Trash, Treasure, Oddities, Obsessions and Obligations
It’s starting to warm up in Phoenix. What we lovingly refer to as “winter” is starting to turn to “summer” and for the next nine days or so, the weather will emulate something akin to “spring” before beginning its annual rapid climb to triple digits. This is the time of year when the wanderlust takes hold. When the weekend arrives, I like drag my wife out of bed and haul her into the car for a day trip into the back roads.
There’s not much we can say about the fabulous career of Floyd Cramer that hasn’t already been said. Crack Nashville studio player famous for his “slip note” piano, Floyd is probably best known for his solo hit from 1960, “Last Date.” His work was an integral part of the oft-maligned “countrypolitan” sound pioneered by producer Chet Atkins, a sound usually held responsible for moving country music into the mainstream during the 1960′s through its reliance on clean arrangements and a light instrumental approach.
Continue reading ‘Report From The Country, Part Three: The Floyd Cramer Craze’
Here are excerpts from some more old newspapers I found in my file cabinets, this time from the Rocky Mountain News, circa the late 1930s. They may have been left behind by an old roomate, or I might have acquired them from a used book shop during a visit to Denver. The truth is, I don’t remember where these came from.
I do know where they are now. Old newspapers corrode if you don’t look after them, until they’re all over your hands and up your nose, and I do mean mold. They make much better landfill than they do office clutter.
Continue reading ‘Things I Should Throw Out: Rocky Mountain News, Late 1930s’
Despite its kitschy cover art and florid subject matter, a large segment of country music has been largely overlooked by the vinyl sharing crowd. While praise abounds for alt.country and its “roots” progenitors, the ordinary, garden-variety “Nashville” variant pretty much gets the short shrift. Only one site that I’ve found, the ambitious LP Discography offers the kind of obsessive coverage the subject deserves (the kind usually reserved for bad cookbooks or inept Japanese use of the English language).
Continue reading ‘Report From The Country, Part Two: Hard Life And Simple Pleasure’