Re: trivia help
In a message dated 4/28/99 11:47:40 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Which Louis Jordan tunes made the country charts during the 1940's? Apparently, there were three. yep, at least in the top 40. "ration blues," #1 for three weeks; "deacon jones," the b-side (#7); and is you is or is you ain't (ma' baby), #1 for 5 weeks. all charted in 1944. source: billboard. bill f-w
connie smith on tnn
this, from ms. smith's publicist ... TNNs LIFE AND TIMES SERIES CHRONICLES TRIUMPHS OF COUNTRY GREAT She hit the music world like a bolt of thunder. She has an unforgettable voice, setting records with her debut single-she was the first female country singer to have her debut single reach #1. In fact, she was the only performer to achieve this success until Trisha Yearwood followed nearly 30 years later. It is no wonder that Connie Smith was dubbed "The Cinderella of Country Music." Now, TNN will chronicle the amazing trek of this woman who ultimately did it all. And did it all on her own terms. She brought her family soundly into adulthood then defied the odds by re-entering a youth oriented music market. The result: She is holding her own in talent, looks and goals. The one hour special will air Tuesday, May 11 at 8 PM ET/PT. Her laugh is infectious. Her eyes sparkle like the Hope Diamond. When she sings, there is no denying it is Connie Smith, plain and clear. Dolly calls her one of only three "real female singers". Appearing on the show with their own accounts of Connie's influence include Chely Wright, Waylon Jennings, Rev. Rex Humbard, Tanya Tucker and, of course, Marty Stuart and Connie's daughters. From the time she released "Once A Day" in 1964 and became a virtual resident at the top of the charts, she has embodied everything good about country music. Her commitment to home, family and living life was more than a lyric in a hit tune. When she was first at the top of her game, sharing the top of the charts and spreading international fame with her peers, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, Connie called a time out. She took a hiatus, which amounted to 20 years, to raise her five children. Now her children have all left home and Mom is returning to her professional pursuits in a way that is again winning admiration from all ages and all walks of life around the world. Don't miss the TNN special on Tuesday, May 11 at 8 PM ET/PT. ###
Re: Mandy B
In a message dated 4/22/99 12:57:37 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: But I did want to ask, seriously, which tunes on her new record are the classics and which are the newly written ones...I've got to say, though, I like "Who (who will it be)" the best. Is that an old tune? "Who" and "The Whispering Wind," both cowritten by l. russell brown (of "tie a yellow ribbon" fame) and pat mclaughlin, are the only two new ones on barnett's album. bill f-w
Re: Most albums sold, per RIAA
In a message dated 4/22/99 4:15:08 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: RIAA's searchable gold/platinum database seems to be dead for the moment, but here's a list of the best-selling artists, with millions of units certified (a couple of pleasant surprises in there, notably George Strait and Alan Jackson): interest post, jon. only five african americans on the list. hmm. bill f-w
charlie poole help
anyone out there know the label, release date, and writer of charlie poole's "if i lose"? any information about sales would be a big help, too. thanks, bill f-w
Re: Single Most Influential 20th Century Pop Musician
In a message dated 4/19/99 2:32:43 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The most influential pop musicians of the 20th century are, in order: 1) Louis Armstrong 2) Elvis Presley 3) James Brown 4) Bing Crosby Armstrong and Crosby loom over the first half of the century the way Elvis and JB do the second. it's a great list, david, but i pick brown (as i did in an earlier post), if only because he all but birthed soul, funk, and hip hop--hell, you can probably throw disco in there as well. i know that by making such a claim i leave myself open to all kinds of nitpicking (sp?), but jb cut a mighty wide swath through his half of the century.
Re: Single Most Influential 20th Century Pop Musician
In a message dated 4/19/99 12:18:03 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Blah blah Bob Dylan's the single most influential pop musician in the 20th century. Hands down. Not even close. Bob Dylan's more influential than Bing Crosby? Than Frank Sinatra? Than Louis Armstrong? Than Hank Williams? Than Jimmie Rodgers? Than Elvis Presley? JAMES BROWN
Re: Clem Snide (Was Criminally Underappreciated Albums)
In a message dated 4/19/99 12:18:24 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: O.K., just the other day I saw a reference to the original Clem Snide, i.e. where the band got its name, but now I can't remember what it was. Help! tony -- snide was a character in a couple of william s burroughs novels. bill f-w
Re: Psycho
In a message dated 4/9/99 1:23:12 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Good luck finding any. I think he put out some for Starday in the '60s, but I don't have any of 'em.--don ditto. payne also recorded, in the '40s, for bullet, a nashville label that put out a lot of great gospel, blues, and rb stuff. he then went to capitol--and maybe also decca--before recording for starday, as don said. you might call lawrence bros. records on lower broadway here in nashville. they might have vinyl copies of the starday stuff, or starday-gusto repackagings of payne's earlier stuff (they've got a basement full of records nobody wants g). the phone number there is 615.256.9240. and they do mail order, albeit very low-tech. let me know if you have any luck. bill f-w
lowell fulson discographical info needed
does anyone out there know which of lowell fulson's 1967 hits, "tramp" or "make a little love," came out first? more importantly, does anyone which was written first? fulson cowrote "tramp." a pair of other writers get credit for "make a little love." help! bill f-w
Re: Bramletts
In a message dated 3/11/99 8:41:03 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I don't believe Randall Bramlett is direct kin, but I could be wrong. no, i think you're right. i believe his last name is spelled differently--"bramblett."
Re: Bramletts
In a message dated 3/11/99 8:41:03 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Delaney and Bonnie does anyone else out there think db's elektra and atco lps, only one in the former case, were among the best rootsy records of the late '60s and early '70s? motel shot, in particular, captured a rural southern vibe that goes back quite a ways. i was lucky enough to be one of the weasil's sitting onstage at the legends show at fan fair '97. george jones, merle haggard, and johnny paycheck headlined the morning portion. at one point the three of them did a song together--a first, or so said jones. but i digress. bonnie bramlett was waiting in the wings during the afternoon set, which featured hank thompson and kitty wells. when wells strolled out like the unassuming queen that she is, bramlett's heart could hardly stand it. she started bawling uncontrollaby--convulsing with tears of joy. it was a very touching moment, and proof positive that the much-maligned fan fair has more than its share of epiphanies. bill f-w
Re: Dusty Springfield
In a message dated 3/3/99 3:28:08 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The box says that was originally off a 1970 Atlantic album called A Brand New Me. david -- that's the gamble and huff record. bill
Re: Who is Robert Wilonsky?
In a message dated 2/25/99 9:23:43 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Does anybody know anything more about this obviously talented writer? keith -- pasted below are the opening five paragraphs of a story i wrote a year-and-a-half ago that leads with wilonsky's arrogant reduction of people to ciphers and contrasts it with the empathetic humanity of brian henneman and the bottle rockets. fwiw, bill f-w Welfare Music In a recent review for the Los Angeles newspaper *New Times*, Robert Wilonsky dubbed the Bottle Rockets' new album *24 Hours A Day* "music for white people--fat white people, drunk white people, unemployed white people, white people who play air guitar with their eyes squeezed shut, white people who hang kitty cat clocks on their walls, white people who go to Dolly Parton concerts on the Fourth of July and get bummed out when they can't get close to the stage, white people proud of their $1,000 cars and their speeding tickets, white people who go to Skynyrd concerts and know their screams for 'Free Bird' will be rewarded and then some." Wilonsky's disdainful tone, whether intended to be inflammatory or not, betrays a cultural elitism not uncommon among critics on both coasts--a dismissal of everything west of New York and east of Hollywood as a wasteland of trailer parks, stock car racing, and rebel flags. The assumption is that the inhabitants of this benighted realm aren't worth writing about (which in turn makes dismissing anyone who *does* easier than spearing fish in a barrel). But in some respects, Wilonsky's depiction of the Bottle Rockets' social and moral universe is spot-on. He's wrong, however, to say that *24 Hours a Day* is music *for* white people; more correctly, it's music *about* white people. The group sets many of its songs in its uniquely rural and Southern hometown of Festus, Mo. A predominantly white community of 15,000 located half-an-hour outside St. Louis, Festus is culturally impoverished and economically depressed--and not without its share of dysfunction. It's easy to imagine how a sense of stagnation might pervade life there. And it's certainly easy to understand why such mind-numbing pursuits as beer-guzzling, blaring the car radio, and cruising the strip figure prominently in the Bottle Rockets' lyrics. Empathy for how this stuckness plays itself out in people's lives has been chief songwriter Brian Henneman's stock-in-trade from the beginning (no less, in fact, than the band's meat-and-potatoes Southern rock). A good example is "Wave That Flag," which takes an insider's look at the heritage-or-hate debate over the confederate flag. "I'm a different kind but I'm a rebel too," Henneman sings. "Like to do my own thing, man, how 'bout you/You can whistle 'Dixie' all day long/If the tables turned wouldn't you hate that song?" As these lines suggest, the Bottle Rockets are unwilling to reduce anyone to caricature--not the flag-wavers, nor the protesters. No matter how one- dimensional couch potato in "Sunday Sports" may seem, he's still a human being; in the Bottle Rockets' eyes, that alone makes his alienation worthy of consideration, if not of compassion.
Re: 50/90
In a message dated 2/23/99 1:54:38 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Just curious--who here (who is NOT a critic) has heard the most of these? ... If you know a lot of these albums, what does that make you? Mainstream? for my money, kot's is a slightly left-of-center, but still mainstream, list for a rock-crit who writes for a big daily and reviews records for rolling stone (and does a thoughtful, informed job in both cases). bill f-w
Re: snobbery and the rockcrit canon (was 50/90)
In a message dated 2/23/99 9:05:40 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: No kidding. I read the first 15 albums listed and hit delete g Rock-crit snobbery plus, dare I suggest. phil -- you certainly may dare, but the more i think about these posts accusing kot of snobbery, the less comfortable i become. kot's job is to cover a broad range of popular music for the chicago tribune. notwithstanding its dependence on the post-punk rockcrit canon, his list reflects what he listens to and writes about. it's born of his efforts to understand what's happening in rock, pop, and hip hop and to convey that understanding to a general/mainstream audience. that strikes me as populist-leaning rather than provincial. he obviously listens to some types of music more than others, but at the very least his list is an example of musical ecumenism, an expression of his understanding and appreciation of a fairly wide range of popular and semi-popular music. had the list contained nothing but hip hop, or bluegrass, or death metal, then i dare say he'd be a snob. bill f-w
Re: snobbery and the rockcrit canon (was 50/90)
In a message dated 2/23/99 1:29:54 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: It's the title's implicit equation of r,phh with all of music, or even all of popular music (i.e., excluding classical), that frosts me. fair enough, jon. as you know, writers often don't see headlines until after their stories run. kot doesn't cover classical, jazz, country, bluegrass, folk, or numerous other forms of music and doesn't pretend to. being familiar with his unassuming tone, i suspect he wasn't thrilled with the misleading headline someone tacked onto his story. that said, chances are good that, in the newstand edition, the piece appeared under a "rock" heading that tipped readers to kot's beat and tempered the headline's immodest tone. bill f-w
Re: Beth Nielsen Chapman agent??
In a message dated 2/16/99 7:48:03 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Yeah, I know she probably doesn't belong on P2, but I am trying to track down a booking agent for Beth Nielsen Chapman, and I've asked far stranger questions on P2 and received answers. Anyone know who books her? john -- you might try contacting ellen pryor at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ellen has done beth's publicity in the past and may still do so. either way, she'll have contact information for you. bill f-w
Re: RIP Bill Givens
brad's post about bill givens' life and passing is just one of the many reasons why this list is such a gift. thanks, bill f-w
Re: I don't know what to think of this
In a message dated 1/19/99 11:39:10 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Last night, Chicago news radio station WBBM reported that Clint Black may have recorded Billy Joe Shaver's "Honky Tonk Heroes" for his next album, but wouldn't confirm or deny it. I mean, it was a quiet news night, but ... Bob (So, would he do a good job of it?) HELL, YES, GIVEN DECENT PRODUCTION. BLACK'S PIPES ARE EVERY BIT AS GOOD NOW AS THEY WERE BACK WHEN HE WAS KILLIN' TIME. BILL F-W
Re: Butt Ugly Vinyl
In a message dated 1/15/99 4:45:31 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I noticed the Dave Mason "Alone Together" CD in the current Village Records catalog. If I remember correctly, my brother had this on colored vinyl which resembled (and this is really the only way I can think of to describe it) puke thrown into a blender. I wonder if somebody got the bright idea to have the CD look like this. If so, we're talking collector's item hereg. i believe they marketed it as "marbled vinyl."
Re: Hank Williams
montgomery in the rain -- steve young hank and lefty raised my country soul -- stoney edwards
Re: Hank Williams
anyone mentioned jon langord's "nashville radio/death of country music"? the first half of the track sustains a hank narrative for at least four stanzas. fwiw, bill f-w
Re: David Cantwell
In a message dated 1/13/99 1:31:22 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Anyone have his email address? [EMAIL PROTECTED]
