Check this out:
Bob Weir: "George Jones is my favorite musician."
I have a new-found respect for Bob Weir! Though I consider Jones a singer, not a musician. A matter of semantics, perhaps. Many other singers consider(ed) Jones the greatest, including Gram Parsons and Elvis Costello. When it comes to Country music I myself reserve the top spot for Hank Williams. Hank was of course also a great songwriter, which George was not.
The quote is one spoken by Charlie Starr of the band Blackberry Smoke, in a conversation he had with Otis Gibbs. Otis tapes interviews with singers, songwriters, and musicians he meets in his travels around the U.S.A. (mostly, though also in other countries).
Also mentioned in the interview is that Weir likes to include the song "Up On Cripple Creek" by the Band in his live shows. I find it very encouraging that younger musicians like Starr still find the music of The Band highly relevant, as is made obvious in the video.
Like Weir I grew up just south of San Francisco (he in the Menlo Park area, I in San Jose/Cupertino), and in the late-60’s/early-70’s there was very much a "back-to-the-roots" movement amongst musicians in the Bay area. Everyone I knew was listening to The Byrds’ Notorious Byrd Brothers and Sweetheart Of The Rodeo albums, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Dylan’s John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline, Dillard & Clark, and especially The Band. Many songs by these bands and artists were being performed live by locals. Merle Haggard songs were also regularly heard being performed live in Bay area bars and clubs.
In conjunction with the above, we were all going back in time, investigating the origins of Hillbilly/Country & Western music. New Roots bands were popping up around the Bay area, including Asleep At The Wheel, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, and Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks. The Dead joined the movement with their Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty albums. Better late than never. 😉
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Always loved George "Possum" Jones, his tone, phrasing and pace are instantly recognizable. I often sing "The Grand Tour" to myself in the car - it has what I consider one of the best and saddest final stanzas in country (or any) music: There's her rings, all her things I am also a big Hank Williams Sr. fan and consider him, Jimmie Rodgers, and the Carter Family to be on the Mount Rushmore of Country Music. I also am a big fan of Eddy Arnold (the Tennessee Plowboy), Ferlin Husky, Hank Snow, and I just realized how long this list is but you get the idea. George's biggest hit "He Stopped Loving Her Today", while an amazing song lyrically, is too overproduced and syrupy for me, so while I do love it I wish there was a "demo version" of it floating around but that type of thing doesn't seem to happen much in the country world (although Alone With His Guitar is an HW fan's dream come true, and there is some Johnny Cash demo material I've loved as well). As a guy who grew up on a farm in northern Wisconsin, I envy your SoCal youth, California was like a mystical land when I was a kid and I remember thinking how kids growing up there were "lucky ducks" to use the parlance of the time. I actually came to be a Deadhead through country classics rather than the other way around, and I've always been grateful (pun intended) for the oeuvre of these fantastic artists. Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion of Return of the Grievous Angel (the tribute album, not the song)? I have heard mixed reviews, but I really enjoy it to this day. Anyway, thanks for the interesting post.
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Sorry, the above question was meant for you @bdp24 I just realized I didn't address anyone. More coffee, STAT! |
Yep @hifiguy42, I figured so. I do have the Just Me And My Guitar album, on LP. The series of eight 2-LP chronologically-arranged Hank Williams compilations on Polydor are essential imo. I would like to add to your list Lefty Frizzell (a favorite of Merle Haggard, and singer of "Long Black Veil", a great song The Band included on their debut album), Buck Owens, Johnny Horton (as a kid I started my subscription to the Columbia Record Club with his Greatest Hits album), Johnny Cash (my Mom had his Ring Of Fire LP, which I wore out on our Magnavox console), The Louvin Brothers (if you like The Everly Brothers you’ll like them), Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Carl Smith (Carlene’s Pa), Tom T. Hall, Charlie Rich, Faron Young, Ricky Skaggs, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Vince Gill, Clint Black, Randy Travis, George Strait, Rodney Crowell (a great songwriter too), and Keith Whitley. Though categorized as Rock ’n’ Roll, The Everly Brothers have deep Hillbilly roots, and have made some purely Country Western albums. And let’s not forget the gals: Wanda Jackson (a girlfriend of Elvis’, and a favorite with Rockabilly enthusiasts. I’ve seen her live!), Tammy Wynette (my personal favorite), Skeeter Davis (in the mid-80’s she did an album with NRBQ. She was at the time married to NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato, who is Keith Richards’ favorite bass player.), Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells (now THERE is a hillbilly!), Patsy Cline of course, Dolly Parton (when she isn’t pandering), Connie Smith (she’s married to Marty Stuart), Patty Loveless (I LOVE Patty!), Rhonda Vincent (also an excellent mandolin and fiddle player), Alison Krauss, Rosie Flores, and the Queen---Emmylou Harris! The Grievous Angel album, being a various artists compilation, is a mixed bag. My feeling is that Gram was a much better songwriter than singer (he sings flat throughout his debut solo album. He’s much better on his second), so interpretations by other singers is fine with me. By the way, I attended the Return To Sin City---a Tribute To Gram Parsons tribute show held at the Universal Amphitheater in 2004. It too was a mixed bag, the low point being the disgusting behaviour of Keith Richards, who was hanging all over poor Norah Jones, who looked horrified. He also sounded like sh*t. They sang "Love Hurts", a song thought by many to be a Parsons song. Nope, it was written by Boudleaux Bryant, and recorded and released in 1960 by The Everly Brothers. A FANTASTIC song! The Brothers version is considerably better than the cover by Gram and Emmylou.
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