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Responding to some of the music posts has made me think. To see someone post on the music of Buck Owens is such a refreshing change from the usual suspects that it made me realise how limited the personal accounts of taste is represented in these pages. Buck may not be the most sophisticated or subtle of artists but he embodies something genuinely missing in todays musical landscape. Many of the musicians that followed the recording and session dates of those proffesional country singers from that era were consumate artists. They were talented masters of their craft laboring in the shadows of name acts; but more than that is the music they produced with such evident respect and admiration for the genre. If you hear "Streets of Bakersfield" by Buck; the position of an adult standing up and accepting life while demanding his place in the lexicon is powerfull and compelling. There is implied in these songs a strength of will and integrity completely missing from poular music today. The group of american songwriters and troubadors touring the smaller venues are comprised of some very talented proponents of true americana. But they recieve little if any recognition. Folks like John Prine; Listen to the live duet with Bonnie Raitt on "Speed of The Sound Of Loneliness", I defy anyone not to be moved by that music; and "Hello in THere", or "Sam Stone"."Angels From Montgomery". Tom Russell in the album, The Long Way Around, A killer version of"The Eyes of Roberto Duran", or "Walking on The Moon", with Kathy Mattea. Iris DeMent,"Our Town" These people and many others are quietly forming a style of american music without hype or self-absorbed melodrama that speaks to the real citizens artfully and knowingly. With songs that reflect and resonate the truth of human emotion in beautiful language and music that deserves to be heard and commented on. Thats what all this audio is for. Dave Alvin,"Fourth of July", or "Abilene". Dozens more who tell our story with a singular awareness missing from the canned contrived marketed propoganda we are inundated with.
Yeah, what you said. And very well-said indeed. Ken Tucker, a media critic and observer of the music scene and author about it as well, admires Buck Owens. Tucker has been interviewed lately regarding a new book called "Kissing Bill O'Reilly, Roasting Miss Piggy." I haven't seen that yet. I'm preoccupied with with another title called "Mediated: how the media shapes your world and the way you live in it" by Thomas Zengotita. Anyone interested in the old 'medium is the message' thing will enjoy it.
MB, I don't know the work of many of the names you mention; I'll be looking into them, thanks. I do have a good John Prine-related story though. Circa December 1973 (yeah, I'm ancient) I was cramming for finals at Warsh U outside St. Louis at about one in the morning. It was my habit, while I was studying, to play music at earsplitting levels. Somehow, I had the ability to block out the noise unless and until something really, really good came on. This night, I had my cool Nikko receiver tuned to the local "underground" "album oriented rock" FM station (call letters lost in the mists of time and memory). Well, there I was, studying away, when on came a song that was so stunningly beautiful that I focused on it immediately. Now, because this FM station was very underground (and because nobody apparently wanted to advertise on it), it tended to play sets of ten or a dozen or more songs, following which the djs would mumble the list of songs played in cool pseudo-Roscoe voices. In this case, the set was particularly interminable, and I waited for what seemed like eons for the set to end so I could hear the name of the song. At last the set ended . . . and the dj went right to a commercial . . . and the commercial ended . . . and the dj went right to the next set. No play list! I called the station and, surprisingly, got the dj (who was probably the only one there, now that I think of it), who provided the answer to my question: "Sam Stone" (duh!, since the name's mentioned half a dozen times in the song), by one John Prine, P-R-I-N-E, previously unknown to me. Later that morning, I went down to the local sorry excuse for a record store, actually found the album and had it playing on my cool Technics "servo drive" (or something like that) direct drive turntable by noon. Every song proved a gem. I still have that album and listen to it regularly (although not, you will be relieved to hear, on said Technics turntable). What a great album! BTW, can you (or anyone else) tell me what on Earth is going on in "Six O'Clock News"? I think I get the drift, the diary, "C'mon baby, spend the night with me", etc., but hey, it wasn't so bad that he had to toss himself out the window, was it? e John Prine, "John Prine"
Great story E; I saw JP at a little place called My Fathers Place locally right around that time. Ran out and bought "Souveniers" and I still love that line; "It took me years; to get those souveniers, And I don't know why they slipped away from me" He is on O'Boy records now and the double live album has all the best songs in great versions. Time flies don't it?