The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo

When people ask me where I get my musical tastes from, I have to give it up to the musical folks that I’ve ended up hanging out with over the years,  Most had radically different taste than I did, but they all had one thing in common…a love for the music.

For a while in the late nineties, I really got into the LA country scene.  My good friend Mike was living in Studio City with the rest of his band, The Six Shooters, and playing a pedal steel guitar he purchased from some shady Greek music store that we were certain was a front for the mob. The pedal steel didn’t even come with pedals…or legs, Mike built those himself, although I’ll never figure out how.

It was an excellent time hanging out with some amazing musicians like Mike Stinson, Sarah Guthrie, and Tim Ferguson…and a lot it was spent smoking too much, drinking too much and listening to a lot of country music.  Of all the music we discussed at the time, no album was as revered as The Byrds “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.”

Released in 1968, it was known as the first country/rock album, which I think is a little misleading. It’s an all country album, made by a rock band. After the 1967 sessions for “The Notorious Byrd Brothers” ended, David Crosby and Michael Clarke left the band rather suddenly…leaving remaining members Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman with finding some replacements to help record a concept album that would become “Sweetheart.” They brought in Hillman’s cousin Kevin Kelley on drums, and in a move that would change the genre forever, they picked up a young Gram Parson’s to fill David Crosby’s shoes.

McGuinn’s original idea for the album was a double LP journey through American music that began with old time bluegrass and Appalachian music, and would move through the proceeding decades until it ended with some kind of cosmic space music. It was ambitious, but the final product didn’t quite come together like they planned.  Hillman and Parson’s had both come from country backgrounds though and hit it off immediately…although it soon became evident during the recording that Parson’s personality and talent were in danger of over shadowing the band and the album.

Before joining The Byrds, though, Parson’s was in a band called The International Subnmarine Band on Lee Hazelwood’s label.  When Hazelwood discovered Parson’s was playing with the Byrds, he claimed that he still had him under exclusive contract…scaring columbia Records into toning down Gram’s presence on the album.  If not for that…it may well have become Gram Parson’s “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” which might not have been such a bad thing upon hearing his renditions of ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ (hear below) and ‘One Hundred Years from Now.’

This is music for back porch sitting.  Pure Americana distilled into moonshine and poured deep into mason jars for your sipping pleasure (Or guzzling.)  Better yet, it was country music made by men who truely loved country music and all it’s roots…and recognized that it was the cornerstone that rock and roll was built on.

The album was released, the band toured, but soon the Byrds were no more.  Parson’s left to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Hillman, and Kelley threw in the towel…leaving McGuinn to call it quits.   But for a few months, it looks like country might just rule the world.

Lone Star – Original Soundtrack

There’s actually two different kinds of soundtracks out there.  Some are original scores to the film by a certain composer (Lord of the Rings,) and the rest are collections of actual songs either new or old.  Musical scores are okay, but really when’s the last time you pulled out the score from Blade Runner to throw on at a party(aside from you, Pete)?  And then there’s music soundtracks which, for the most part, are usually for shit. 

The labels and studios seem intent on using the movie soundtrack format to promote new songs from horrible artists, i.e.: anything that has a sticker on the CD that says “Featuring the New Hit Single from Crazytown!” Or you get a creatively defunct top 40 classics mix, ala Forrest Gump that you could hear just by turning on the local oldies station. 

A good soundtrack, on the other hand should both accentuate the mood of the film, help drive the story, and be a little creative in it’s selection.  Notable examples of this are the brilliant soft-rock of The Virgin Suicide’s soundtrack, any of the Tarantino soundtracks (he’s like the soundtrack king,) or most recently Juno (which has me on a serious folk kick right now.)

Of all the soundtracks I own though, few hit the target quite like the Lone Star Soundtrack.  The movie takes place in Rio County Texas near the Mexican border, and like the location,  the collection of music walks a multifaceted line between the two countries.  With it’s mix of norteno, country, blues, and folk it puts you not just into the film, but into a feeling. Like sitting on a porch in the hot summer night and listening to the radio coming from a nearby bodega.

You have to love the amazing harmonica of Little Walter on tracks like ‘Boogie,’ or the mournful wail of Little Willie John on ‘My Love is.’  Apparently using the word “Little” in your name was much more popular back in the day than it is now.  Also there are standout tracks from Lucina Wiliams, Fito Olivares, Lydia Mendoza as well as some magificent loose score work by Duke Levine.

Some of the sound quality is a bit scratchy here, but in a way that I think adds to the listening experience.  That and they used a lot of old stuff with questionable source formats like 45s.

Just so you know, this is a John Sayles movie…and John Sayles is a badass.  He writes, directs, produces and edits all his own movies.  That means no one fucks with his shit and it turns out exactly how he wants it.  And I have a feeling this soundtrack was the same way.

Below, you’ll find a video for Fito Oliveras version of ‘Juana la Cubana’ which is also in the film.  Ignore the visuals, because the sound will give you a good idea of the flavor. (but you don’t have to ignore the dancing girls!)

Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings – Waylon and Willie

Yes…I like country too.

I has to be real country though, and not the pop garbage that often passes for it these days. (New Country, I’m looking in your direction.)

One of the best examples of real country is the 1978 collaboration of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, simply titled “Waylon and Willie.” A cultural touchstone for the time, it’s not Willie’s best album by far (I still stand by “Stardust,” myself) nor is it Waylon’s, but it has a warmth and sense of good will to it that is undeniable. At the time of it’s recording, both Nelson and Jennings had spent years fighting the labels for more artistic freedom and less retraints…and had subsequently won the battle that allowed Outlaw Country to flourish. 

It also lead to more than a few chart topping albums and singles for both men.

So when “Waylon and Willie” was released, it signified no big change for the genre…just a continued celebration.  Jenning’s band, The Waylords supply such a ferocious backing for the album, that one barely misses Willie on guitar. 

My friend Spoon turned our whole group onto this album back in college, and would often pull out his battered copy and play ‘Get Off on You’ at full blast until everyone was forced to sing along.  I still know the song by heart, and I once finished a fifth of Jack while listening to the album.  Then I barfed up pasta all over my house. 

Unlike this record, it was a bad combo.

Other high points are ‘Don’t Cuss the Fiddle’ and ‘Pick up the Tempo,’ but I think the whole album is a high point to be honest.  Two giants at their peak…it didn’t go double platinum for nothing folks!

Johnny Cash – American Recordings (I-V)

Everyone loves a comeback.  After being dropped by Columbia (morons) and a short stint on Mercury that lasted till 1991, Nashville and the recording industry were ready to write off the man in black.  And they might have been right too, if not for the appearance of Rick Rubin who helped Cash produce American Recordings in Cash’s living-room backed by nothing more than his acoustic guitar.  Released in 1994 the result, an album full of songs Johnny had always wanted to record (Bird on a Wire) and a few covers of contemporary artists chosen by Rubin. went on to win the Grammy that year for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

But Cash wasn’t through,  in 1996 he teamed up with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to record American Recordings II: Unchained, which won him the Grammy for Best Country Album.  Then the bottom fell out.

In 1997 Cash was diagnosed with autonomic neuropathy associated with his diabetes.  But you can’t stop the Man in Black, who drove on to record AR III: Solitary Man(2000) and AR IV: The Man Comes Around(2002.)  Both albums are darker than the first two…a response to his worsening health, but both are as good as if not better than the others…especially The Man comes Around, which knocked my socks off when I first heard it.

In May 2003, June Carter Cash passed away, telling Johnny to keep working…which he did for four months before he succumbed to his disease.  American Recordings V: A Hundred Highways, his final collaboration with Rubin was released in 2006 and is an excellent bookend to one of the greatest careers in music history.

Do yourself a favor.  Buy them all.

BONUS:  Solitary Man!!!