Showing posts with label Merle Haggard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Merle Haggard. Show all posts
Feb 9, 2018
Jan 23, 2018
Jan 4, 2018
Outlaw Country on an Old Emerson
My Uncle Mike introduced me to outlaw country. He was a big fan of Waylon, Johnny Cash, and Merle as far back as I can remember. Cassette tapes were his preferred format. Usually had a well-worn Emerson sitting there on his table. Always had a huge pile or shoebox full of tapes. There'd be a few Hee Haw Gospel Quartet tapes in there too, but it was mostly various albums and compilations of the country legends that are such a part of my listening habits as an adult.
As a child, I'd sit and listen with him while I drew or played with my GI Joe men. "Ring of Fire" and "Amanda" and "On the Road Again"… he'd sit there in his wheelchair and listen for hours. Sometimes he'd turn on the old transistor radio and scroll through the stations. He was a little impatient, or just difficult to please - scanning through the static to find just the thing. When he found it, he'd stop and sing along a little. Mike knew the songs by heart.
Into my teens, I developed more of a taste for rock music - pop metal, then heavy metal, then grunge. Country didn't really do it for me for a while there, but it was always Uncle Mike's favorite. Every Christmas or birthday, we were buying Mike a new radio or tape player because he was so hard on the electronics with his constant button pushing. We even tried a CD player or two, but tapes were easier for him to deal with.
In my late teens and early twenties, I came back to country music. Oh, the rock was still there, but I finally had experienced some of the losses - in life and relationships - that make someone fully appreciate the emotional honesty of truly great country music. And just who did I gravitate towards when I fell back in love with country music? Well, George Strait…. but then Waylon and Johnny and Merle.
As Mike aged, he wasn't able to listen to music as much. His health often kept him in bed more than in his wheelchair, and when he was in his chair, his hands kept him from operating the radios and cassette players like he used to. But he still loved the music. "Jesus Loves Me" was one of his favorite songs and I heard him singing it as recently as the past couple of years. I'll always owe a huge debt of gratitude to my Uncle Mike for my love of music and country music in particular.
My Uncle Mike passed away late Tuesday night. At 59, he lived past expectations for someone with his severity of cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy took so many things from Mike - the ability to walk, a great deal of his mental function, his independence, and what most of us would call a "normal" life. However, it never robbed him of his love of family, God, and music, and I like to think those three helped him live a relatively long and entirely love-filled life.
Thanks for everything, Uncle Mike. I love you.
-Corey
(Trailer)
Nov 3, 2017
The Censored CMAs
Update: They lifted the media guidelines so this meme doesn't make sense any more. Oh well.
Aug 21, 2017
Monday Morning Memes: Ernest Tubb, Ward Davis, Luke Bryan, WWE
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| (Yeah, I know Brock likes country ....it's just a meme) |
Jun 22, 2017
Jun 9, 2017
Way Down in His Soul: An Interview With Zephaniah OHora
By Kevin Broughton
Zephanaiah OHora has made a remarkable album, one that
recalls a golden era in country music. This
Highway – released today – oozes authenticity with its silky smooth vocal
phrasing and warm instrumentation, and captures a time when the Bakersfield
sound intersected with the “country-politan” vibe of late-60s Nashville. But
OHora poured himself into a decade-long study of the classics before putting
this record together.
Ray
Price, Hank Snow and Gram Parsons were just a few of the icons who informed
his immersion. A hair stylist by
day and band-booker by night, OHora eased into being a recording artist by
first playing with a group that did classic trucking songs – his backing band
is The 18 Wheelers – and a Haggard cover band as well. It was Merle’s records
that “taught me how to sing.”
And a quick study he was. His vocals are the genuine
article, and take you seamlessly back to a simpler time. There’s not a weak cut
on the album: ten originals – any of which could’ve been recorded by the aforementioned icons of traditional country – and a
lovely cover of the duet “Somethin’ Stupid” from Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Fans
of the golden era of classic country will put this one in heavy rotation for a
while.
You’re apparently at
ground zero of a roots-country scene in Brooklyn, New York. It’s not a place
associated with country music, nor is your native New Hampshire. What kind of
music did you listen to growing up, and how old a fellow are you?
I grew up listening to a lot of old stuff because of my dad.
He and my older brother listened to a lot of sixties jazz, and of course the
Allman Brothers. At the same time, I also grew up in a very religious household
and wasn’t allowed to listen to “modern music” per se. I’m 34.
You have a
distinctive name. Were you named for the Old Testament prophet?
That is correct.
Did you know he’s the
only prophet of royal lineage? Great grandson of King Hezekiah.
I actually did not know that. When I was a the kid when I
had nightmares, my mom would say, “Go read the Bible. Read Zephaniah.” Not an
uplifting book.
Yeah, well Zephaniah
was bringing the heat. Didn’t like the pagans, and he meant business.
This Highway evokes a blend of country styles and eras. There’s a
strong Bakersfield element, and some of that late 60s/early 70s
“country-politan” Nashville feel. Your band is called the 18 Wheelers, &
you started out doing the old trucking songs for fun. Walk me through the
process of how this all got synthesized into an album.
I got introduced to this guy Roy Williams, who was playing
in this band called Honey Fingers, that did a lot of old stuff like Ernest
Tubbs, the The Texas
Troubadours…the band is named after the song. And I was booking bands at
this place in Brooklyn called Skinny Dennis, which has gotten to be pretty
successful now. Bands from around
the country that play the old Texas sound play there when they’re on the East
Coast.
I had been a DJ and had been collecting records for years,
and wanted to put together a band and have something like old Midnight Jamboree
show that Ernest Tubb did, except kind of in reverse. I would be a DJ and the
band would be a guest. So that was going on, and I mentioned that I could sing
a little bit. And I sang a few George Jones songs, then guested with them, and
it became a regular thing.
I was writing some, and over time we’d drop a few of those
into a set, and before long we weren’t doing truck driving covers anymore.
Your phrasing brings
a lot of the classic artists to mind: George Jones, Merle, a hint of Glen
Campbell. Heck, I could imagine Gram Parsons singing the title cut had he stuck
around a little longer.
Yeah, right.
Who are some of your stronger
vocal influences? I mean, I think I’ve named a couple of them…
Yeah. I got really big into Marty Robbins. I didn’t know as
much about Merle at that point. But Marty had such a range: country to pop-jazz
vocals. The album Marty After Midnight is still one of
my favorite records; it’s just ridiculous. And yeah, Merle…I’ve had this Merle Haggard cover band
that’s made me a much better singer.
And I was really into George Jones, too. And of course, the
Flying Burrito Brothers. But Merle really put it all together in the right way.
Any truth to the
rumor that “Way Down in My Soul” is a love note to blotter acid?
Ha ha. Yeah, maybe a little bit. I did a lot of psychedelic
drugs in my twenties. And I always like the whole “Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds” thing, like there was a female energy to it. It’s sort of a goddess
who guides you through the whole experience; not necessarily a love song, but a
deep spiritual thing.
When’s the last time
you dosed?
Um. It’s been…well, I don’t know. Several years. Been a
while. I guess things get complicated as you get older. But I’m a huge Dead
Head and there’s a new documentary coming out about them. Makes me wish I could
just drop some acid & walk around the park.
Pedal steel is a
pretty trippy instrument, when you think about it, huh?
Yeah, totally.
Was this album
crowd-funded at all? How did that go?
I crowd funded a little of it; probably a third of the cost.
It cost a good bit, because I don’t think it’s possible to make an
authentic-sounding sounding country record without a really good band.
I’ve been to see
“vintage” bands like the Derailers before, and the whole show is a scene:
people with rockabilly pompadour hair do’s, dudes with gas-station shirts with
their names stitched on the front. I see your picture on the album cover, with your jet black, swept back hair; are you playing
a part? Is this to blend in to a scene, and do you walk around like that all
the time?
Well, I don’t necessarily wear the suit every day, but it
was when I first moved to New York about 10 years ago that I started getting
into it. That was when I heard the Byrds’ Sweetheart
of the Rodeo…
Really? And you just kept drilling, digging down into it?
Yeah, and then I got some Hank Snow albums, some Jimmy
Rogers stuff. But it was Neil Young where I first heard steel (guitar), and the
Dylan Hard Rain album. I was obsessed
with that album when I was 20 or 21. But I was hanging out with a girl and we
had been out all night and around 5 in the morning she put on Sweetheart of the Rodeo and I was like,
“What the hell is this?” It literally
changed my life
What are your plans
and goals after the release of this album? Do you have any sort of distribution
deal?
Yeah, I’ve got a distribution deal with an imprint of Sony
records. It’ll be physical in Canada and the U.S., digital in Europe. But I
don’t have like a fancy booking agent to push me to the next level, so it will
be up to me to schedule dates and stuff like that. Hopefully people will like
it and that will open some doors along the way, and I can afford to make
another one.
I truly think this
album speaks for itself. But tell me one thing everyone should know about
Zephania OHora.
Basically, that I love this music, that I’ve studied it, and
I don’t go for this bullshit idea that you have to be from a certain region of
the country to be a part of it. This is American music and we all have at least
a little bit of it inside of us.
Has there been some
skepticism based on geography?
Well, yeah, and it’s bullshit. If you decide to be in a rock
and roll band, are people gonna ask you where you’re from? Where is rock and
roll from? Should we base the answer on where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is
right now? I guess you can trace it to a couple of different regions; are
people gonna say you have to be from that certain region to be authentic?
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May 11, 2017
Apr 27, 2017
Apr 13, 2017
Carl Outlaw Reviews The Chainsmokers (ft. FGL) - Last Day Alive
Listen hear if your stupid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b6T0W3aLBg
What the shit, Trailer? Why don't you review this crap yourself and let me have the good music? Their's no excuse for it at all.
Well, this is a supposed "song" and it's by somebody called The Chainsmokers and our favorite dumbass duo, Florida-Georgia Line. I don't even know who the Chainsmokers are and that's not a lie. I looked at there picture and can tell they suck. Supposably, they do EPMD music or something like that. If it ain't made by a real by-God instrument, than it's not really music. There smoking something alright, but it's not a chain!
Whats funny is FGL is so pop country you can't even tell any difference I bet. Their better be a steal guitar in your song, if you want me to listen to it!! Theses stupid motherf***ers don't even know what real music is.
I'm not going to listen to this but I imagine its about living it up before you get old or some bullshit like that. As if we don't know that. But hell, I'd rather sit in a room slapping my balls together for eternity then to "live it up" if it includes listening to this song even one time. Their's probably a rapper part of this song to and Ive been saying this for a long time!! You know what you get when you mix country with rap... Crap.
Country singers, even if there fake country singers like Bray and Randy or whatever there names are, shouldn't sing with pop music people. Any country artist who's ever preformed with a pop artist in world history is not REAL DAMN COUNTRY. I don't care who it is. I'll stick with meral haggard.
In summary, this song sucks and so do you if you like it and so does Trailer for telling me to review it. This is what's wrong with America! Hey, country singers, sing about cheating women, drinking whiskey, and driving 18 wheelers, and not about dancing around in you're tight jeans and polishing the chrome. If you know what I mean.
Mar 29, 2017
Mar 24, 2017
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