Damn it’s been a while since I’ve been here. I’ve got a load of new albums to review, but for the time being here’s 5 of my favourite country music videos:
Merle Haggard: Misery & Gin
It’s rare to see Merle perform this song live, he does it excellently in this cool, widescreen video.
Guy Clark: Dublin Blues
I absolutely love this video. So much raw emotion and simplicity - No one else does it like Guy. Annoyingly I can’t embed it so here’s a link: Enjoy
The Highwaymen: Big River
What happens when you put 4 legends together? You get an awesome show. This is a rare televised performance from The Highwaymen in Central Park, NY.
Elvis Presley: Unchained Melody
This moving performance is obviously not Elvis at his best, but the significance of it is just how good a singer he always was, even when in bad health. He will always be the king.
Merle Haggard & Johnny Cash: Sing Me Back Home
A young Merle Haggard on The Johnny Cash show. I really like this duet because Merle Haggard was in prison watching Johnny Cash perform at San Quentin, now they are both in the spotlight, with Cash doing one of Merle’s songs.
At the age of 73, country music legend Kris Kristofferson is still capable of producing albums of such a high quality of songwriting, it puts most of modern music to shame. Not just modern country, I mean most of music in general. His songwriting is just as good now is it was when he first released Silver Tongued devil and I, which is one of my favourite albums.
Before I get onto the musicI’ve got to mention how impressed I was with New West’s effort with this album. The cover art is fantastic, and the album is boxed in a fold-out cardboard sleeve which also houses a lyrics booklet as well as a neat poster. The biggest surprise was the incusion of a 8 track live album recorded in Dublin in early 2008. It features a range of songs from classics such as Why Me, to more recent tracks from This Old Road. It’s things like this that make buying the actual CD much more rewarding than downloading.
With a 3 year absence, his voice is even rougher than on This Old Road, but I don’t think the quality of the music suffers for it. His voice now has a very rustic and reflective style associated with it, which only legendary artists such as Kristofferson can pull off. The songs are personal resemble poetry in their structure and meaning. This is something encapsulated by the title track Closer to the Bone. Everything is indeed sweeter closer to the bone.
Many of the songs are mysterious - I don’t know exactly what Sister Sinead and Good Morning John are about, but they’re still good songs to listen to. Hall of Angels is a very beautiful song - the lyrics glide delicately across the feelings of someone who loses one of their children. I believe the song is dedicated to the lost child of Eddie Rabbit.
There is also somewhat of an unofficial song on the album disguised as track 12 but left untitled. It’s Kris Kristofferson’s very first full song, which he wrote at the age of 11. It’s short, but very funny lyrically. If this somehow turned out to be his last album (which it probably won’t), that song is the perfect way to end a fulfilling career: a 73 year old man looking back on all the successes and hardships of his life, finally singing the first ever song he wrote, 62 years in the making.
Steve Earle, Guy Clark, David Allan Coe, Townes Van Zandt, John Hiatt, Steve Young, Gamble Rogers, Rodney Crowell, Larry Jon Wilson
Rating
Songs taken from the film of the same name make up the Heartworn Highways collection, performed by some of the best outlaw country artists to have ever lived. From the opening heartfelt version of Guy Clark’s LA Freeway, through to the final collective rendition of Silent Night (recorded on Christmas Eve), the songs on this album overflow with quality and emotion.
I think Guy Clark gets the best showing with 6 of his own recordings, a pure acoustic version of Texas Cookin’ being a highlight. The others share a decent amount of songs, though I’d like to have heard more of David Allan Coe. His performance of I Still Sing The Old Songs leaves you wanting more of the Coe.
There’s not too much more to say really, it’s just as you’d expect. A group of talented musicians and songwriters performing their own songs with feeling and in their own unique way. It’s absolutely the way music should be. The songs are timeless as are the artists and the whole album is great to listen to at any time of the year.
If you’re new to any of this music, this album is a great introduction to this era of music. The moments of dialogue also make excellent listening, including when they talk about their songs before perfoming them. Proper country music, proper songwriters, proper musicians. Get this album!
I pre-ordered this album quite far in advance because I was very excited when I read about it. Though I’m not the biggest fan of Steve Earle’s voice, the thought of him bringing an album full of Townes Van Zandt songs sounded awesome to me. Having listened through it a few times, I wouldn’t say that I’m blown away by it, but it’s something I’ll still listen to quite often. The first song Pancho & Lefty is one of my all time favourites, mainly Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s version, but the song itself is legendary and I think Steve does it justice, however Steve Earle isn’t the storyteller that Townes and Willie are, so it doesn’t come across as sincere as it perhaps should have. The up-tempo songs such as Colorado Girl, White Freightliner Blues are certainly more suited to his voice.
The rest of the album is largely a mix of blues and bluegrass sounds, and Steve has done a lot of rearrangement in favour of a more electric sound instead of the acoustic roots of the songs on the album. That’s were the second CD comes in and really makes the album worth getting. The disc known as ‘Basics’ is basically an acoustic version of most of the songs on the main CD which I think is an excellent idea and I urge other artists to do similar things. I found my enjoyment of most of the songs improved when listening to ’stripped down’ versions, which is much closer to how Townes used to sound.
Having said that though, it’s quite clear that the originals are better than the ones covered on this album. I think Steve Earle is the type of guy to do only Steve Earle songs, because that’s when he sounds the best. Artists like Johnny Cash are able to instantly apply their style into a cover, whereas it doesn’t quite work for Steve as well. I still think it’s a pretty good album though, I’ll be listening to it a lot I’m sure - but perhaps not enjoying it as much as I should have.
