Everything about this is masterful, the song (by Guy Clark, funnily I couldn’t find a single version of this by himself so I am not sure if he even recorded it himself), the vocals by Mr. Lovett and the musical arrangement/accompaniment, especially the lap steel guitar. Not to mention beautiful. An ode to simple living, filled with music and memories.
Read this brief, but spot-on story about the new blood being infused into the Country Music scene in the mid-1980’s over at Acoustic Guitar Magazine. I am glad to be able to truthfully state that I was with them both (and a host of other artists mentioned in the article) from early on as I bought both Guitar Town and Guitars Cadillacs Etc., Etc. pretty much when they came out (on vinyl back then of course.
Rebels With A Cause How Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle Saved Country Music
Dwight Yoakam : Guitars Cadillacs
Steve Earle : My Old Friend The Blues
Plus, Steve Earle can be seen playing a Martin 15 Series guitar in the article closely related to the one I do (although he undoubtedly does so much better than me)
Wow. ’nuff said.
I made this slide show to one of my (many) favorite Uncle Tupelo songs (from Still Feel Gone) a few years back. It’s not prefect by any means but I wanted to capture the feeling of living in small towns (in Texas in this case) and ‘looking for a way out’. Whether or not that is always the right way forward or not I am not too sure about, but I guess a lot of people can relate to that urge, I certainly can or rather could when I was younger.
A must-see for me.
One of my favorite Canadian artists (not surprising with a name of his band like this), name-checking two of my other favorite Canadian musicians, Tim Hus and Stompin’ Tom Connors. No wonder I love this.
Dylan’s classic gets a lovely reworking on this version by David Mallett, the video’s lovely too.
The last time I heard of Mr. Garrett Dutton aka G. Love was way back in the 90’s – and now I stumbled upon one of his Acoustic Guitar Magazine sessions.
He sure knows how to treat a guitar. Smashing.
To celebrate the arrival of my first Peter Mayer CD (Million Year Mind) in the mail earlier today,
here’s a live version of his song Awake (not on that CD). It’s a fine, lovely and thoughtful song with some mighty fine guitar work.
Back Road Bound 