women + beer + the open road = country music

(or at least 99% of it)

country music is what happens when cousins marry

country music themes are the same world over. if you look at the lyrics of country music of different places on earth, you'll see the same subjects over and over.

personally, i feel bad for you strawbeary... listening to country music is akin to torture for me.

screw character, i like my sanity.


nothing good could come from that.

not country, but damn you gotta love the man's lyrics



took a 100 dollars off a slaugherhouse joe
bought a bran' new michigan 20 gauge
got all liquored up on that road house corn,
blew a hole in the hood of a yellow corvette
blew a hole in the hood of a yellow corvette
bought a second hand nova from a cuban chinese
dyed his hair in the bathroom of a texaco
with a pawnshop radio, quarter past four
well, he left waukegan at the slammin' of the door
he left waukegan at the slammin' of the door

heresy. Lyle's the man. bad hair, but the man. there's a huge difference between radio country and roots/Texas country. Toby Keith is a witless douchebag; Townes van Zandt was king. and there's just something about hearing mentioned in a song the place where you went to school or where you grew up or some crap town you passed through on the way to somewhere else.

probably can't explain it. but if you take nothing else from this, remember (no sex in the champagne room): radio country sucks copious amounts of ass.


It's a busted old town
On the plains of West Texas
The drug store's closed down,
The river's run dry
And the semi's roll through
Just like stainless steel stallions
Goin' hard, goin' fast, goin' wild...
Rollin' hard, rollin' fast, rollin' by...
-Robert Earl Keen, "Rollin' By"

more from the man >>

what's he building down there?
what the hell is he building down there?
he has subscriptions to those magazines...
he never waves when he goes by
he's hiding something from the rest of us...
he's all to himself...
i think i know why...
he took down the tire swing from the peppertree
he has no children of his own you see...
he has no dog and he has no friends and his lawn is dying...
and what about all those packages he sends.
what's he building down there?
with that hook light on the stairs.
what's he building down there...
i'll tell you one thing
he's not buiding a playhouse for the children
what's he building down there?

now what's that sound from under the door?
he's pounding nails into a hardwood floor...
and i swear to god i heard someone moaning low...
and i keep seeing the blue light of a t.v. show...
he has a router and a table saw...
and you won't believe what mr. sticha saw
there's poison underneath the sink of course...
but there's also enough formaldehyde to choke a horse...
what's he building in there?
i heard he has an ex-wife in some place called mayors income tennessee
and he used to have a consulting business in indonesia...
but what is he building in there?
what the hell is he building in there?

he has not friends
but he gets a lot of mail
i'll bet he spent a little time in jail...
i heard he was up on the roof last night
signaling with a flashlight
and what's that tune he's always whistling...
what's he building in there?
what's he building in there?

strawbeary,
'and the airwaves come in best on country stations' - wtf????

sameoldoctor- i meant the rest of the stations are static here in cubeville.

As drgonzo said above: bashing all country based on the evidence of Toby Keith and the other fools on Top 40 country is just crazy. Like hating rock-n-roll because of Poison. (Gretchen What's-her-name, the 'Redneck Woman' lady? Uggh.)

Old country takes some getting used to, so you might want to work backwards if you don't have a taste for it. The Jayhawks have made some of the best country pop ever recorded. Tift Merritt makes beautiful music. Gillian Welch. Try the tribute to Gram Parsons, 'Return of the Grievous Angel' (Beck, Wilco, Elvis Costello, Cowboy Junkies) as a way to get into his work. If you're already a fan of Wilco, work back to Uncle Tupelo. Or if you can deal with Ryan Adams, pick up Whiskeytown or Caitlyn Carey.

After you get hooked, then get the Merle Haggard, the Waylon, the Willie, the Hank Jr, and the George Jones. Hank Sr's 'Alone and Forsaken' = good stuff.

Jack White's no fool. His work with Loretta Lynn is inspired.

I should point out that my appreciation of country music has nothing to do with me living in KY - before someone points this out. I first saw the Jayhawks and Joe Henry (same show!) when I lived in Minneapolis and it still ranks among the best shows I've ever seen.

oh strawbeary, i get it now...

how bout using internet radio??? thats what i do here in my cubeville

sorry but you wont hear any country music on contemporary country music stations. ie whiskeytown, robert earl keen, joe ely, steve earle, guy clark, lucinda williams, kasey chambers, loretta, hank, george and tammy, drive by truckers, luther wright and the wrongs, uncle tupelo,flying burrito brothers, gram parsons, etc. etc. etc.the road goes on forever and the party never ends.

recent country influenced cd burn
sixteen days/whiskeytown
the weight/the band
ventura/lucinda williams
six days on the road/dave dudley
willin'/little feat
criminals/uncle tupelo
o death/ralph stanley
state trooper/bruce springsteen
pretty boy floyd/ ramblin jack elliot
1952 vincent black lightening/ richard thompson
blackjack county chains/del mccurry band
ball and chain/social distortion
the good the bad and the ugly/ hugo montenegro
carmelita, warren zevon
poncho and lefty/townes van zandt

whats a simple man to do/steve earle
harder now that its over/ryan adams
honky tonk girl/loretta lynne
highway 61 revisted
this highways mean/drive by truckers
the road goes on forever/robert earl keen

One of the top ten concerts i ever attended was Brother Phelps and Confederate Railroad opening for GEORGE JONES. He even showed up!

-Only the country fans on here will understand that one:-)

Music is music...as soon as any artist tries to cross into politics its a bad idea. Toby Keith or the Dixie Chicks...either spectrum, bad idea.

And come on, Alan Jackson isn't so bad, at least before the aforementioned song. "Chattahoochee" is still one of the greatest "new country" songs ever written. That song and "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" got me into country and that helped me find 'real country'!

Music is music...as soon as any artist tries to cross into politics its a bad idea.

what the f. are you talking about. What do you say about Bob Dylan;s lyrics???

If musicians and artists dont reflect current social and political atmospheres, who will??? CNN or FOX???

SOD, i guess i was really only thinking of these artists that barely touch the surface of any issue in particular but do little to reflect a cultural undercurrent of public sentiment....like Bob Dylan did manage to do for a while.

Many musicians, while they may care about an issue and feel the need to use their particular soapbox to spout from, really should try to avoid it because they take their issue down by sounding so damn flippant and uninformed about it. I am one of the biggest Pearl Jam fans around but i do not think that the issue of the Iraq War is done a lot of justice by Eddie making unintelligent quips about W from the stage....and bringing that asshat Tim Robbins, another "artist" with star power, onstage doesn't help matters. they are just as bad as fox news for reitterating soundbites with no substance. that does the issue no good at all.

At least Pearl Jam finally wrote a few songs that speak on the topic in a provacative way, Bush Leaguer and Green Disease come to mind...at to their credit, at least "pro-war" musicians go to the Middle East and hold concerts for the troops!

in the same way that Toby Keith's redneck lyrics drag all of country music down with him, so do other artists who do alot of squawking without making a damn bit of difference. that's all i'm saying.

steve earle writes great politically charged tunes

vado retro. i agree. i love that line in America v6.0 where he says: passionely conservative, then flips it to conservatively passionate....good stuff.

Some country music rocks and some country music sucks. Gretchen Wilson KICKS ASS. Growing up ghetto, I can totally relate to 'Redneck Woman'. I don't know why y'all don't like it.

From the Late, Great Man in Black - My Man Johnny Cash:

My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to Ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me 'Sue.'


Well, he must o' thought that is was quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named 'Sue.'

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen,
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made me a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man that give me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me 'Sue.'

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
>From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' how do you do! Now you gonna die!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down but, to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's that name that helped to make you strong."

He said: 'Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you 'Sue'.'

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I come away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but sue!

days of graduation-

bobby went out for a joyride with my best girl
left me at the party
he was my best friend and i miss him
it was almost june and the three quarter moon
illuminated the rain soaked streets like a candy wrapper.
i guess thats why bobby had his lights off.
tear-assing thru the back part of town
and those desrted country roads where me
and bobby tear -assed so many times before
sometimes with my best girl and sometimes
bobby had him one too.

but this night he banked that curve just a little too hard
and that 442 went airborne,
hit a telephone pole and split in two,
bobby's skull was split right in two,
and my girl was pinned in her seat, partially
embedded in the dashboard
and for the next twenty minutes the only sound in the night
were her screams.
and the sound of the wheel still spinning.

in a little while the ambulance came and the sound of its siren
mixed with the screaming girl and the spinning wheel.

but when the story ws told the next day at the graduation ceremony,
everyone said that when the ambulance came they could still hear "Free Bird" playing on the stereo.

you know its a very very long song.
---drive by truckers opening cut from "southern rock opera"

for all you feed cap wearing wannabe's

ArchAngel: technically thats Shel Silverstein. Cash heard it and descided to cover it when he was doing his prison shows - I have a live version of it in which you can hear the inmates going crazy for the song.

THE FATHER OF THE BOY NAMED SUE

[Silverstein's speaking voice:] ”Okay… now years ago, I wrote a song named “A Boy Named Sue”, and that was okay and everything, except then I started to think about it, and I thought, “It is unfair. I am looking at the whole thing from the poor kid’s point of view. And as I get more older and more fatherly, I begin to look at things from an old man’s point of view. So… I decided to give the old man equal time. Okay. Here we go.”


Yeah, I lef’ home when the kid was three.
It sure felt good to be fancy free
Tho I knew it wasn’t quite the fatherly thing to do.
But that kid kept screamin’ and throwin’ up
And pissin’ in his pants til I had enough
So just for revenge I went and named him Sue.


It was Gatlinberg in mid July
I was gettin' drunk but gettin' by
Gettin' old and going from bad to worse
When thru the door with an awful scream
Comes the ugliest queen I’ve ever seen
He says my name is Sue. How do you do?
Then he hits me with his purse.


Now this ain’t the way he tells the tale
But he scratched my face with his fingernails
And then he bit my thumb
and kicked me with his high-heeled shoe.
So I hit him in the nose, and he started to cry
And he threw some perfume in my eye
And it sure ain’t easy fightin with a boy named Sue.


So I hit him in the head with a caned-back chair
And he screamed, “Hey Dad, you mussed my hair!”
And he hit me in the navel and knocked out a piece of my lint.
He was spittin' blood. I was spittin teeth.
And we crashed through the wall and out into the street
A-kickin and gougin' in the mud and the blood and the crème de menth.


Then out of his garter he pulls a gun.
I’m about to get shot by my very own son.
He’s screamin' about Sigmond Freud and lookin' grim.
So I thought fast and I told him some stuff
How I named him Sue just to make him tough.
And I guess he bought it, cuz now I’m livin' with him.
Yeah, he cooks and sews and cleans up the place.
He cuts my hair and shaves my face.
And irons my shirts better than a daughter could do.
And on the nights that I can’t score,
Well, I can’t tell you anymore.
Sure is a joy to have a boy named Sue.
Yeah, a son is fun,
But it’s a joy to have a boy named Sue.

WOW, had no idea. Silverstein's Books are amazing.

But that's a psychotic story I can't seem to connect with the author of so many children's books?
"And on the nights that I can’t score,
Well, I can’t tell you anymore.
Sure is a joy to have a boy named Sue.
Yeah, a son is fun,
But it’s a joy to have a boy named Sue."
That's Strange. It's his transgendered son he's scoring with.

Silverstein had a whole "adult" side to him, including doing stuff for Playboy. This site has more info on that...

she -Nina Nastasia- might not be 'pure' or really country...but here goes:

Ugly face
Don't ever make it again
It's making me limp
In a wider space
I never know noticed
The sharp turns that it takes

Careless mouth
Doesn't deserve all the rhymes
That come tumbling out
It should starve itself

I want you
I want you
I want to strike you

The violent face
Crashing into a chair
Dropping glass everywhere
It's an ugly face
Don't ever make it again
It's making me limp

I want you
I want you
I want to strike you

In a wider space
I never noticed
The sharp turns that it takes
............................................The Blackened Air album

u won't find anyone else who sings 'I want to strike you' as beautifully as theysing 'I want you'

and anyone who compares her to Chan Marshall needs to be slapped.

nina really reminds me alot of chan marshall

'what happened to country music about whiskey drinking and ass kicking?'

-butthead

Levelland was written by James McMurtry, but REK has written some (many) incredible songs himself. Some other great songwriters to mention would be Chris Knight, Cory Morrow, and Jack Ingram.

my old drunk friend...

you're laughing louder in my ear
with every bottle of beer

i shoulda moved to new york city
but i never was that cool

i just languished in the midwest
like some old romantic fool

and the streetlights shine down
on the bottles we have broken

til the road is paved with diamonds
from a thousand lost love tokens

and my logic just seems more clear
with every bottle of beer

-freakwater

last night i broke the seal
on a jim beam decanter that looked like elvis
i soaked the label off a flinstones jelly bean jar.
i cleared us off a place on the little table that you left us
and pulled me up a big old piece of floor.

i pulled the head off elvis
filled fred up to his pelvis yabba dabba do
the king is gone and so are you-george jones

If angels are messengers from God
Please send one down to me
If angels are messengers from God
I wrote a letter that he should read...

Been livin' on faithless street all by myself
You work your whole life for someone else
Tryin' to find sanction from Christ above man
Well, he never shed his peace on this land

So I started this damn country band...
...'Cause punk rock was too hard to sing

-Whiskeytown, "Faithless Street"

This thread went the wrong direction.

what direction was it should supposed to go? you really didn't pose a question or offer much guidance. btw, don't most threads do veer off course anyway?

Hey Strawbeary-"Don't Rock The Jukebox"

Where do you live were all that comes in is country? New country sucks that garth brooks pop shit. Johnny Cash and Hank Willimas are hard core and punk rock as shit.

i said to hank williams
how lonely does it get
hank williams hasnt answered yet
but i hear him coughing all night long
a hundred floors above me
in the tower of song...

i don't understand all the country music bashing these days. i love it. it can be sappy at times, but so can a lot of music (except rap).

i have no problem with music about love, life, and living.

John, I love it, too. Growing up in Lubbock, TX has nothing to do with it. I hated country until about 5 years ago. I hate to quote Trace Adkins, but they really are "songs about me." Re-reading this thread made me happy. I've got some favorites that would make strawberry's head explode.

whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

i used to hate it a few years ago until this girl took me to a large country concert at fedex field, i haven't been able to stop listening to it ever since(not that its a bad thing)

This is an old Terry Allen Song. Robert Earl Keen covered it, but I still like the Maines Brothers Version the best.

Well
I'm a high straight in Plainview
Side bet in Idalou
An a fresh deck in New Deal
Yeah
Some call me high hand
An some call me low hand
But I'm holdin what I am…The Wheel

'Cause
I'm panhandlin
Man handlin
Post holin
High rollin
Dust Bowlin…Daddy
An I ain't got no blood veins
I just got them four lanes
Of hard…Amarillo Highway

Yeah
I don't wear no Stetson
But I'm willin to bet son
That I'm a big a Texan as you are
'Cause
There's a girl in her barefeet
'Sleep on the back seat
An that trunk is full of Pearl…and Lone Star

'Cause
I'm panhandlin
Man handlin
Post holin
High rollin
Dust Bowlin…Daddy
An I ain't got no blood veins
I just got them four lanes
Of hard…Amarillo Highway

So
Gonna hop outta bed
Pop a pill in my head
Yeah, bust the Hub for the Golden Spread
Under blue skies
Gonna stuff my hide
Behind some power glide
An get some southern fried…back in my eyes

'Cause
I'm panhandlin
Man handlin
Post holin
High rollin
Dust Bowlin…Daddy
An I ain't got no blood veins
I just got them four lanes
Of hard…Amarillo Highway

An close I'll ever get to heaven
Is makin' speed up ol' 87
Of that hard-ass…Amarillo Highway

Strawberry, get out your duct tape, and make sure you tape you head up TIGHT. This one's gonna make it explode. To people who don't get country, it reads like a joke. To those of us who do get it, it's an anthem.

"Kiss My Country Ass" by Rhett Akins

Tearin' down a dirt road, rebel flag flyin',
'Coon dog in the back.
Truck bed loaded down with beer,
An' a cold one in my lap.
Earnhart sticker behind my head,
An' my woman by my side.
Tail-pipe's poppin', the radio's rockin':
"Country Boy Can Survive".
Well, if you got a problem with that,
You can kiss my country ass.

Well, I love Turkey calls, overalls,
Wrangler jeans: smoke nothin' but Marlboro reds.
Tattoos up an' down my arms,
An' deer heads over my bed.
My Grand-Daddy fought in World War Two,
An' my Daddy went to Vietnam.
An' I ain't scared to grab my gun,
An' fight for my homeland.
If you don't love the American flag,
You can kiss my country ass.

If you're a down home, backwoods redneck,
C'mon, stand up an' raise your glass.
But if you ain't down with my outlaw crowd,
You can kiss my country ass.

Well, there's a whole lotta high-class people out there,
That's lookin' down on me.
'Cause the country club where I belong,
Is the Honky Tonk till three in the mornin'.
Don't wear no fancy clothes,
No ties or three-piece suits.
You can find me in my camouflage hat,
My tee-shirt an' cowboy boots.
If that don't fit your social class,
You can kiss my country ass.

If you're a down home, backwoods redneck,
Hey, c'mon, stand up an' raise your glass.
But if you ain't down with my outlaw crowd,
You can kiss my country ass.

'Cause I'm a front-porch sittin',
Guitar pickin', moonshine sippin',
Baccer juice spittin' country boy from the woods.
An' I love fried chicken an' blue gill fishin',
An' outlaw women, an' I wouldn't change if I could.
I ain't tryin' to start no fight, but I'll finish one every time.
So you just mind your own damn business,
And stay the hell outta mine.
If you got a problem with that,
You can kiss my country ass.

I said if you got a problem with any of that,
You can kiss my natural born,
Redneck to the bone,
Ever-lovin' country ass.

i am one of those who would rather jump out a window than have to listen to modern popular country music... i find it more repulsive than even the crappiest and ill-conceived pop music....

modern country revels in its idiotic sentimentality, praises ignorance, and somehow misconstrues unintelligent simple-mindedness as a life style to be emulated... The exact same way some rappers have learned that exaggerating and glorying a violent life style will sell them records. And the exact same way pathetic pop stars have learned that muttering generic phrases like 'big girls dont cry' or 'ill get over you' and shit like that, will sell them records.

now i call that musically diverse

i'd actually like an example of the ignorance praised by country music, please.

john bender-

Tearin' down a dirt road, rebel flag flyin',
'Coon dog in the back.
Truck bed loaded down with beer,
An' a cold one in my lap.

from rfuller above.