somehow

Vermont milk cows looking at me like the fool I am.

Somehow this bluebird contraption has made it past the one year mark. So I figured I’d celebrate with a six-pack: Waylon’s on the road again, Gene Clark is a genius again, the early Byrds hit the road for Boston, George cries in his booze again, as does Commander Cody, and James Talley casts those daily grind troubles aside and takes the wife out to raise a little hell. And while I'm celebrating, I want to thank Odie, Brendan, and Mike for helping me get and keep this thing rolling. And, folks, do yourself a solid and check out the links over on the right. If you aren’t regularly going to The Rising Storm, The Adios Lounge, Groover’s, or the other sites listed, then you are depriving the brain cells of vital musical oxygen. And speaking of oxygen, it's time to crack a cold one and listen to Waylon and the boys.

Waylon Jennings - Laid Back Country Picker
Gene Clark and the Gosdin Brothers - Is Yours Is Mine
The Byrds - Boston
George Jones - Why Baby Why
Commander Cody - Wine Do Yer Stuff
James Talley - You Can’t Ever Tell

Ladies Love Outlaws

In 1972 RCA released, against Waylon Jennings’ objections, his album Ladies Love Outlaws. While Waylon may not have wanted the album to see the light of day, the title-track, by Lee Clayton, was a hit and helped solidify the emerging Outlaw Country movement/image. A year later Clayton recorded his version of the song and used it to close-out his self-titled first album.

Lee Clayton - Ladies Love Outlaws [buy]

so just leave time alone

Along with John Prine’s “Paradise,” probably the song which I start almost unconsciously singing more than any other is Ed and Patsy Bruce’s “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Way back when I was a trouble-making 8 year old, my pops used to sit in the living room on Sunday mornings and strum his guitar along to Waylon Jennings’ and Willie Nelson’s duet version of “Mammas” from their double-platinum 1978 release Waylon & Willie. (My roommate Jenna just told me that when she was growing-up her mom would cut a friend’s hair and when he went to wash his hair out he would sing “Mammas” in a pitch-perfect Kermit the Frog voice: now that’s a mash-up I can get behind.) But when I return to W&W, I find myself listening to Nelson's “Pick-Up the Tempo” more than any other tune. Willie’s concept album Phases and Stages features a rather slower take on the tune, but the real template for the duet version is Waylon’s performance of it on This Time from 1974. The rendition on W&W simply overdubs Willie’s voice onto that version. However, even if it is an overdub, I still like it better than either of the other two. And my pop's had it right all along: it's a sweet Sunday morning album.

Waylon and Willie - Pick Up the Tempo [buy]

And here’s that other very singable “Paradise."