Aug 132009
Here’s a cool mix of Olde Time American music that the likes of your very own Mr. Moderator can use exposure to himself. This was compiled by a fellow blogger of some renown. I hope you make time to download, spin, and comment on this mix. I hope some of you find it challenging.
Back in the Goodle Days (~20 MB)
For this challenging mix, I particularly SUMMON Townsman cherguevarra!
Tracks aren’t labeled and I haven’t listened yet, but just to say that I am willing to interrupt my current obsessions to listen to this. However, if this is some Bert Williams stuff or the like, just know it won’t actually offend my sensibilities!
This 5th track reminds me of “Do you know the difference between big wood and brush”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izOf3gNLDvk
This stuff is right up my alley. The first track is the Singing Brakeman Jimmie Rodgers’ Blue Yodel #9, otherwise known as Standing on the Corner. “I said you’ll find my name on the tail of my shirt/I’m a Tennessee hustler and I don’t have to work.” This is one of the tracks he recorded with Louis Armstrong on trumpet, and it’s hard to imagine a more heavyweight collaboration in American musical history. If you ever find yourself in Meridian MS, Rodgers’ birthplace, there’s a cool museum there in some kind of abandoned roundhouse.
Tracks 3 and 4 are western swing — What’s the Matter with Deep Ellum? by the Sunshine Boys and That’s What I Like About the South by Cliff Bruner, the latter a particular favorite of mine.
Some of the others ring a bell, but I’d love to know exactly what they are.
Here is the track list:
1. Jimmie Rodgers & Louis Armstrong – Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standin’ On The Corner)
2. The Light Crust Doughboys – Mean Mean Mama (From Meana)
3. The Sunshine Boys – What’s The Matter With Deep Elem?
4. Cliff Bruner – That’s What I Like About The South
5. Ernest Tubb – My Baby Loves Me In Her Own Peculiar Way
6. Rex Griffin – Just Partners
7. Jimmy Work – Do Your Honky Tonkin’ At Home
9. Moon Mullican – Ragged But Right
I am enjoying this mix and will post my thoughts soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this somewhat tangentially related video:
http://ia311508.us.archive.org/2/items/to_hear_your_banjo_play/to_hear_your_banjo_play.mpeg
I should have known that was from hankfan. Good work. That Ernest Tubb song is sweet. I don’t have a good Tubb collection anymore. Any ideas on a basic comp, hf?
This is a good set of tunes. I knew about half of them already. But is this really going to push anybody’s buttons, even a little bit? I mean is there really anybody on this list who might be “challenged” by this mix?
Still, good stuff.
Steve, I have a couple of Tubbs collections, a 40-song 2 CD Definitive Hits collection and a 25-song Early Hits single CD. A fair amount of overlap between them. E-mail me if you’d like me to send you a copy.
My only issue with this music is that I tend to view it as an artifact, something that is beyond critique. It’s all obviously quality stuff, but I suppose that when you view something as an artifact, you take away the utility of it – that is, it ceases to be seen in the context of it’s original reason for being and instead becomes something distant to be analyzed. So, I’m just trying to listen enough to get a deeper sense of it. But then, this is very straightforward music. Then again, as I type this, I am listening to Kraftwerk. Go figure.
Big Steve – I don’t have a good basic Tubb compilation. I’ve got the Country Music Hall of Fame single disc, but it’s not that great. “The Definitive Ernest Tubb Hits Collection” looks pretty good, but I don’t have that one. Of course, the Bear Family boxes are excellent, but they are more than most fans would want. My favorite of those is “Yellow Rose of Texas,” which covers his output during the mid to late 1950s, a little later than what most consider to be his classic era, but positively influenced by the rock and roll era (i.e., great version of Chuck Berry’s Thirty Days).
mwall – I think this stuff is challenging for the reason cherguevarra noted: Now we tend to hear this as just artifact, but if you live with it for awhile, it starts to sound less like a history lesson and more like regular music–at least it did for me. Plus, I’ve seen this kind of stuff drive my wife and kids nuts, especially the yodeling.
Mod – Thanks for posting this disc. I completely forgot about it.
That makes sense, hank fan.
Of course, people who want to hear music from the 40s and 50s as artifact and music from the 60s or even 70s as still just music need to get their geezer meter checked right away. 90% of what gets discussed around here is artifacts from long ago. And most of us discussing it are artifacts ourselves.
I love this stuff. The quality and wit of the songwriting connects it — in my mind — to a lot of my favorite music, from Randy Newman to Pulp. I totally agree with Hankfan; the more time you spend with it, the less old-timey it seems. Especially since the musicianship is so great. Everything swings.