)
Angel with a Lariat, 1987 (buy) (with The Reclines)
Shadowland, 1988 (buy)
Absolute Torch and Twang, 1989 (buy)
Ingénue, 1992 (buy)
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 1993 (buy) (soundtrack)
All You Can Eat, 1995 (buy)
Drag, 1997 (buy) (covers)
Invincible Summer, 2000 (buy)
A Wonderful World, 2002 (buy) (with Tony Bennett)
Hymns of the 49th Parallel, 2004 (buy) (covers)
Watershed, 2008 (buy)

Maybe someday she'll do a duet with Henry Rollins. That'd be sweet!

H08 - STEVE EARLE

Steve Earle - "Christmas In Washington" Taken from the album El Corazon. (buy) Steve has long been one of the few "country" artists that I listen to. Yeah, he's got a bit of twang to his sound, but he's also got a fiery political side and a drug-laden history. A bit like the great Johnny Cash, I guess.

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JOHNNY CASH

I’ve never been a huge fan of most country music. However, there are occasional country musicians that, for what ever reason, have struck a cord with me. Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle (though he verges on Rock) , Willie Nelson, K. D. Lang (mostly her torch songs), and a few others.

Then there is the man who, while always listed as country, is so legendary that he transcends classification. Of course, I’m referring to The Man In Black, Johnny Cash.

Johnny Cash was born in 1932, and began his recording career in1955. Once he started, he never stopped, recording more than 70 albums over the course of the next 48 years.

The last half-dozen of his releases were produced by Rick Rubin for his American Records. Johnny signed with Rubin in 1993, after being dropped from Columbia Records. In preparation for his first Rubin-produced album, he recorded several demos in Rubin’s living room. That’s where most of these are from. A few others come from later sessions. All are available on the bootlegs American Outtakes and More American Outtakes.

A note on the image - when the American records came out, the country music industry pretty much shunned them. They got virtually no airplay, and the critics barely acknowledged they existed. After winning a Grammy for best country album, Johnny and Rick took out this ad in Billboard Magazine, using an image from Johnny’s wilder days.

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Johnny Cash with Billy Gibbons - “I Witnessed A Crime”
Johnny Cash - “The Next Time I’m In Town”
Johnny Cash - “To Beat the Devil”
Johnny Cash - “Friends in California”
Johnny Cash - “Bad News”
Johnny Cash - “Don’t Sell Daddy Any More Whiskey”
Johnny Cash - “I Changed the Lock”

Johnny Cash’s American discography (hey, I don’t have the room for 70+ albums)

American Recordings, 1994 (buy)
American II: Unchained, 1996 (buy)
American III: Solitary Man, 2000 (buy)
American IV: The Man Comes Around, 2002 (buy)
Unearthed, 2003 (buy) (Box Set)
My Mother’s Hymn Book, 2004 (buy) (also issued on Unearthed)
Live at Montreux, 2005 (buy) (live DVD recorded in 1994)
American V: A Hundred Highways, 2006 (buy)