Disc of the day
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
Features Disc of the day
Various
Heartworn Highways
(Loose, 2006)
2006 reissue of songs from Jim Szalapski’s now-legendary document of ’70s ‘progressive country’.
In 1975, director and writer Jim Szalapski set himself a task: to recast American country music in a landmark documentary. Released in 1981, the film showcased a new generation of country musicians: soulful, dirt-under-their-fingernails country outlaws like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, David Allen Coe and a 21-year-old unknown called Steve Earle, artists who were set to challenge Nashville’s hegemony of high-hair and rhinestone schmaltz. All relative newcomers (an offer from Willie Nelson to take part was rejected on the grounds that he was too famous), they sang their own songs at Szalapski’s insistence, a notable exception being Steve Young, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark and Steve Earle’s heartfelt jam on Hank Williams' I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. Omitted from the film, it’s the first of three songs from a large, raucous Christmas Eve session (in every sense) at Guy Clark’s family home. Other highlights include Larry Jon Wilson’s Ohoopee River Bottomland, his sourmash baritone purposefully capturing the morning after the night before (Szalapski wanted it “deep and rusty with unuse”). But everything here feels unique, bespoke, special – and the DVD (released in 2006) retains the warm glow of history-in-the-making.
Jenny Bulley
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 23/07/2008
Further Listening
Various - Heartworn Highways DVD - (Snapper, 1975)
Guy Clark - Old Number One/Texas Cookin' (Camden, 1998)
Townes Van Zandt - Texas Troubadour (Charley, 2005)
SUGGEST YOUR OWN DISC OF THE DAY ON OUR MESSAGE BOARD HERE, OR, MORE PRIVATELY, HERE!
Previous Disc of the day
-
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
6:00 AM GMT 20/11/2009
-
-
Isley Brothers - The Brothers: Isley
The Cincinnati siblings bed into their heavy period.
6:00 AM GMT 18/11/2009
-
Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land
The trumpeter's most soulful excursion entrances MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 16/11/2009
-
-
end of body content back to top
Footer
Join us on:
© Copyright Bauer - all
rights reserved.
Reproduction of this
website, in whole or in
part, in any form or
medium without express
written permission from
Bauer is prohibited. All
use is subject to our
Terms of Use
|
|
Comments
Comment on this post
Comment on this post