Hank Thompson was perhaps the most popular Western swing musician of the ’50s and ’60s, keeping the style alive with a top-notch band, tremendous showmanship, and a versatility that allowed him to expand his repertoire into romantic ballads and hardcore honky tonk numbers.
~Steve Huey (allmusic.com)
The glamour of the gay night life has lured you
To the places where the wine and liquor flow
Where you wait to be anybody’s baby
And forget the truest love you’ll ever know
~Hank Thompson – “The Wild Side of Life”
The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition.
~Steve Huey (allmusic.com)
A showman’s life is a smokey bar and
The fevered chase of a tiny star
It’s a hotel room and a lonely wife
From what I’ve seen of a showman’s life
Nobody told me about this part
They told me all about the pretty girls and the wine and
The money and the good times
No mention of all the wear and tear on an old honkey-tonker’s heart
Well, I might have known it
But nobody told me about this part
~”A Showman’s life” (one of his best songs)
“A good song can take a steel guitar, no matter where it comes from, I think about songs this way: I’d love to sing that song, whatever band is playing it. Great songs transcend.”
~Buddy Miller
“When you hear Buddy or watch him play, there’s a magnetic quality that draws you to his music.
~Jim Lauderdale
A Showman’s Life:
From Wikipedia:
Born
September 6, 1952 (age 61)
Fairborn, Ohio
Genres
Country, Americana
Occupations
Musician, Singer-songwriter,producer
Instruments
Vocals, Guitar
Years active
1983–present
Labels
HighTone
New West
Associated acts
Julie Miller, Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue, Buddy Miller Band, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Emmylou Harris, Band of Joy, Steve Earle
Buddy Miller (born September 6, 1952 in Fairborn, Ohio) is a country singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist and producer, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee. Miller is married to and has recorded with singer-songwriter Julie Miller.
Miller formed the Buddy Miller Band, which included singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin on vocals and guitar.
In addition to releasing several solo albums over the years, Miller has toured as lead guitarist and backing vocalist for Emmylou Harris’s Spyboy band, Steve Earle on his El Corazon tour, Shawn Colvin, and Linda Ronstadt. He co-produced and performed on Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s 2000 album Endless Night. He has also appeared on several albums by songwriter and singer Lucinda Williams.
In 2004, Miller toured with Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, and David Rawlings as the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue.
Photo by Jonathan Kofahl
Buddy Miller has also produced albums for a number of artists. During 2006 Solomon Burke came over to Miller’s house at Nashville to record his country album ‘Nashville’ on which Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch and Dolly Parton appear as duet partners.
He has a signature acoustic guitar made by the Fender company, and frequently uses vintage Wandre electric guitars.
—-
From allmusic.com – Johnny Lofthus: Soulful Americana songwriter, singer, and producer Buddy Miller began his career in the early ’60s as an upright bassist in high-school bluegrass combos. Later, he traveled the back roads of America as an acoustic guitarist, eventually landing in New York City, where his Buddy Miller Band included a young Shawn Colvin on vocals and guitar. He also forged an enduring relationship with country-rock iconoclast Jim Lauderdale. Miller eventually landed in Nashville, where he did session guitar and vocal work on albums by Lauderdale, Victoria Williams, and Heather Myles, among others. He self-produced his criminally overlooked solo debut, Your Love and Other Lies (Hightone, 1995), and followed it with 1997’s equally superb Poison Love.By this point Miller was the lead guitarist in Emmylou Harris’ band, and Harris returned the favor with backing vocals throughout Poison Love. ….
.. read more @ allmuic.com
Hank Thompson was perhaps the most popular Western swing musician of the ’50s and ’60s, keeping the style alive with a top-notch band, tremendous showmanship, and a versatility that allowed him to expand his repertoire into romantic ballads and hardcore honky tonk numbers.
~Steve Huey (allmusic.com)
The glamour of the gay night life has lured you
To the places where the wine and liquor flow
Where you wait to be anybody’s baby
And forget the truest love you’ll ever know
~Hank Thompson – “The Wild Side of Life”
Henry William Thompson (September 3, 1925 – November 6, 2007), known professionally as Hank Thompson, was an American country music entertainer whose career spanned seven decades. He sold more than 60 million records worldwide.
Thompson’s musical style, characterized as honky tonk Western swing, was a mixture of fiddles, electric guitar and steel guitar that featured his distinctive, smooth baritone vocals.
His backing band, The Brazos Valley Boys, was voted the top Country Western Band for 14 years in a row by Billboard. The primary difference between his music and that of Bob Wills was that Thompson, who used the swing beat and instrumentation to enhance his vocals, discouraged the intense instrumental soloing from his musicians that Wills encouraged; however, the “Hank Thompson sound” exceeded Bob Wills in Top 40 country hits.
Although not as prominent on the top country charts in later decades, Thompson remained a recording artist and concert draw well into his 80s.
The 1987 novel Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb was inspired by Thompson’s life, specifically by his practice of picking up a local band to back him when he toured. In 2009 Cobb’s novel was turned into a successful film directed by Scott Cooper and starring Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges.
From cmt.com – Ronnie Pugh:
Few performers in any era of the music have known and appreciated its history as well, and Thompson, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989, was a big part of that history. His warm and rich baritone graced hits from the 1940s to the 1970s, as his award-winning Brazos Valley Boys band gave those honky-tonk hits a distinctive flavor of Western swing, much in the pattern followed later by fellow Texan George Strait.
Hey Mr Bartender please don’t be so slow
I’ve got time for one more round and a six pack to go
Tomorrow morning’s Sunday I’m gonna be feeling low
So please please bartender I want a six pack to go
But between sets I’d sneak over to the black places to hear blues musicians. It got to the point where I was making my living at white clubs and having my fun at the other places.
~Stevie Ray Vaughan
He was the greatest blues guitarist of his generation.
~ Mick Jagger
Stevie was always playing. After he’d get offstage, he’d get on his bus. And he had all these Stratocasters hanging there. He’d grab one and start goin’.
~Gregg Allman
Texas Flood – Live:
From Wikipedia:
Birth name
Stephen Ray Vaughan
Also known as
SRV
Born
October 3, 1954
Dallas, Texas, United States
Died
August 27, 1990 (aged 35)
East Troy, Wisconsin, United States
Genres
Rock, blues, blues rock,electric blues, Texas blues
Occupations
Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instruments
Guitar, vocals
Years active
1965–1990
Labels
Epic, Legacy, Sony
Associated acts
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall,David Bowie, Lonnie Mack,Albert King, Jeff Beck
Website
srvofficial.com
Stephen “Stevie” Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Often referred to by his initials SRV, Vaughan is best known as a founding member and leader of Double Trouble. Together with drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, they ignited the blues revival of the 1980s. With a career spanning seven years, Vaughan and Double Trouble consistently sold out concerts while their albums frequently went gold.
I remember when he first came out, he was doing that Hendrix song [Voodoo Chile], and I heard all these people going, “Ah, he’s just trying to do Hendrix. But he went a lot further than that. He was absolutely 100-proof, pure blues. Albert Collins, Muddy Waters – the essence of that was in everything he played. More than the Allman Brothers, he was straight-down-the-line blues.
~Gregg Allman
–
With his astonishingly accomplished guitar playing, Stevie Ray Vaughan ignited the blues revival of the ’80s. Vaughan drew equally from bluesmen like Albert King, Otis Rush, and Muddy Waters and rock & roll players like Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack, as well as the stray jazz guitarist like Kenny Burrell, developing a uniquely eclectic and fiery style that sounded like no other guitarist, regardless of genre. Vaughan bridged the gap between blues and rock like no other artist had since the late ’60s. For the next seven years, Stevie Ray was the leading light in American blues, consistently selling out concerts while his albums regularly went gold. His tragic death in 1990 only emphasized his influence in blues and American rock & roll. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine @ allmusic.com
