So last night as I worked burning, washing and sieving asphalt and its component parts, I listened to two fine folk albums. The first was the latest release from Cal Scott Carved Wood Box and the second was Walk Along John from Canadian mandolin virtuoso John Reischman. Currently, Cal Scott’s album is number 29 on the Folk DJ Chart and Reischman is number 4!
So today is Willie Nelson’s 80th birthday, Happy Birthday Willie! What can you say about this Americana Music Icon, way back when Willie, Waylon and a few others left the Nashville music scene behind for “Outlaw Music”. They blazed their own trails and music is the better for it! I picked up his career after the success of The Red-headed Stranger and Phases and Stages. the soundtrack for Honeysuckle Rose, Willie Nelson and Family Live, Stardust and many other albums are in my collection. I could go on and on about the albums with Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard and The Highway Men albums with Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon and Willie and all the great songs from “Crazy” , “On the Road Again”, “To All the Girls I Loved”, “Bloody Mary Morning” I could keep on going but I know there are lots of places on the web, including Wikipedia, where you can read about them. So I’ll just say again, Happy 80th Willie, we’re all hoping and expecting many more!! With all the songs I could post a million videos, but I’ll go with the combination of Willie, Merle and Townes Van Zandt and “Pancho and Lefty”!
Ok so this morning was a folkie Texas Country music morning! I listened to the new album by a band called Left Arm Tan (which I usually have), Alticana and last years release from Texas singer-songwriter Matt Harlan and the Sentimentals Bow and Be Simple. You’ll be reading more about both of these great album in the near future, but for now let’s listen to some lunchtime music from Left Arm Tan.”The Ghost of Lila Pearl” from a previous album! Good Stuff!
My musical day today started with a mix of folk music from the iPod, first there was a song from Jesse Winchester’s Gentleman of Leisure album and then a Mark Erelli song, a track from Les Sampou, I haven’t heard her voice in a while! As my thoughts rambled through the list of musicians whose music could come on next, they landed on Darryl Purpose, whose music I’ve loved since around 2000. I thought about his latest album, his first album of new material since 2003. In 2005 he set down his guitar shut down his music making and according to his website he…
Ok so yesterday we had a family gathering to celebrate Easter and Andrew’s 31 birthday, which is today. Anyway about midway through the day, Andrew went upstairs and came down with three albums by RPWL which I mentioned in the other days post about Blind Ego! So on the way down to the job site at milepost 53.9 on the Garden State Parkway, I listened to a mix of RPWL and enjoyed their music. I’ll write more after I’ve listened to the albums a few more times.
March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999
So yesterday I didn’t write about the day being the birthday of Hoyt Axton, so I’ll make up for it today! Anyway Axton was a big bear of a man with a contagious smile and a pretty darn good songwriter! Most of his songs became hits for others. Here’s a list of the songs I’m sure you all know a few of them!
On March 7, 1944, Townes Van Zandt was born. I am one of those people who just fairly recently discovered Townes’ music. I knew his name , but it really wasn’t until after Willie recored “Pancho & Lefty that I became aware of his immense talent. The first album that I bought was A Far Cry from Dead which was released in 1999 after his death. Since then I’ve gone back and added several albums to my library. Some background information from Wikipedia, for those who don’t know Townes:
So on this day two music legends were born. On this date in 1932 Johnny Cash was born and then in 1943 Paul Cotton of Poco was born, well maybe one legend was born and one great musician! anyway both had impacts on my musical listening. Of course Johnny Cash had the greater impact! n Through the years starting with songs like “Ring of Fire”, “Jackson” and hell you know them all, through the TV show and the albums from San Quinton and Folsom Prisons, Cash blazed a trail many country rock musicians followed, he was their Beatles! The success that he found with the last albums he produced before he died prove that his appeal spanned generations and genres! He was the man! For me after Cash came artists a love for artists like, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and many more!
