There’s a lot of truth to the notion that if Lefty Frizzell had died young like his contemporary Hank Williams -and Lefty was easily as popular, they were friends and toured together– he would easily be just as huge a legend as Hank. And while most don’t know his name, he influenced so many country stars. Probably the most well-known is Merle Haggard, who idolized Lefty and goes out of his way to emulate Frizzell’s phrasing and delivery. So here’s “Please Don’t Stay Away So Long”, one of my very favorite Lefty songs. Check out how spare the instrumentation is and the almost utter lack of production.
Hard to believe there was a time when country didn’t suck, eh? This is your open thread: play me some of your favorite songs.
Speaking of Merle, this is probably my very favorite song that grizzled old curmudgeon recorded:
A working man -never mind all the working women and especially the working moms- can’t get nowhere today.
Does it have to be country?
http://youtu.be/xPN5WTptICU
Not at all. Here’s a lovely -and utterly NSFW- ditty by Wesley Willis.
Here’s a wayback memory from my childhood. I was lucky to live just a few miles from Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom Jamboree, a big, glorified barn in Bean Blossom, Indiana that had outhouses for rest rooms and wood stoves for heat. Bill and his brother Birch operated the Jamboree for decades. bringing their friends around to play every weekend for the crowds that flocked in to hear them. A lot of the bluegrass greats performed there over the years. One of my fondest memories was getting to play onstage there with the band I was in my last year in high school – The Weedpatch Boys. All my band mates are gone now except one.
Bean blossom is legendary. I went in 2000, and saw Jim and Jesse, and my only Jimmy Martin. He was incredibly drunk, and amazing. He did a reunion with Doyle Lawson and JD Crowe.
Kathy Mattea, covering Hazel Dickens’ song of rage and loss, “Black Lung”: