Country and Western: Classic and Contemporary

[kishnevi]

It struck me this morning that GMG does not have a thread devoted to (American) Country and Western, and allied genres (including bluegrass and folk).  I'm not actually a devotee, but there's enough out there that it deserves a home of its own.  So have it at.  Any thing from old style Grand Ole' Opry through the newest production from the Nashville hit machines.

[mn dave]

I don't know where to begin so I'll begin by saying that George Jones is king.

[NJ Joe]

This is about as Country as I get, but I do love this album.

[bwv 1080]

went on an old time / minstrel binge a couple of years ago, going as far as purchasing a gourd banjo.  Its fascinating music, given it represents the beginning of the Africanization of American popular music but is immersed in the racist baggage of the era.  Here is a very early piece transcribed by Frank Converse, who travelled around the South in the 1860s who wrote:

The first banjo I ever heard was in the hands of a colored man--a bright mulatto--whose name I have forgotten. He frequently visited Elmira and the neighboring villages, playing and singing and passing his hat for collections. His repertoire was not very extensive, but, with his comicalities, sufficed to gain him a living. I cannot say that I learned anything from his execution, which, though amusing, was limited to the thumb and first finger,--pulling or picking the strings with both. He was quite conceited as to his abilities (pardonable in banjo players, I believe), and to impress his listeners with a due appreciation of them, he would announce that such a trifling circumstance as the banjo being out of tune caused him no inconvenience and so, with a seemingly careless fumbling of the pegs, he would disarrange the tuning--fro de banjo out a tune, he said--but merely pitching the second string a semitone higher.

The following morceaux, which I still recall, was his piece de resistance with the instrument frod out a tune, and thinking it may amuse your readers, I give it.

https://www.youtube.com/v/9c2IsbIi9Hg

another couple of pieces from an 1860s  banjo method:

https://www.youtube.com/v/ov_pLiHDLdw

finally some Beatles and Zeppelin on the same instrument
https://www.youtube.com/v/5ss9tOxZ1bw

https://www.youtube.com/v/yslsP2p58Z8

[VonStupp]

Grandma's feather bed

https://www.youtube.com/v/KpVco93tNS8

Nice Karl. Your post reminded me of a run in I had with John Denver...

Back in the peak of his career (maybe a little later), JD was traveling through our town, it was a Christmas show, and they were looking for singers for a pick-up chorus to add to the holiday specialty songs at the end of the show. A group of us decided to throw our hats in to sing.

Suffice to say, I still have the choral parts to Please Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas. Our contract made sure we didn't ask for autographs or bother him with questions, but he spent some time with us during rehearsal and couldn't have been a nicer guy. He was lively in rehearsal, but it was his singing voice at the performance that was a treasure.

I don't have many celebrity stories where I live in the US, especially music specific ones, but this is one I will always cherish.

VS

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Nice Karl. Your post reminded me of a run in I had with John Denver...

Back in the peak of his career (maybe a little later), JD was traveling through our town, it was a Christmas show, and they were looking for singers for a pick-up chorus to add to the holiday specialty songs at the end of the show. A group of us decided to throw our hats in to sing.....

VS

Nice story VS!