Cover of the Year?

Alt-Country founding father Jeff Tweedy takes on the Black Eyed Peas.  Forget Hendrix, this may or may not be the best cover of all time.

The Country Side of The Stones

Last The Rolling Stones released an excellent remastered version of their 1978 classic Some Girls and it got me back into listening to alot of the Stones over the past week.  The Rolling Stones certainly have a special place in my musical heart as they, in their most quintessential form, represent one of the purest forms of Rock and Roll, that being a steady mixture of blues and country.  I've always found it funny that though they hail from the other side of the pond, throughout their career they've put out some the most "American" sounding music to date.  Mic Jagger and Keith Richards have often stated their inspiration not only coming from Chess Records American blues, but also from what they've referred to as "hillbilly music".  Needless to say, they in turn have inspired a multitude of bands too numerous to count, and their raucous attitude and approach is certainly seen throughout a lot of the alternative music I'm so fond of.  Having said that, I thought I'd through out some of my favorite Stones tunes when they're fully channeling their inner hillbilly.

Beggar's Banquet's "No Expectations" (1968):

Country-Fried version of "Honky Tonk Women" off of Let It Bleed, "Country Honk" (1969):

Let It Bleed's beautifully rollicking title track (keep in mind this came out a good 5 years before Bill Withers' "Lean on Me")

Sticky Fingers' classic "Wild Horses" (Keith even tunes his guitar to the 'Nashville Tuning' for this one):

I posted country legend Townes Van Zandt's cover of this earlier who put his own spin on it; however the Stones version is just as effectively executed.  Sticky Fingers' "Dead Flowers" (1971):

And perhaps my favorite country cut of theirs, "Sweet Virginia" off of Exile on Main Street (1972); see you next time:

The Thanksgiving Filter

Ahh Thanksgiving, that wonderful time of year.  Whether going to your home or off to a relative's, the holiday for most almost always involves coming together with family both close and distant.  Depending on the dynamics of one's family, this holiday can bring many ups and downs.  Often spending time with the extended fam carries with it the baggage that almost any family has within it, and the joy found in seeing relatives not seen in a while more times than not is coupled with the difficulties in coping with these complicated familial and generation dynamics.  This is the theme that the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood explores in "The Thanksgiving Filter" off of this year's excellent Go-Go Boots.  In line with many great country songs and particularly the characters in the Truckers' universe, nothing helps this problem better than a nice stiff drink; the titular "filter" that helps Hood's character get through the holiday.  The aforementioned juxtaposition is portrayed perfectly in the tonally dark verses and the cathartic and conflicted joy of the chorus (with lines like "I sure wish I had smoked me a joint" serving as a great irreverent lead in).  Despite the seemingly jaded content, the Truckers deliver this in a fun and relatable way and it serves as the perfect companion piece to the unique experience that is the holiday season.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Cover of The Day: Townes Takes on The Stones

One of our best songwriters covering one of our best rock and roll bands.

Country Love Song

So today we talked about our love mixtape song in class.  If I was staying true to my blog's genre I would have picked this one:

Or perhaps this one: A reworked version of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" by Steve Earle's son, Justin Townes Earle:

Album Review: Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen's latest album, September's Ready For Confetti, certainly displays the Texas Country legend finding familiar territory from his earlier days.  I definitely mean this in a positive sense.  A friend to me once described Keen as "Texas' Jimmy Buffet", a title he meant in a complementary way but that I vehemently disagreed with given his masterworks throughout the late 1980s and 1990s that were littered with beautiful observational songwriting and stylistic explorations that ranged from blues, folk, and traditional country (and I f***ing hate Jimmy Buffet).  Even his most well known and party-ready anthem, "The Road Goes On Forever (and the Party Never Ends)" has a gripping subtext and star-crossed love story that breezes over the average passive listener.  This stripped down on-air performance from the early Nineties displays this better.

In retrospect though, I can see how much his work throughout the Aughts (especially his bigger hits) would lend some from my generation to think this is the case.  That's not to say these albums didn't have songs I enjoy (see "The Rose Hotel", "Ride", "For Love"), but they were spotty at best and failed to reach the potential that albums like his 1987 masterwork, A Bigger Piece of Sky, or 1997's Walking Distance achieved. That said his new album is his most enjoyable work from end to end in years.  Beginning with "Black Baldy Stallion", Keen starts off a the right note by setting the wandering-drifter tone beautifully displayed on albums like A Bigger Piece of Sky.  The second song and title track slides back into the "Texas Buffet" territory, but will likely be able to cross-over a get him some radio play eventually.  The third track and first single though, "I Gotta Go", is perhaps the album's best with classic Keen aspects.  With a bluesy lead riff and Keen-esque storytelling lyrics, I'm glad he or whoever chose for the lead off single to show he's going for a more organic feeling on his new album.

The record hits its mid-album stride with solid tracks like the emotionally charged "Lay Down My Brother" and the biting yet cheekily self-aware "The Road Goes On and On".  He starts the finally stretch with a cover of extremely underrated country-folk artist Todd Snider's "Play a Train Song", something that doesn't depart too far from the original (it doesn't really need to) and is a nice nod to friend and fellow alt-countryer.  He also questionably reworks his own "Paint the Town Beige" off of Sky without much changes either.  However with some of my favorite lyrics in country ( like "I traded for a songbird a bigger piece of sky"), hopefully this can point some of Earle's younger fans to his older work.  The album closes with the emotional "Soul of Man" that serves as an effective bookend to the album. 

All in all, this is his easily his best and most solid album in years and by this point has become his best selling as well.  Hopefully this album will continue to help him keep his audience both of old school alternative country and also of fans from the Texas country movement of the best years.  Either way, this Keen doing his thing and doing it well.  Here's an old acoustic performance of "Paint the Town Beige" because, well, it kicks ass.

Country Covers: Avett Bros

Avett Brothers covering The Boss.  At their best, a nice unplugged performance that makes me wanna hold on to the college years.

Steve Earle: The Hardcore Troubador (Part 1: Steve in the 80s)

Though Steve Earle came onto the music scene long before the days of the "alt-country" proper movement of the 1990s, he's always been embedded in the same ethos, never biding to strict genre lines.  By now, Earle certainly has cut out for himself a solid following amongst music fans; however, his career has often been indicative of the alt-country dilemma: making music that's too country to hit the Rock mainstream, and too rock to hit the Country mainstream.  Despite this, Earle is and always has been a musician's musician and his influence and approach can been felt throughout country music over the past 30 years.

Earle was a country black sheep straight from the get-go.  Growing up in a small town outside of San Antonio, Earle was a 16 year old highschool drop-out with a rebellious attitude and self-destructive lifestyle.  After giving music a try in Houston for a few years in the early 1970s -- where he befriended later teacher/role-model/friend/songwriting icon Townes Van Zandt -- he moved to Nashville at 19 in 1975.  Donning straggly long hair, a heavy lifestyle (thanks Townes), and anti-Vietnam sentiments, Nashville and mainstream country execs certainly didn't take to him right off the bat.  Luckily, his songwriting chops didn't go unnoticed and he soon made a decent living as a songwriter for legends such as Guy Clark and Carl Perkins along with artists like Johnny Lee, Vince Gill, Steve Warniner (he was also hired to write a song for Elvis Pressley but unfortunately The King didn't show up to the recording session).

Growing tired of Nashville, Earle moved back to Houston and began playing with his own band, The Dukes.  Despite significant support from musicians and critics throughout Nashville, he had trouble finding a major label to support and had a contract fall apart with Epic Records who left him in their back pocket for a years but never produced a record for him.  This was certainly indicative of the major label system that was coming to breaking point in the early 1980s, as labels weren't willing to risk producing and distributing music that didn't have an audience already in place.  In the rock sphere the "indie" scene was in it's primitive stages and the idea of a country musician attempting the DIY approach seemed to be an effort in futility.  However, a producer over at MCA finally caught wind of him and offered him a contract, giving way to the release of Earle's 1986 debut Guitar Town.  With a unique "neo-rockabilly" and traditional country sound, the album captured the audiences of both the neo-traditionalist movement led by Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam and fans of Bruce Springsteen's populist heartland-American rock.

"Gotta keep rockin' while I still can, gotta two-pack habit and a motel tan."  Something about that lyric seems to encapsulate the mindset of a freewheeling lifestyle (like that of a young, traveling musician) and every time I hear it in my car I can't help but turn up the volume.  The well of great lyrics as such and the fresh sound captivated the country music scene and with two charting singles ("Guitar Town" and "Goodbye's All We've Got Left") the album shot to number one on the US Country Billboard Charts (89 on the Billboard 200).  Here's a cut of the latter single live from Austin City Limits.

So Earle finally got some of the mainstream attention many felt his songwriting warranted and the album received critical acclaim just for good measure.  I readily admit that upon first listening to the album (my introduction to Mr. Earle's music), as a predominant indie rocker I fell on the "too country" side of the alt-county dilemma in my initial reactions.  To me, the sound seemed a little too close to what nowadays sounds like mainstream Nashville, though Allmusic describes his first two albums as much "livlier stuff than anyone in Nashville was cranking out at the time". However (as with much of favorite music) it was the things I was uncomfortable/unfamiliar with on the first listen that have become my favorite parts of the music now.  His sophomore album followed quickly in 1987, and Exit 0 (billed as Steve Earle & the Dukes) marked a sound that was nearing closer to a rock-based approach.  Here's the lead track "Nowhere Road":

This more rock-based sound was reflected in the country music charts with a loss in sales compared to its predecessor.  Nonetheless, it still garnered critical acclaim and did well enough for MCA to not lose anything on it.  His third album, 1988's Copperhead Road, found Steve fully embracing his rock and roll sentiments and aggressive attack.

This song became Earle's third charting lead-off track in a row, though it wasn't the Billboard Country charts that grabbed onto it.  Gathering significant airplay from rock radio stations, the album was his highest charting on the Billboard 200 (Number 56) with a unique sound that Rolling Stone described as "power twang" in their four-star review and the heartland rock sounds like John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen if they had grown up in the South.  The album wasn't a pure rock album by any means though, as many songs still had his (slightly more powerful) country sound as heard.

Despite his steady success in multiple markets, by the late 1980s Earle's personal life was spinning out of control.  At the time of Copperhead's release Earle was on his 5th marriage and was battling serious problems with alcohol and drug abuse.  After an arrest in Dallas for an attack on a security guard at his own concert, multiple drug related incidents, and a paternity suits from past wives, the country music establishment was ready to turn their back on Earle.  His fourth album, 1990's sporadic The Hard Way, showed signs of his wearing and though the album still received generally favorable reviews amongst critics, the album quickly fell off the charts.  After this MCA released a live album of previously recorded material to finish out their contract and cut their ties with him after which.

With no record contract and nearly broke, Earle disappeared from the scene completely after slipping into a self-described two-year "trip into the ghetto" followed by a jail and rehab stint.  Though at the time the music industry and fans alike thought Earle was gone for good, his influence was clearly evident in the alternative country movement that took off in the 1990s.  Luckily though, alt-country's prodigal son would soon return home with a vengeance and solidify his place in country music alongside the contemporary artists he had come to influence.