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Continue reading Today: The late Waylon Jennings passed away in 2002 – 12 years ago
Category Archives: Country
Today: 16 Horsepower released Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes in 1996
“Well, at first the band were simply called Horsepower, but a lot of people thought that was something to do with heroin. That really pissed me off, so I decided to put something in front of it to distract them. “I got ’16’ from a traditional American folk song, where a man is singing about his dead wife and 16 black horses are pulling her casket up to the cemetery. I liked the image of 16 working horses.”
– David Eugene Edwards (NME, 1996)
16 Horsepower originated out of the “Denver scene” around 1992. Edwards teamed up with bassist Keven Soll and drummer Jean-Yves Tola (yeah he is French), and the trio soon discovered a common love for country music, traditional music (from all corners of the world), and the darker bands of the ’80s, like Joy Division, the Gun Club, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
They toured extensively the first years, sometimes as opening act for bands like Morphine, Los Lobos and the Violent Femmes.
Edwards said at the time that he regularly checked out Library of Congress records, old Appalachian music, and that he just listen to it for hours and hours. He expressed his for love Irish and Cajun music too, and how he saw it as all interconnected. All this seeped into Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes.
When Edwards was writing about early America, he was referring to the darkest aspects of USA’s past: the slavery, the war with native americans and the rape of a fertile land. He’s also thinking of the moral decline and violence of the Wild West that found sinners having to answer to a form of justice much higher than that of Man’s. He writes about a young and more primitive country, he write about the punishments for wrong-doing that were much more severe and eagerly executed than today. The word of God was also the word of the state and the executioner. Edwards and the songs he wrote with Sixteen Horsepower existed in that world.
16 Horsepower – Haw (official video):
“The music of the church was the most important thing to me , that’s where I learned the doctrine, where it came to me. That was how I was spoken to.”
– Edward Eugene Edwards (grandson of a Nazarene minister)
Continue reading Today: 16 Horsepower released Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes in 1996
Videos of the day: Johnny Cash 1960s live TV appearances
Today we’ve found two fantastic collections, almost every live appearances done by Johnny Cash in the 60s!
Our gratitude goes out to JohhnyCashfan66 who uploaded these great videos, as he says: “for the educational purpose of following one of the world’s greatest figures, I present Johnny Cash, 1960 – 1965”. Thank you!!
Part 1 1960-1965:
Track list part 1:
1960 – The Rebel Johnny Yuma (Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Show)
1960 – Ballad of the Harp Weaver (Jubilee USA)
1960 – Chaw ‘n’ Chewing Gum (Jubilee USA)
1960 – Snow in His Hair (Jubilee USA)
1960 – Don’t Take Your Guns to Town (The Ford Show)
1960 – Pickin’ Time (The Ford Show)
1961 – Big River (Star Route, USA)
1961 – Pickin’ Time (Star Route, USA)
1961 – Cry, Cry, Cry (Star Route, USA)
1961 – Five Feet High and Rising (Star Route, USA)
1961 – I Got Stripes (Star Route, USA)
1961 – God Has My Fortune Laid Away (Star Route, USA)
1962 – Big River (Grand Ole Opry)
1962 – Bonanza (Grand Ole Opry)
1962 – Five Feet High and Rising (Grand Ole Opry)
1962 – Were You There (Grand Ole Opry)
1963 – Ring of Fire (Unknown?)
1963 – Streets of Laredo (Hootenanny)
1963 – Frankie and Johnny (Hootenanny Hoot)
1964 – I Walk the Line (Barn Dance)
1964 – Big River (Barn Dance)
1964 – Busted (Barn Dance)
1964 – Busted (Hootenanny?)
1964 – I Walk the Line (Jimmy Dean Show)
1964 – Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Newport Folk Festival)
1964 – I Walk the Line (Newport Folk Festival)
1965 – Amen (Shindig)
1965 – Orange Blossom Special (Shindig?)
Missing Song:
1960 – Big River (Jubilee USA)
Part 2 1966-1969:
1966 – Orange Blossom Special
1966 – I Still Miss Someone (Sofia Gardens)
1966 – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Sofia Gardens)
1967 – Five Feet High and Rising
1967 – I Walk The Line (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – I Guess Things Happen That Way (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – Ballad of a Teenage Queen (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – I Still Miss Someone (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – Ring of Fire (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – We’re Gonna Sing (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – It Takes a Worried Man (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Fourth Man in the Fire [The Statler Brothers] (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Foggy Mountain Top [June Carter] (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight [Luther Perkins] (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Were You There? (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Were You There? (Road to Nashville)
1967 – The One on the Right is on the Left (Road to Nashville)
1968 – Folsom Prison Blues (Grand Ole Opry)
1968 – Folsom Prison Blues (Grand Ole Opry)
1968 – Ring of Fire (Grand Ole Opry)
1968 – Jackson (Grand Ole Opry)
1969 – A Boy Named Sue (Andy Williams Show)
1968 – I Walk the Line (Andy Williams Show)
1969 – A Boy Named Sue (Tom Jones Show)
1969 – I Walk the Line (Tom Jones Show)
1969 – Don’t Take Your Guns To Town (Tom Jones Show)
1969 – Dark As A Dungeon – Sixteen Tons – Legend of John Henry (Tom Jones Show)
Missing:
1967 – I Walk the Line (Road to Nashville)
Wow! Right?!
– Hallgeir
Drunkards, Misfits and Losers – Aaslandbros with Olav Larsen
This record is born out of love, love for music, love for traditional songs and love of playing. You can hear that the players really enjoy what they’re doing and it passes over to us listeners. There is a thriving americana/country scene in Norway and quite a few bands are emerging. Not all of them are traditionalists or pure country performers, but there are elements of what Gram Parsons called “Cosmic Music” in much of the new music.
I’ve written about Olav Larsen and his different projects on several occasions(link1, link2,link3, link4). He really carry a torch for this kind of music. I have never seen Aaslandbros live, but have checked them out on Youtube and Spotify, they are a very fine band and shouldn’t be looked at as “just another tribute band”. They are much more than that. By the way, I have seen Erlend Aasland in concert many times, he is involved in so many projects that your bound to catch him on a stage somewhere. He is a fantastic musician. It is a joy to finally hear him sing on an album.
Follow the Drinking Gourd:
Follow The Drinking Gourd was used by an Underground Railroad operative to encode escape instructions and a map (and first published in 1928). These directions then enabled fleeing slaves to make their way north from Mobile, Alabama to the Ohio River and freedom. The drinking gourd refers to the hollowed out gourd used by slaves as water dipper. But here it is a metaphor for the Big Dipper star formation, which points to Polaris, the Pole Star, and North. A map to freedom, so to speak. It has been done hundreds of times and it is a feat to make it sound fresh and poignant again, but Aaslandbros and Olav Larsen does.
From the press kit for Drunkards, Misfits and Losers:
A late summer night in 2012 singer and songwriter Olav Larsen sent the following to Aaslandbros:
I’ve seen your band , Aaslandbros, live on several occasions. I must say, I’m really impressed by the way you honor the late great Johnny Cash. Erlend Aasland’s voice, the rhythm section together with Erlend’s guitar playing is extremely good. I cannot stop thinking about this. Wouldn’t it be interesting to collaborate? I’ve got some unfinished songs laying about that could be the basis for a musical marriage between Aaslandbros and me. If it fits, and I can not see why not, we should share this music with people in the form of a record (EP) and some concerts. I envision some kind of “Boom Chicka Boom Rocka Fucking Billy” with lyrics paying tribute to the drunkards, the misfits and the losers. Are you in?
Aasland Brothers answered: Yes.
19th Sept 2013 Olav Larsen & Aaslandbros went into Egersound studio together with Eirik Bekkeheien. When they came out,the 21. Sep they had recorded four songs live in studio live i studio. The results are on the new EP, Drunkards, Misfits & Losers.
The record sounds like it would sound if Felice Brothers, Johnny Cash and Stan Ridgeway (Wall of Voodoo) threw a party. Dark, fun and very well done.
If I should make an ordered list of the songs i would do it like this:
No Good Reason
Follow the drinking gourd
I am what I am
and Maria #5 (I haven’t quite cracked this one yet, but I expect I will soon…)
Great contrasting voices with Olav and Erlend and the lyrics and music just fits. One of the finest songs of the year on my list.
Let us keep our fingers crossed for a full album with Aaslandbros in the near future (and hopefully with Olav Larsen).
Produced, played and sung by Olav Larsen and Aaslandbros.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Eirik Bekkeheien.
Beautiful cover design: Camilla Rosenlund.
The Aaslandbros are Christoffer, Erlend & Jørgen Aasland and Kenneth Andersen.
Drunkards, Misfits & Losers is available as a digital release on several streaming services and on iTunes.
I could not find any live clips of the songs from the EP, but here is a fine cover of Springsteen’s Highway Patrolman:
– Hallgeir
Ray Price one of the greats left us today
Ray Price has covered — and kicked up — as much musical turf as any country singer of the postwar era. He’s been lionized as the man who saved hard country when Nashville went pop, and vilified as the man who went pop when hard country was starting to call its own name with pride.
~Dan Cooper (allmusic.com)
Ray Price, the legendary country singer, has died following his battle with pancreatic cancer,Rolling Stone reports. He was 87.
For The Good Times:
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Ray Price |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Cherokee Cowboy |
| Born | January 12, 1926 (age 87) |
| Origin | Perryville, Texas, U.S. |
| Genres | Country, Western swing |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, guitarist |
| Years active | 1948–present |
| Associated acts | Johnny Bush, Merle Haggard, Rosetta Tharpe, Harlan Howard, George Jones, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck |
Ray Price (born January 12, 1926) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music. His more well-known recordings include “Release Me”, “Crazy Arms”, “Heartaches by the Number”, “City Lights”, “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You”, “For the Good Times”, “Night Life”, “I Won’t Mention It Again”, “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”, and “Danny Boy”. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and—now in his 80s—continues to record and tour.
….He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success…..
Crazy Arms and Heartaches by the number:
Continue reading Ray Price one of the greats left us today