Cheers Evan for starting this, reminds me to delve into some of my Country faves.

Don't suppose he & I would agree in a political discussion, but this wistful, yearning Merle Haggard song has always been a favourite of mine

As is pretty much anything by the great Hank Williams (Sr.)

He had his fun loving side  

Which was offset by his more God-fearing alter-ego, Luke the Drifter

also, can I have some Carter Family please?

I like Cry Cry Cry's version of this Robert Earl Keen song better than the original.

Listen to the words:



Tells a good story.

Story seems to be valued more in country than in most rock/pop songwriting.

Excellent!

And I love Hank Williams.

Just learned that a deluxe version of O Brother Where Art Thou -- with a whole extra CD -- was released today.  One of my favorite albums of all time.  And one of my favorite films of all time.

I've already posted versions of "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" and "O Death" in other topics.  So here's "Down to the River to Pray."



And "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby."



Chills.

We perform a re-written version of Nobody but the Baby to close the Pomba devotional at PCon ;)

--Ember--

I love the storytelling aspect of country music, which I know is one of the strong descendants of Irish folk music.

I grew up with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.



More recently, I've been enjoying stuff like this on the radio:



I'm finding I tend to like Rodney Atkins storytelling style. This one has a way of using language that I like. "Ask directions from a genie in a bottle of Jim Beam, and she lies to you."



I admit, I also quite like Taylor Swift's storytelling style, although it's more Pop-y:



This has been on the rock stations as much as Taylor Swift has, but it's still Country too. Always reminds me to think of my Papa, of course. Not many genres played on the radio can pull off both sweet and morbid like this:



I find I don't mind the Christian references in a lot of these, because they're not judgmental, they're just people talking about their own experience.

I'm kind of irritated that the local Country station I was listening to died. They had a good sense of what to leave out of a Bay Area station, so I almost never ended up cringing and changing the channel. That sounds terrible, perhaps, but the culture behind country music has a real chip on its shoulder about California (which is reciprocal, I admit, as is the rivalry between Northern and Southern CA), so it matters more than might be obvious.

--Ember--

Kris Kristofferson is up there with the very best of them, for story telling he's on par with Ice-T. Sunday Morning Coming Down is possibly my all time favourite country song:

Funny - I nearly posted that same Willie song. 

This recent song isn't a classic, but I think it's an interesting guide to modern Country subcultural signals:

As for classics, there's Country feminism:



And Shel Silverstein, oddly enough.

Hank III is long car drive fav:

I've always wondered what Jolene's decision was.

Dangit, XK!

I ended up writing a reply:


The name was chosen because it A) is common without being ubiquitous and B) scans. The concept of the friendship was inspired by one of my oldest friends - but I actually get on great with his second wife (and his first).

--Ember--

Oooh, lovely!

Fun fact: Lynyrd Skynyrd made an anti-handgun song. It's true!





Best Southern Rock Song Ever. Hell, probably the best SONG ever:




While we're on the subject of Charlie Daniels, this song always gave me the creeps as a kid:




And this one always made me sad, though I couldn't understand why at the time. (I do love the flutey bits.)

Is this country-rock, or blues-rock, or blues-country-rock? cloosruntryblock

An old favorite, from the guy who brought us chocolate chip pancakes and sausages on a stick:


And you can't go wrong with a song about moonshine, especially if it rips off Johnny B. Goode:


Written by the Big Bopper.

I'm not even going to get into Canadians who sing with a Georgia accent and that sort of thing, but on a semi-connected note, what do y'all think about O'Death? Metal/Bluegrass/alt-country thing from NYC.

Did I ever post the mp3 of Dear Amanda for you folks to hear?

-E-

Not that I can recall. 

I suppose I should find a way to do that, then...

-E-

so glad i just found this thread!  my terrible band covers many of these.  here are some others that we play....the wonderful john prine with iris dement:


more john:


and i think this may count as contemporary country/alt bluegrass or something....the devil makes three's "old  #7":


old crow medicine show:


a fabulous traditional spiritual done by johnny cash and the carter family:

We listen to this one a lot at home. Together. Because listening alone might be dangerous: 

I'll just put this here :)



We're also fond of this one, but not everyone may be [Trigger warning: abuse references]



-E-

That Delta Rae song (and video) is amazing.

Hmm.  There's clearly something interesting going on with this band.

Heh, yes, I completely ADORE that one. Makes me smile and cry every time I watch it.

I discovered that they're in town next week, so I'm going to see them Wednesday night. :)

Overall, though, they're just Southern Folk inspired. ... Although the name of the band *does* come from a character in a novel the mom of half the band was writing about a Southern girl who brings back the Greek gods, so... maybe... :)

-E-

Delta Rae, FUCKING HELL. Thanks Ember, I needed that.

We saw Delta Rae tonight, and with them ZZ Ward, and Martin Harley. I... don't think they all quite belong in this thread, honestly, at least certainly not the other two, but as this is where I mentioned the concert in the first place, I figured this was where to wax enthusiastic about it.

It was a nice small venue - not like tiny coffee-house sized, but a small old theatre, and not at all full, with plenty of room to dance up front if pretty much everyone wanted to. Even though we didn't get there before regular admission as planned, we had no trouble getting to the wheelchair space in the front row, and settling in. The crowd was enthusiastic *and polite* which is kind of refreshing - I gathered from how they behaved that the performers thought so too.

I think they might all be our kind of people, though. I bought the latest album for each group.

• "Delta Rae - Carry the Fire" (including both of the songs posted above)
• "ZZ Ward - Til the Casket Drops"
• "Martin Harley - Mojo Fix"

I couldn't help but think, watching Martin Harley "Oh, I bet Gypsy Lantern would like him!" When I saw his latest album is called "Mojo Fix" I said "Ooh, you do remind me of a vodouisant friend I know in London" to which he responded "Really? What's his name? Maybe I know him." and I'm thinking "because London is such a small town, eh? Aww dammit, what's GL's real name?!"

But I managed to remember, and it turned out he actually did think he might have met GL at a concert back home, maybe, which, even if it's not true, was stick a kick to hear.

I was a little sad we couldn't stay to meet the members of Delta Rae. I got my CDs for the other two signed, but it was really late and we were all really hungry and had a fair drive to get home afterward, so we didn't stay to wait for DR to come out.

But we DID spend most of the concert sitting in front of their Dad and chatting with him between sets (3 of the members of DR are siblings) which was also a kick. He took it better than I expected when, upon asking what the relationships were between the 5 of us there, was told that everyone was dating the people to either side of them. One of his companions asked if that was what's called "Polyamory". Why yes, that's exactly what we call it. :)

--Ember--