Tag Archives: country

Country, Willie Nelson

Happy Birthday Willie Nelson

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willie-nelson

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down – but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let’s all have another round.
~Willie Nelson

We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.
~Willie Nelson

He [Willie Nelson] takes whatever thing he’s singing and makes it his. There’s not many people who can do that. Even something like an Elvis tune. You know, once Elvis done a tune, it’s pretty much done. But Willie is the only one in my recollection that has even taken something associated with Elvis and made it his. He just puts his sorta trip on it…
~Bob Dylan (28 April 1993)

Bob+Dylan Willie+Nelson

Willie Nelson Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1993):

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Blues, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Gospel, Jazz, Johnny Cash, Soul, The Best Songs, Video

The Best Songs: Just a Closer Walk With Thee

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Just a Closer Walk with Thee is a traditional gospel song that has been covered by many artists. Performed as either an instrumental or vocal, “A Closer Walk” is perhaps the most frequently played number in the hymn and dirge section of traditional New Orleans jazz funerals.

Rebirth Brass Band – A Closer Walk With Thee:

The ‘jazz funeral’ starts off sombre. On its way to the cemetery, the brass band plays soulful, sad funeral hymns called ‘dirges’,  it should be something that reminds mourners of life’s ups and downs. The slow tune lasts until the procession reaches its final destination, at which point they ‘cut the body loose’ – send the hearse off into the cemetery.

I really love this song and have “dug up” a few examples of great artists doing their version of this old tune.

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Country, Merle Haggard, Music Calendar

April 06: Merle Haggard was born in 1937 Happy Birthday

April 06: Merle Haggard was born in 1937 Happy Birthday

“By the time you get close to the answers, it’s nearly all over.”
– Merle Haggard

The first time we met is a favorite memory of mine.
They say time changes all it pertains to
But your memory is stronger than time.
I guess everything does change except what you choose to recall.

Wikipedia:
Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is an American country music song writer, singer, guitarist, fiddler, and instrumentalist. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville Sound recordings of the same era.

My Favorite Memory:

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Country, Music Calendar

March 31: Lefty Frizzell was born in 1928, 87 years ago

lefty frizzell

 

Some people can’t talk and express themselves; with me, expression comes in the form of a song, and it makes me very happy. So I’d lose my blues, hang on to what little I had, and it became a style
~Lefty Frizzell

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Lefty Frizzell was the definitive honky tonk singer, the vocalist that set the style for generations of vocalists that followed him. Frizzell smoothed out the rough edges of honky tonk by singing longer, flowing phrases — essentially, he made honky tonk more acceptable for the mainstream without losing its gritty, bar-room roots.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

I Love You A Thousand Ways & I Wan’t To Be With You Always:

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Jazz, Music Calendar

March 9: Happy 85th Birthday Ornette Coleman

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Ornette-Coleman

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” ~Ornette Coleman

“We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we’ve forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We’ve separated music from life.”
~Ornette Coleman

One of the most important (and controversial) innovators of the jazz avant-garde, Ornette Coleman gained both loyal followers and lifelong detractors..
~Scott Yanow

Ornette Coleman – Gent Jazz (2010):

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