Kris Kristofferson, RIP

Terrible singer, but he sure wrote plenty of great songs that plenty of great singers wanted to sing. Apologies to Johnny, Janis, and the rest, but this is the best. 

By and large...

... I like hip-hop and I like country... both maybe more than most pop music genres. Do I like hip-hop country? The jury's still out...

Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 95

So very clever, so very sweet.

Happy New Year!

Frank Loesser wrote the song. Kacey makes it her own.

Whatcha gonna do when the pond goes dry?

At least, that's how I hear it.

“I was dumb as a rock when I wrote ‘Okie From Muskogee’ ”

“I sing with a different intention now.” OK, Merle, but in this the age of Cruz and Trump, Okie sounds almost progressive!

Have another...

Robert Christgau claims that Merle never understood "country's essential theme, monogamy," but he sure was awfully good at country's runner-up theme, artful self-pity. Not to mention prison and booze.

Merle Haggard, RIP

Pretty much the way country music should sound.

Vince Gill

OK, I confess, I occasionally watch Country's Family Reunion on RFD TV. Vince confesses that he sings like a girl. Good for the girls, I say.

"We know it's not right"

Robert Christgau claims that the great theme of country music is monogamy. Here's a particularly good, and twisted, example, in two splendid renditions. Remarkably (intentionally?), they are the same economical length, right down to the second.

Jazz and country in black and white

Crossing that Great (Racial and Gender) Divide... Louis on trumpet and Lil on the piano...

The kittens have gone completely batshit insane...

... listening to Buck Owens. That is all.

We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds

John Prine's 1999 album of duets with a number of the leading ladies of country music, In Spite of Ourselves, is a delight from beginning to end. He has great taste in songs, and even better taste in singers. Unsurprisingly, Iris DeMent stands out, but a couple of my other favorites are with Melba Montgomery, whose voice has the quaver of an old woman's, but retains a lot of beauty and spunk. I couldn't find recordings from the album on the youtube, I'm afraid. But earlier versions of the songs are around. Back in the day, Melba sang duets with another dude who was a smidge better singer than Mr. Prine...

Steve Earle

He was in San Francisco for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival... I passed on the dusty crowds in Golden Gate Park and paid my hard-earned dime to hear him last night at a nice but crowded venue on Valencia in the Mission, The Chapel.

Aside from his album with Del McCoury, The Mountain, which is one of my all-time faves, I have not followed Earle closely, but he is a great singer and a wonderful storyteller. I mean a great singer not in the virtuosic Al Green or George Jones fashion, but an expressive pop interpreter in the Dylan or Willie vein. He is also a lefty redneck. I feel no guilt whatsoever enjoying Merle Haggard's jingoism, but if you do, and need an excuse to listen to some good ol' country, check out Steve Earle. He confessed that he could no longer imagine living in Nashville, in his native Tennessee, which is why he now calls Greenwich Village home, and would choose San Francisco if he had to move. Country and roots-rock are great American populist art forms, and why should the left be deprived of the good stuff? Why, populist and progressive used to go together... remember Woody Guthrie and Upton Sinclair?

The first half of Steve's performance was the better half. As the night wore on, he could not resist a little gratuitous Walmart bashing (not my cup of tea, but forgivable) and a little kumbaya (less so), and even worse, he swapped his beautiful 6-string acoustic for an overly jangling 12-string and then even a banjo, which he played badly, and finished with some kind of mando-guitar. But when he opened his mouth, all was forgiven.

The opening act was Steve's son, Justin Townes Earle. The guy plays a mean guitar and has a good strong folk voice. I found his songs and style precious, a bit like Rufus Wainwright channeling, who, maybe Steve Earle? His best song of the night was by Buck Owens. Boy got good taste, at least.