George writes:
I don’t really like to post the obvious choices, but if the track is one the ten best songs ever recorded, well, you’re getting it. …...after a few words about this week’s state, Kentucky. For starters, remember that TVshow Casey Jones we all watched when (a lot) younger? The one with the bloke on the steam train? He was from Kentucky. So was Abraham Lincoln.
I don’t really like to post the obvious choices, but if the track is one the ten best songs ever recorded, well, you’re getting it. …...after a few words about this week’s state, Kentucky. For starters, remember that TVshow Casey Jones we all watched when (a lot) younger? The one with the bloke on the steam train? He was from Kentucky. So was Abraham Lincoln.
And so was Jim Ford, from Harlan County, born into poverty, bathed in misery. Looking at various statistics and stories about Harlan County it seems to be a desperate place, one of the poorest of all 3,142 counties in the US, and one with significantly shorter life expectancy than is typical of the country (an eight year difference). And a place where you can get shot for 15 cents just to buy a loaf of bread…..
Harlan County is also responsible for the union song Which Side Are You On, about the eight year conflict between the miners’ union and the companies that cut the workers’ wages by 10% (because the companies wanted to make the country as a whole more dependent on coal so sold it below cost).
If you’re ever in Petersburg, Kentucky, why not pop in to The Creation Museum, which as the name suggests takes the bible literally. Or in Williamstown you could find an exact replica of Noah’s Ark (using the dimensions from the bible). Or you might want to scale Black Mountain, as long as you sign a waiver - it has so many mine tunnels the summit is prone to collapse...
There’s millions of great songs about Kentucky and its towns and cities, difficult to choose just one. But here it is, and it’s about the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Gosdin Brothers do the second best version of this Everly Brothers song. All are simply blown away by Neko Case (despite the negative comments coming from my left as I play said song):
That’s track 2 on the album by Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, The Virginian.
While you are in Bowling Green, singing the prettiest girls you’ve ever seen, how a guy is Kentucky sure is lucky to love down in Bowling Green, make sure you visit the fabulous Drake Vintage Music and Curios, which is dedicated to all things country, especially vintage recordings from the 1940s, and is home to the official Carter Family Fan Club.
One song that couldn’t be included was 16 Tons, made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford (or The Redskins, depending on your age and/or musical tastes). There’s a version by (I kid you not) The Red Army Choir, who whilst performing seem to be on some sort of Bing Crosby-White Christmas set. And if you’ve nothing better to do, check out the version on The Voice Of Mongolia. And I discovered a Portuguese version (maybe it was Brazilian, but the lyrics were portuguese) by Noro Vilela. He is/was Brazilian.
That’s Kentucky. The home of bluegrass music. I once saw a 7CD boxset of old Kentucky Mountain Music, in Revolver Records in Derby. I almost bought it.
And bluegrass is green not blue.
Harlan - check
Country - check
Bluegrass - check
Very possibly my favourite instalment thus far.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post George with so much of interest - A pretty tough state to have lived and worked in back in the day it seems.
ReplyDeleteLike your music choices too as I did always go for the obvious, and that for me would have been Kentucky Rain by Elvis.
Not Blue Moon of Kentucky?- even more obvious
DeleteI would have been torn between those two. Blue Moon is the classic, but Kentucky Rain was written by the great Eddie Rabbit and it allows Elvis to do his desperation act so well.
DeleteSpeaking of Harlan County being a desperate place - for proof of that, give a listen to "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", especially this version by Ruby Friedman & Nick Page
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYhLnYnrivI
I will assume you are not directing me to a dodgy video and give the song a listen.....
DeleteGeorge - There's quite a few versions (Darrell Scott, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Red Molly, Dave Alvin) but I think that one is the best.
DeleteSplendid track, FBCB, splendid. It's going on vol. 148
DeleteAnd there's Randy Newman's cynical rewriting of the old American folk song "Old Kentucky Home"...
ReplyDeleteSister sue, she's short and stout
She didn't grow up she grew out
Mama says she's plain but she's just bein' kind
Papa thinks she's pretty but he's almost blind
Don't let her out much 'cept at night
But I don't care 'cause I'm all right
Oh, the sun shines bright on
My old Kentucky home
And the young folks roll on the floor
Oh, the sun shines bright on
My old Kentucky home
Keep them hard times away from my door
Kentucky is one of those forgotten states in what snobby coastal folk call flyover country. Having grown up in flyover country, I see things a little differently. When I was a lad, we used to have family reunions at Kentucky Lake near Paducah in the summers. It was a beautiful area that continues to have a hold on me decades later. I don't know too many bands from the Bluegrass State, but I think Cage the Elephant got their start at Bowling Green. Not my cup of tea, but that's all I've got.
ReplyDeleteI had too many to choose from this week, and George would have hated all of them.
ReplyDelete