12 Golden Country Greats

I just landed on Ween’s Last.fm radio and the first song that came on was ‘When I’m Holdin’ You’ from 12 Golden Country Greats, their stupendous country music album. You must, you really must.

grrr wordpress. i can’t embed my last.fm hank williams radio. instead, you’ll have to go here to listen.

bah.

See, when I was growing up, I didn’t know he existed. I probably blocked him out of my head; he was too country – very drawly, masculine, working class. Even with my time in the South, I associated it with sexist intolerance and racism. It wasn’t something I understood, and as I moved away from Louisiana to the West and later to the North, it was something I associated intrinsically with the South. Particularly after I left, these stereotypes persisted, probably based on the ignorance of the Americans surrounding me who’d never experienced it first-hand.

So I was pretty ignorant of Johnny Cash growing up.

When I moved to Scotland at the age of 21, I discovered an incredibly thriving country music scene – I was astounded. I probably heard about Johnny Cash for the first time in Glasgow: a place so far north it has the same latitude as Copenhagen. Incredible. But even at that point he didn’t make much of an impact; he typified my ‘country’ schema and so I only came to know his name. And maybe the title of ‘ring of fire’ because of the sniggers it brought to a particularly immature boy I was dating at the time.

Then i was on The Weakest Link. This should have been the nail in the coffin for me and JC. I was forced to answer a question about Johnny Cash – presumably because I have an American accent – and, unsurprisingly, I was utterly stumped. I’ve held a grudge ever since.

So it is with much humility that I admit that I have developed a taste for Johnny Cash. Not a love, there’s no signs of his music in my house, but my palate has become accustomed to the music, and this familiarity is breeding appreciation.

It’s awkward, that.

You can have your Shania Twains. I’ll take Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams and Dolly any day.

Every Saturday evening, 8-9pm. Yeehaw.

Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors, for example, just makes me want to cry. Or Woody Guthrie’s entire back catalogue which describes the despair of the sharecroppers in the dustbowl during the depression. Classic American tales.

I’ve also noticed a new country music distinction: trucker blues. Think The Band. The Grateful Dead. Would The Eagles fall into this category?

My goodness. It seems I don’t just like hillbilly americana.

I’m currently listening to the Hank Williams channel on Last.fm. Willie Nelson’s ‘Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys’ was just on. I do dig that one. But I don’t dig that An Evening With Willie Nelson – amongst the throngs, mind, not on your own – costs £50 a ticket. Highway robbery. Appropriate for a man who came out of the outlaw school of country in the 1970s (see what I learned?).

Also enjoying Waylon Jennings (reminds me of the 1970s and Elvis circa the Trilogy. His ‘It doesn’t matter anymore’ has a good example of what I like to refer to as ‘truckers key change’) and very much Charley Pride’s ‘I’ll be leaving alone’. Not liking Conway Twitty’s ‘Julia’. Too much synthesiser and drum machine

On this week’s Bob Ross Country, Bob interviewed a Canadian band called Great Lakes Swimmers who to me sounded more like indie than country. But then what do I know. Not a lot about country, or clearly the boundaries between musical genres.

Musical adventures people have recommended over the past week:

• Ren has recommended The Handome Family and Beyond Nashville: The Twisted Heart of Country Music.
• Sam has suggested I “start by listening to ‘Jimmy’ by Moriarty. Your life will be better afterwards.”
• Nicky thinks “Dixie Chicks rule!”

And several friends have offered to hook me up with their country-loving mates. Feel free to comment on my 2008 New Years Resolution on my Facebook page. I need all the help I can get!

This is where I’m going to document my 2008 New Year’s Resolution: to learn more about country music. I’m a relative novice to this genre; I grew up in New Orleans until I was 8 and spent my summers in Baton Rouge until I was 13 so have some exposure, but most of my US-time was spent on the West Coast or in the North and the Midwest. Now I live far away from the American South, and while there’s some country in the UK, you’ve got to look for it.

I chose this as my NYR ’cause I like to think I know about all kinds of music. Turns out, I know very little about country. Perhaps my ignorance is a result of a mistaken prejudice, or it came from a desire to be different (or a desire to fit in?) but now that I’m older I’m ready for the wave of tunes to crash over my hi-fi.

I hope you enjoy my journey, and please do help with any guidance you might be able to offer!

Aleks