Country Music.

[Roger Kettle]

Some time ago on here, we talked about the Country and Western singer who appears in the strip called Wayne Wagonwheel lll. While I used to take the mickey out of this kind of music when I was younger, there's a lot of it that I really enjoy now. (And, yes, I realise that the "and Western" bit has now been dropped). Anyway, I'll go and look for some of my favourites to post here and, in the meantime, if anyone else has any examples, please fire away. You know, or not.

[The Peepmaster]

.

[Roger Kettle]

I'm not sure why I llike this but I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O66BturC7to

[The Peepmaster]

Didn't embed, Roger. Did you clarify the parse-snip package (left side of control slider)?

[The Peepmaster]

I love this one

[Roger Kettle]

Didn't embed, Roger. Did you clarify the parse-snip package (left side of control slider)?

Hey, you can still see the clip by clicking "watch on YouTube" in the middle of the screen.

[Roger Kettle]

I really enjoyed both your clips, Nige.

[The Peepmaster]

Well, you didn't have to parse-snip the file, as you quite rightly said.

How about this for a spooky story?


(For anyone who's faint hearted, close your ears when Bono says "horse-shit".)

[The Peepmaster]

Elvis Costello wrote this for Roy Orbison. It's one of the greatest songs he ever did, and it's on his final album before he died. Great strings, a clever story, and superb vocals of course!

[Roger Kettle]

Roy Orbison...my hero. Thanks for all this, Nige.

[The Peepmaster]

Not sure if you know how to work CDs, Roger, but Mystery Girl is a great album. I'd recommend you buy it.

[Malc]

I'm a huge fan of Willie Nelson, always have been, and he epitomises what Country music should be - it's actually folk music, not the bleached whitebread pseudo religious crap that Nashville regurgitates these days.
I was tremendously angered at how the Dixie Chicks were treated by the so-called country music industry when they dared to speak out against the Bush regime, and there's a particularly awful cartoonist, a disgusting self-promoter and God-botherer in the States who epitomises everything that's bad about humanity as well as country music, and who has almost put me off country for ever.

Until I listen to Willie, that is.
Here he is with arguably the greatest folk singer ever doing "Pancho and Lefty", a Townes Van Zandt number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPMxJROHInM

[Malc]

Here's a great example of musical cross-pollination, with James Taylor playing in a foursome with Yo Yo Ma performing "Hard Times" a traditional song from the 1800s. This is REAL country. You can imagine this as a soundtrack to those great Old West documentaries.

I have a great Hank Williams CD which shows how country started out in the States, to listen to his early stuff (and to read about his life) is to understand how the modern country industry has lost its way. Hank Williams was pure R&B (no, I'm not kidding) and he had more connection with blues roots and gospellers like Elmore James and Leadbelly than modern Nashville.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyV60kTvEFE&feature=related