#Jimmie Rodgers

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

1957

[countryhixes]

Jimmie Rodgers - Waiting for a Train/Daddy andHome/BlueYodel

[krispyweiss]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day Three, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 6, 2024

The good folks who put on Hardly Strictly Bluegrass created an epic conundrum of good musical fortune by booking the Wood Brothers, the Infamous Stringdusters and Emmylou Harris in simultaneous, festival-closing slots. This, of course, created high anxiety as all three acts are high on any music lover’s gotta-hear list.

But more on that later. Because first, Miko Marks began the day at the Rooster stage with some Sunday soul music before 93-year-old Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, accompanied by mandolin and bass, came out yodeling on Jimmie Rodgers’ “Waiting for a Rain.” He then dug into Woody Guthrie’s “The 1913 Massacre,” got a bit uptempo on “The Cuckoo” and nodded to the Hardly Strictly atmosphere of a super-heated Golden Gate Park (on Oct. 6!) with Jesse Fuller’s “San Francisco Bay Blues.” Between numbers, Elliott regaled the squeezed-into-shady-areas fans with tales from 70 years of music making. Steve Earle then emerged to tell an overly long story over soft picking leaving Elliott to try, unsuccessfully, to get a word in as time ran down on his 40-minute allotment.

So … off to the Banjo stage where Tony Trischka’s Earl Jam was finishing “Brown’s Ferry Blues” and launching into “Lady Madonna” - strictly bluegrass style. Brittany Haas, who would appear later with Aoife O’Donovan and Hawktail, then entered the fray for double fiddling with Shad Cobb on “You Got to Die,” and putting the blues in the grass.

Peter Case, Teddy Thompson, Melissa Carper and Carsie Blanton hit the Rooster next for a Songwriter’s Circle/guitar pull with truth as the refreshing theme. A delightful exercise in the power of folk music.

But there was also blues at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass because: “If you don’t like the blues, you probably don’t like your mama.”

So said Bobby Rush on the Banjo, where the 91-year-old - “If I’m not the oldest, I’m the ugliest,” he cracked - and his big band got down and dirty in flashy sequins as they spanned 70 years of Rush originals and covers like “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Rush blew harp with the lungs of a young man, danced around the stage with the body of a young man and rapped like the OG he is, proving yet again the magic of music - even when you’re singing of your woman leaving you “for the damn garbage man.”

After a public soundcheck that signaled sublimity to come, O’Donovan, Hawktail and the San Francisco Girls Chorus - who joined one-third of the way through the 60-minute set - spanned O’Donovan’s solo discography rearranged to fit Hawktail’s musical tapestry woven of classical, jazz and bluegrass. The Chorus voices soared across Golden Gate as O’Donovan led them through songs about the battle to pass the 19th Amendment from All My Friends.

It was a stirring performance that provided some hope in an era that sometimes feels hopeless and earned a standing ovation from the Banjo stage listeners.

Down the road at Towers of Gold, Patti Smith played to a crowd so humongous people were turned away to listen to her cover Bob Dylan’s “Man in the Long Black Coat” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” read poetry and and play such songs as “Cash” and “People Have the Power” at the adjacent Swan stage, which was also rammed with festivalgoers, where the Wood Brothers were to play next and Smith’s set benefitted from stellar sound piped in from next door.

Even from behind the Towers, Smith’s performance was deeply affecting - a penetrating mix of soft-edged emotion and hard-edged aggression.

“Use your voice,” she said after using hers for 65 minutes and fans on both sides of the stage exploded in applause when she finished her gig.

Now to address the daylong conundrum, splitting up three must-see acts.

And so it transpired that Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites caught the Woods (Hardly) playing “Little Bit Broken,” “Tried and Tempted,” “Pilgram” and “A Little Bit Sweet;” the ’Dusters (Strictly) on “Gravity” and “Rise Sun” at the Rooster; and Harris’ (country, not Bluegrass) homestretch at the Banjo, which included a rambunctious “Luxury Liner” and a mournful “Together Again.”

And then it was over …

Read Sound Bites’ coverage of Day One and Day Two at the hyperlinks.

10/7/24

[cbjustmusic]

Billy Strings performing “Miss the Mississippi and You”, a song Jimmie Rodgers recorded in 1932. _____________________ Miss the Mississippi and You Songwriter: Bill Halley

I'm growing tired of the big cities' lights, Tired of the glamour, and tired of the sights. In all my dreams I'm roaming once more, Down to my home on the old river shore. I am sad and weary, Far away from home, Miss the mississippi and you, dear. Days are dark and dreary, Everywhere I roam, Miss the mississippi and you. Rolling the wide world over, Always alone and blue, blue. Nothing seems to cheer me Under heaven's dome, Miss the mississippi, and you. (Yodel) Memories are bringing Happy days of you're Miss the mississippi and you. Mockingbirds are ringing around the cabin door Miss the mississippi and you. Rolling the whole world over Always alone and blue, so blue. Longing for my homeland Muddy water shore, Miss the mississippi, and you. (Yodel)

[dearyallfrommatt]

“In The Jailhouse Now”

Jimmie Rodgers cover by Steve Earle & The V-Roys

[desertsquiet]

For some reason hearing him sing Jimmie Rodgers always moves me and makes me even happier than hearing him sing Hank Williams. It’s that feeling of something cosmic aligning, something much bigger than individual artists but only those few select artists can really channel it into existence to the extent where you can feel it so strongly. And no one carries it more seamlessly or gracefully than Townes.

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 16th January

After a cracking start, we've got to our first multi-song week of 1958, and our first week with multiple versions of the same song. Thankfully, it's a fun bunch...

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Jimmie Rodgers (peaked at Number 7)

Jimmie Rodgers, in my head, was a country artist, but it turns out I'm confusing him with a different Jimmie Rodgers, who was a pioneering country artist, but who died in 1931. This Jimmie Rodgers was only born then. Which isn't at all confusing.

Still, while this song isn't the country number I quite expected, there are some folksy influences to it, and it's apparently based on the tune of an Irish folk song, An droimfhionn donn dilís, in which the country of Ireland is poetically compared to handsome brown cow. This song became known as Droimeann Donn, and then imported to the US as Drimmin Down, and its in this form that the blues artist Lead Belly picked it up, adding a bit more rhythm. The tune of this version gets picked up by the Weavers, whose version then gets covered by Jimmie Rodgers, but with different lyrics entirely. So it's quite roundabout, but there is a solid folk basis to this song, and overall, the vibe's not dissimilar to Sixteen Tons, or some other more American folk songs of the era, completely with a strummy bit of acoustic guitar and a lot of handclapping. It's a very appealing mix of things.

Lyrically, like I've said, we've completely lost all reference to handsome brown cows, and it's become a song about a man who bags himself a woman who has kisses sweeter than wine. So sweet are her kisses that he keeps accidentally progessing their relationship. So he asks her to marry him, and then whoops! Oh Lord, well she gave me her hand. They end up building up a life and a farm, and then whoops! Oh Lord, I was the father of twins. They end up with four kids, who all get married again and then whoops! Oh, Lord, the grandfather of eight! and then finally he gets to the end of his life and muses on how he'd do it all again. It's cute, and a fun gimmick, and by the end of it you're singing along to the little jaunt whoops!

The whole thing's also got these deep-voiced 1950s backing singers, just repeating lines like sweeter than wine, and clapping along gamely, only to drop out for the whoops! It's effective, in a fun, folksy way - good job, Jimmie!

Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly and the Crickets (6)

Another Buddy Holly number, and it's got all the hallmarks - that slightly nerdy, hiccupy voice, that guitar work and a sort of charmingly DIY, homemade vibe. It's good stuff, though listening to it, it doesn't actually do anything too wild. Instead, it's a song that's all just about layering up sounds and creating a specific atmosphere.

Lyrically, for example, it's beyond straightforward. We don't go for anything much more than just I love you, Peggy Sue. Seriously, that's probably the most complex lyric in the whole thing, it's literally 90% Buddy repeating Peggy's name. And this isn't a problem, but yeah, it's definitely a track that's much more about what the instruments are doing, with the lyrics as a sort of extra bit of texture, Buddy's distinctively reedy, hiccupy voice just becoming another instrument in the mix.

So what instruments do we get here? Well, we've got a strummy guitar that basically just changes from one chord and then back to another from one bar to the next, in a repeating three-chord pattern, and we've got some drums that keep up a steady stream of paradiddles througout (a real term for a type rhythm that I learnt when looking up stuff about this track!) The drums are interesting, because they sound like they've been recorded from a distance, but with a heavy amount of echo on them, like somebody's playing them down a hallway from you - it's a fun, slightly thundery vibe.

The drums and guitar together make for a really simple, stable groove that you can keep up for a whole song without needing a whole lot of variation. And that's exactly what the Crickets do, here. It actually felt really familiar on the first listen through - immediately, Unbelievers by Vampire Weekend sprang to mind, but I bet if I was specifically listening, I'd find this exact same sound elsewhere, precisely because it's so straightforward and versatile. Still, it needs something to break it up - and just when you're thinking that, we get an electric guitar solo. Just like the drums, there's something a bit DIY to this. It's not a polished solo, or a particularly complex one, and the sound's choppy and rough. All of which adds to the "teens in their basement" charm of this song - it feels like something that sounds good, but that you and your mates could achievably play together, not some unattainable virtuoso thing. Which I think is a good part of the appeal, here. It's not a song I love deeply, but I can see the charm, you know?

Peggy Sue, if you're wondering, was the drummer's then ex-girlfriend - they had just broken up - who was apparently really embarrassed when she first heard the song. Which is awkward, and it could be even worse - it was apparently initially named Cindy Lou after Buddy's niece! Still, there's a happy ending to all this, because Peggy and the drummer, one Jerry Allison, did eventually get back together and get married, which is sweet. There's also a sequel song that the band did, called Peggy Sue Got Married, so that's kind of neat too!

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Frankie Vaughan (8)

Hey, we've heard this song already! It's definitely the same song as Jimmie, so I'm not going to get too deep into the song itself. Especially not because Frankie's version and Jimmie's version are actually fairly similar. Both use Lead Belly's rhythms, and the Weavers' lyrics, and put the same little spin on the whoops! bits. They're trying to do the same thing, and the overall result is pretty similar.

I will say, Frankie, true to form, is a bit more of a performer. Whereas Jimmie leant into the folksiness with a strummy guitar and not much else, Frankie's got a dramatic bit of violin right at the start that comes back later on, in the background. His backing singers are a bit more dramatic, too - you've got the same deep men's group repeating the phrase sweeter than wine, but you've also got some women who come in now and again, and the clapping, rather than just providing a backing throughout the song, come in and out to give the chorus added oomph. It's a lot showier, as a result.

And of course, Frankie is also very cheesy. Jimmie went up a little bit on the whoops! but Frankie turns it into a full-on comedy bit, and almost sounds like he's laughing as he comes out of it, each time. His little mmm-mmmm is that little bit more cartoonish, like he's licking his lips, and he hams it up at the end just that little bit more. The end result is just that bit less subtle, and honestly, it's the worse for it, in my books. Oh, well.

Both of these aren't quite country tracks, and this got me thinking - country's not been as well represented in the charts, in recent months, but we have seen a fair bit of folk music, either in its pure American form, or in British-infused skiffle form, and we've also seen quite a lot of more country-tinged rockabilly rock and roll, which is really the tradition that artists like the Everlys and the Crickets are coming out of. Even Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis are sometimes picking up that country, bluesy twang a bit. So it's kind of interesting to see "legit" country disappear a bit, even as its descendants take over the charts.

Favourite song of the bunch: Peggy Sue

[retroactivosigue]

Bimbombey - Jimmie Rodgers

[musicsweetmusic]

I hadn't heard this song before, but now I have. I like it. :-) I really like Dylan's voice in this song. Lovely!

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives - “Altitude”

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives find themselves grounded firmly in traditional country music as they sing of a land beyond the sun known as altitude.

The song - and the album it announced - are, too, known as “Altitude” and Altitude, respectively. On the former, the often-cosmic Fab Supes play music that’s beautifully antithetical to the lyrics with clip-clopping rhythm giving a floor to pedal steel and fiddle solos.

Ten million miles high, light years off the ground/where time stands still, beyond the speed of sound/in altitude, Stuart sings.

It’s a gem - what Stuart calls “authentic country music.” But updated somewhat.

“I’ve always loved songs that feel like old friends but still sound new and fresh,” the bandleader said in a statement.

“The beautiful thing about country music is that the blueprint Jimmie Rodgers laid down - rambling, gambling, sin, redemption, heaven, hell - it’s all just as relevant now as it ever was. It’s the human condition.”

“Altitude” follows the less-trad “Country Star” ahead of Altitude’s May 19 landing date.

Grade card: Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives - “Altitude” - A

2/8/23

[agoodsongeveryday]

Day One Thousand One Hundred and Fifty Three

He played a game called poker Pinochle, Whist and Euchre But shooting dice was his greatest game Now he's downtown in jail Nobody to go his bail The judge done said that he refused the fine

[satansluckycigarette]

What Spotify Tells You Old Country Is:

“Honky-Tonk Badonkadonk” (song about objectifying a girl who snuck into the bar and trying to get close enough to “accidentally” assault her)

Vs.

What Old Country Actually Is:

“Frankie took out her camona/ Took out that little .44/ Rootie toot toot- she shot her man right through the door/ He was her man and he done her wrong”

-Jimmie Rodgers, “Frankie & Johnny” (song absolutely condoning the murder of that no good sumbitch who don’t treat his lady right) lol