I've recently been digging very deep into different strains of country and gospel music. I was wondering if any of you folks had any albums or artists that cut deep into your soul. If not, that's okay. This is a progressive rock forum, which isn't exactly a swarming ground for Louvin Brothers fans or passionate discussions over Merle Haggard's releases in the past decade.

Speaking of which, I love everything I've heard from The Louvin Brothers. Their rendition of 'The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea' from 1959's Satan Is Real cuts so deep into my heart it nearly makes tears form in the corners of my eyes. I am not a fan of 'country' music, at least not modern country. To me, that seems more like southern rock with a pernicious fascination with drawl and hard rock posturing, without any of the traditional folk, gospel, and bluesy backbones fellows like Hank Williams Sr had. In short, I adore Williams 1, lazily despise Williams 2, and curiously respect Williams 3. 

What do you all think? Does anybody care? Will anybody respond? What is a horseshoe? What does a horseshoe do?

 

 

Some personal favorites:

 

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning (1973).  Parsons and Harris sang this on stage during the final Fallen Angels tour with Parsons' wife standing side-stage watching them.  Everyone (including Parsons' wife) knew there was something going on between Parsons and Harris, and after one of their particularly bitter fights during that tour the band put his wife on a plane back home and the tour went on without her.  Supposedly Gram had drawn up divorce papers that he planned to deliver at the end of the tour but he never made it home and his wife inherited everything including the rights to his music.

 

 

 

Emmylou Harris - Boulder to Birmingham (1975).  After Parsons' untimely drug overdose and death his body was set ablaze by friends in the Mojave Desert town of Joshua Tree.  Emmylou Harris carried on his Cosmic American Music torch and wrote this tear-jerker tribute to her former partner and not-so-secret lover:

 

 

 

 

Rolling Stones - Wild Horses (1971).  Another Parsons connection as Keith Richards and Parsons were briefly almost inseparable friends during the early 70s, and at one point Mick Jagger actually argued with Richards about Parsons' intrusion into Mick's own relationship with Richards.  Supposedly Parsons helped write the melody for this one.  Whether that's true or not, Parsons was definitely hanging out with the Stones around the time they recorded this.

 

 

 

The Byrds - You Don't Miss Your Water (1968).  From their 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' album (big surprise - this was the album recorded during the brief seven months Gram Parsons was a member of the band).  This was originally a soul tune for William Bell, an old Memphis soul singer from the Stax stable.  The Byrds turned it into a country tune.  Later Otis Redding recorded a blistering soul version, and in the 80s Peter Tosh juiced it up as a reggae version that sounds more like a sampling than a cover.

 

 

Mike Nesmith - Joanne (1970).  The late guitarist of the Monkees fame was actually a serious country musician and a student of the genre.  This was his biggest solo hit.  The pedal steel player on here is the late "Red" Rhodes, who also played steel for the Byrds on 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers' and on James Taylor's 'Sweet baby James' album, among others.

 

 

Hank Williams - Lonesome Highway (1949).  A Blind Leon Payne tune made famous by Williams and covered so many times over the years that is has become an icon of country and contemporary music.

 

I have a sort of soft spot for Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western. I guess it doesn't matter, but I grew up in a very rural southern Virginian area. I used to go to church in the woods and we'd sit in hammocks and camping chairs singing songs together between the trees. I may have left religion (though I can and will appreciate it), but I still pine for those rustic harmonies and so I came full-circle. 

I've yet to give Gilded Palace of Sin a real listen, but it sits there on the list. I really enjoy Johnny Cash's most recent rendition of 'Big Iron', but his slew of covers under Rubin from American was monumental for me, for both better and worse. 

I maintain that Merle wrote some of the grandest country tunes in the late 1960's and early 1970's, but as full albums, I can't love any of them except for his 2000 If I Could Only Fly release (on Anti- records, which is what Tom Waits stands by today). 

 

 

 

 

I love the Banjo these days must be getting old..

 

I think he counts, probably a little closer to folk than country though. This is the only album I have from him:

 

 

You start going down that route and you bring up a whole slew of interesting alt-country bands, some of whom are listed on ProgArchives.  A few of these are really indie or folk bands who picked up country leanings somewhere along the way...

 

 

 

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2778" rel="nofollow - Cerberus Shoal

 

 

 

 

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3391" rel="nofollow - Wovenhand

 

 

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5354" rel="nofollow - Beat Circus

 

 

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2261" rel="nofollow - Faun Fables

 

 

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7063" rel="nofollow - Bruce Lamont

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree.  Elton John used country arrangements and musical phrasing at times in some of his 70s music, but for the most part it was affectation/posing as he was essentially a pop star trying on different clothes and styles (much in the vein of Bowie).  His lyrics weren't country and the words are what really make country what it is...

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a difference between C&W and country, at least in the context of this conversation.  This is what I would consider C&W:

 

 

and this is real country:

 

 

IMHO of course.  Trying to define country music is sort of like trying to define progressive music - good luck