'Tragic Songs of Life'

Few artists are best known for an album. Particularly because it wasn’t even the album cover of their best album. 

The Louvin Brothers’ Satan is Real album cover featuring them standing on a rock quarry with a 12-foot tall plywood Satan grinning maliciously behind them is the everlasting legacy of the brothers named Loudermilk.

The pair changed their birth name to Louvin in the 1940s when their gospel careers began to take off. They eventually went mainstream including this album, Tragic Songs of Life. 

In terms of their gospel music, it was incredibly hell fire and brimstone warning against the evils of Earthly pleasures and the snares of Satan as God’s children. 

The irony – or hypocrisy – was that the elder Ira Louvin was a notorious drinker, womanizer with a terrible temper. He’d often smash his mandolin on stage. He was married four times and shot six times by wife No. 3 after he allegedly beat her. He died at age 41 after a drunk driver hit he and his wife head on, killing them instantly. The irony was that a warrant had just been issued for Ira’s arrest for a DUI charge. 

Despite the immense drama and album cover, what shouldn’t be lost is that the Louvin Brothers wove some beautiful harmonies and arrangements of Americana and gospel. It’s really beautiful and important music. But it’s understandable to ignore the personal stuff to appreciate them the most.

'John Prine'

One of the few country legends, who was a postman. Prine grew up in Illinois, served in the U.S. Army and eventually wound up in the United States Postal Service for five years in the 1960s. 

His music career took root when he attended an open-mic event and was asked if he could do any better. He got up and sang and played guitar. He became one of the main protagonists in the Chicago folk revival of the era. 

After this album was released, he was called “the new Dylan,” which is bullshit because there’s almost zero elements of the former in the latter, at least on that album. 

John Prine is plain, good country music with guitar, bass and fiddle. Not that Dylan was not capable of the same, but I think Prine’s DNA has much more Hank Williams than Bob Zimmerman.  

One of the more brilliantly good albums I’ve listened to during this project. 

'Night Life'

If you know anything about Willie Nelson, you know that he was a songwriter before his own singing career took off. 

He wrote “These Walls,” “Pretty Paper” and “Crazy.” In the early 1960s, Nelson joined Ray Price’s touring band – Cherokee Cowboys – as bassist. In 1963, Price released the album Night Life featuring the song of the same name written by Nelson.

Early photos are interesting because of his look as the Outlaw Cowboy of the past 40 years. He’s fresh faced and often wearing a suit of some kind. No matter, he always looks like Willie with those big ears and bug eyes. 

For those seeking a source of inspiration here, note that Nelson was a ripe 30 years old when Price recorded this album. Granted, Nelson had had hit songs already with “Crazy” and “These Walls.” Still, he hadn’t had any success of his own. He wouldn’t until 1966. By then he was into his 33^rd year. 

Nelson is 79 years old, a veteran of the scene and best associated with the Outlaw Country movement of the 1970s (by then, he was approaching his 50s). 

Price is a dinosaur: A fixture of the prim and proper country and western music genre. 

By the way, Price’s just 86 and still kicking. 

'American IV: Man Comes Around'

When Johnny Cash teamed up with super-producer Rick Rubin, I didn’t bat an eyelash. I don’t begrudge an artist the opportunity to keep recording. Doesn’t mean I have to keep listening to it either. 

When the fourth installment of the American series came out – American IV: The Man Comes Around – I did not get caught up in the eerie feeling that we were all listening to a man die in stereo. Cash could’ve lived another 10 years (he was a mere 70 years old upon release … a very long, worn 70 years, mind you) and recorded another two albums of cover songs. 

However, once June Carter Cash passed away and the years of physical abuse through drugs, alcohol and general hard living caught up, it was only a matter of time. 

The Man Comes Around feels like a real labor of love. I listened to it in its entirety for the first time a few weeks ago and Cash didn’t try too much. He sang like an old man on his last leg (whether this was his decision or not is not known). 

This is an album full of pain, loss, embarrassment and regret. Cash made a long, lucrative career in penning and singing songs about packaged behavior deemed detrimental and reckless. Cash probably never shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. He did hurt himself just to feel. He hung his head down low. He probably remembered a lot of friends and lovers. 

Cash had the extreme pleasure of hosting his own funeral and saying all the things he’s probably always wanted to say. 

'Coat Of Many Colors'

One of the very few opportunities I'll have writing about Dolly Parton, who singularly rewrote the book as to how we perceived breasts along with Elvira.

Clearly, she was much more than a sex symbol. Coat of Many Colors makes this clear. This is an overly beautiful, sentimental and pastoral album stripped to its bare bone with minimal instrumentation clogging up the air thwarting Parton's beautiful, pristine voice. One of my favorites that I've listened to for this project.

Coat of Many Colors is actually Parton's eighth studio album doing all eight between 1967-71. She got her start on the Porter Waggoner Show (she apparently replaced a popular "Norma Jean" and was heckled after the replacement) and it was the host that urged her to cover "Mule Skinner Blues," which became her first real hit. She was 21 when she joined the show and recorded her first album.

Coat of Many Colors turned out to be her most popular album until Jolene a few years later and the super stardom was not far away.

I've got to admit, I'm sort of smitten with Parton. No one that is tremendously popular as Parton's been the last 40 years seems more genuine and nice as she does and I'm typically very critical of celebrities. I always think the worst.

Parton's had a very well-rounded and respected career. From movies, TV, a cultural icon and, of course, the music, she's rarely done anything half-assed or even poorly. I had zero idea that she was A) married or B) married for that long.

We equate celebrities with fly-by-night relationships, but Parton's been married to Carl Dean Thomas for nearly 46 years (they married in 1966 when she was probably penniless ... 20 years old). He has allegedly seen Parton perform once and is never seen in public or any of her events. They have no kids, but she is the godmother for Miley Cyrus. 

'Stephen Stills' & 'Manassas'

Stephen Stills was almost a Monkee. A snag involving a record company prevented his inclusion. He nominated his friend Peter Tork, who got stuck in the trap whilst Stills became one of the more distinguished rock artists of the 20th century.

Stills was almost Jimi Hendrix's bass player. The pair were friends and Hendrix had his manager pass the message along. The manager did not do his job and they hired Noel Redding and Stills went on to create Buffalo Springfield.

Following Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, he recorded his first solo record. His eponymous debut included the work of Hendrix and Eric Clapton (the first and only time this happened ... Hendrix never saw the release of the record) and ex-Beatle Ringo Starr.

This album I don't think is very good. Fortunately, his third solo record saw him connect with the ex-Byrd Chris Hillman by the name of Manassas.

This is a beautiful, rich, folksy country record. Worthy of any and all the praise that could be heaped on it.

You wonder if Peter Tork would have recorded these albums in a different dimension.

'I've Got A Tiger By The Tail'

A simply fantastic lil' country album. A whole lot of twin-fiddle, steel-guitar, three-chord early country mixed with a little early rock and roll.

There's not a bad song on the record. Mostly their about sleeping with women and generally really not wanting to settle down, which sounds agreeable.

Ironically (or not), Owens himself married five times and divorced all five times. One marriage, to a fiddle player in his band, lasted a couple of days before she threw in the towel. Either Owens knew exactly what he was singing about or he knew absolutely nothing about what he was singing about. You could probably write a book about it.

Owens is actually a Texan. Before he made Bakersfield, Calif. as a kind of hub of musicians, he was born in Sherman (there is a mall currently on the property where his house once stood) and later attended school in Garland, which in the 1930s was probably a series of farm and pasture land.

Owens died of a heart attack, in his sleep, in 2006. By all accounts, he had a chicken fried steak, was about to not perform until he learned a group of fans from Oregon came to see him and decided to play anyway. He played the gig, went home and died in his sleep.

Not the most glamorous of deaths, he didn't die of alcohol poisoning in the back of his car, but he's a hell of a way to go.

'The Last Of The True Believers'

Nanci Griffith is a survivor.

Her high school boyfriend died in a motorcycle crash after taking her to prom. She was engaged to singer-songwriter Tom Kimmel and that was broken off. She survived breast and thyroid cancer. She battled a five-year case of writer's block until releasing her 2009 record, The Loving Kind.

The Last of the True Believers is her fourth studio album released in 1986 and is her first effort that steers from the folk efforts she previously had released and is much more country and western.

I've been very excited to listen to this album for no real reason. I do like the album title. It's hopeful. Also, I've had some luck on this 1,001 list with country female singer-songwriters and I was not disappointed here.

This is a very sweet, folksy album. Songs about innocent love and a slice of Americana. No complaints here.

'Don't Come Home Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

I’ve wanted this album for a long while (I couldn't find it for about a year and I eventually discovered an LP for a reasonable price in Amazon) for several reasons:

1. I was a relatively large Loretta Lynn fan stemming mostly from her duets with Conway Twitty.

2. It’s by far the most awesome album title.

Lynn a straight-shooting country princess just looking for a guy to stay true and at least a little sober every once in a while. She tells us this all in under three minutes.

Voices like Lynn make me wonder where the country and western female fits in the grand scheme of this great struggle of the sexes, especially in popular art. I’m not entirely familiar with the work of, say, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone or the other early jazz singers. I feel that rock female artists such as Janis Joplin or Grace Slick were too carnal – they tried to be a man in a man’s world.

Early R&B and Motown would often get attitudinal (“R-E-S-P-E-C-T”), but never did they ruffle too many feathers and they would get angry one minute and pretty forgiving the next.
Gals like Lynn were fed up. They didn’t dig their men cheating, carousing and drinking. And they were apt to throw it back right in the man’s face by going out and getting some herself.

From Patsy Cline up through the 1970s, country and western women knew only of heartbreak and disappointment. In all, they captured the toil and work of the American woman more than any other genre.

'Grievous Angel'

The motivated music fan is able to wade through the last century of music and find the good stuff.

My trek to Gram Parsons was a relatively short one. It started with the Beach Boys to the Beatles and spread to other bands from the 1960s like the Rolling Stones, The Turtles, The Animals and the Dave Clark Five.

Eventually to the hippie-era Byrds with Roger McGuinn in those ridiculous granny glasses and that 12-string Rickenbacker tingling out "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man."

Dig a little deeper into the Byrds catalog and you run upon Sweetheart of the Rodeo and, thus, Parsons.

My love for Parsons has grown deep and true. Apart from the songwriting and musicianship, he's just a cool guy. Dressed cool. Drank cool. Did drugs cool. Loved cool. His star shone super bright, but it extinguished really early. There's nothing you can do about that. It's the way it's supposed to be. Guys like Parsons do not live long. They did everything entirely too hard (good and bad) to really survive on this planet.

All we can do is appreciate what he left here on for us and how those songs make us feel good no matter what mood where in because Parsons was great at capturing all that you can feel.

'Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs'

Country and western music hasn't always been a niche genre. "Gunfighter Ballads" peaked at No. 6 on the pop albums chart.

Marty Robbins is interesting. He won two straight Grammys, one for "Gunfighter Ballads" and the second for the appropriately titled "More Gunfighter Ballads." The story told in "El Paso" has sequels -- "Faleena" and "El Paso City."

Most fascinating about the man is that he was an avid race car driver and actually drove in a number of actual NASCAR races (back when NASCAR was totally uncool) and finished in the top 10 six times, including one in the Daytona 500.

Compared to today, that's literally like Garth Brooks breaking Spring Training as the San Diego Padres' left fielder and hitting .280.

'The Gilded Palace of Sin'

A scintillatingly awesome album. Definitely in my top 10 of all time and so good that I could probably listen to it over and over and over no matter what mood I'm in.

It captures everything that I love about music collectively over 29 years and thousands of hours listening to all genres of music since I was a kid getting my first Beach Boys cassette as a seven year old dork.

The fusion of soul with crisp, West Coast rock country. As salty and warm like the desert with the sweet dripping syrup of layered harmonies, master display of songmanship and the fantastic genius of Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons.

"The Gilded Palace of Sin" was created by a bunch of drugged-out, wine-swilling hippies from California for consumption by music fans and music fans alone. A glorious accomplishment.

'Guitar Town'

I initially got interested in Steve Earle in college after reading about his dealings with hard drugs and his many redemptions. "Guitar Town" was always the seminal record for the guy.

Then I watched "The Wire," where he plays a reformed drug addict who mentors one of the show's main characters, a struggling drug addict.

At that point, I decided to search for "Guitar Town" and I found it, ironically, not in my home state of Texas, but in a too cool for school Manhattan record shop.

Like Joe Ely's "Honky Tonk Masquerade," I was underwhelmed with the first listen and decided to give the record time to breath, like a good wine. Or any wine.

Five or six listens and two months later and it still hasn't done anything for me. It's bland and cliche for a guy trying to make a country record in the 1980s without sounding like everything coming out of Nashville.

I don't know when Earle started doing drugs. If I had to judge by his art, I would assume it was after the 1986 release of "Guitar Town" because if that album was made on drugs, Earle needed a new dealer.

'Honky Tonk Heroes'

In the film "High Fidelity," there is a scene were Rob Gordon's ex-girlfriend comes to his apartment and finds his list of his top five dream jobs.

Some are musicians. Other choices are producers and artist.

What we really want in a good job isn't necessarily a bunch of free records, money or power, but to be a part of something. A movement even.

Look at all the people that we look up to and they generally belong to some kind of movement, artistically, politically or whatever.

The outlaw country thing didn't last too long and their impact is marginal when it comes right down to it. Nonetheless, it was incredibly cool and something I definitely would've wanted to be a part of. Visiting to Austin or listening to "Honky Tonk Heroes" (or any album of that era and sub-genre) lets you catch a glimpse of that and it makes it even more appealing. It was a bunch of guys that kinda liked each other, writing songs, drinking, smoking hash, chasing women, playing guitar.

What's not to like?

'Honky Tonk Masquerade'

I purchased this record about three months ago and listened to it and was underwhelmed.

About three weeks ago, I watched the Townes Van Zandt documentary "Be Here To Love Me," which featured one short interview clip from Joe Ely.

So I gave the album another listen.

It's good. I don't know if it's really good. Some say it's one of the best country-rock records ever. Some say it's one of the best 1970s rock records. According to Wikipedia, some dude from New Zealand noted it as a top 10 record of the rock era.

Seriously? It has a handful of really good songs. A couple of OK songs and some boring tunes. And I really love country music. I was born to love this album, but I really can't.

I might buy it for my brother for Christmas, though. See what he thinks.

'Red Headed Stranger'

I think this is an interesting album because it had only two "hits" and I would argue only "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" is the only decent single on the album. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of that song anyway.

Nonetheless, it's a very good album and considered one of the best country albums of all time.

I think I like Nelson even more because his band has been the same group of ragtag musicians since his "outlaw" days instead of hiring hotshot young guys out of Nashville. It's genuine and broken. Perfect country music.

Willie Nelson holds a strange place in my heart. I was never a huge fan until around 2003, out of college and going to see Nelson at a concert at a horse race track. I was with friends and it's really the first time I connected with the woman that would be my wife. I remember me and her poking our way through the crowd to get within spitting distance of Nelson and his band. I'll never forget it.

'Trio'

A so-so A side is made up for by a phenomenal B side.

It's interesting how artists and groups decide in which order to place songs. It especially had to be thought provoking in the heyday of the LP -- when you had two sides of a record. Literally, a listener (a lazy listener) could never listen to one whole side of an album. Not because they necessarily don't want to or because it's bad, but because you have to stand up, change the record and put the needle back down.

It's easier now with CDs that play straight through. But if you look at U2's Achtung Baby, their hit "Mysterious Ways" is like No. 8 or 9. Such an odd place for an obvious hit.

"Rosewood Casket" is great.

'Pieces of the Sky'

Maybe her first, but definitely not her best album. No one's become a bigger Emmylou Harris fan than me over the past year or so.

She's simply great. She sang songs that she wanted to sing and didn't seem to have any problem putting her own stamp on cover songs (on this album covering The Beatles, Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton).

Plus, she gathered some of the greatest musicians to ever record on a country album. Just wish there were a couple other 1970s-era Harris albums on this list.

'Time (The Revelator)'

First off, I think Welch looks just like a friend of mine. And that's a compliment to both.

I have certain expectations of people and never having listened to Gillian Welch perform, I could only assume what to expect. Or, more importantly, what a I wanted.

What I wanted was gently strummed acoustic guitars. Maybe some Dobro, lap steal, banjo and mandolin, without getting all folksy.

I wanted lyrics that sounded like they were scratched into and struck through over and over in a grubby notebook.

I wanted vocals that sounded like they were honed in the foothills of Applachia. Without sounding all hillbilly.

I wanted sincere craftmanship. I wanted art that the artists had poured his or her heart into and not given up until it satisfied him or her -- and not necessarily me.

While watching, listening to and reading all this crap, there are certain things that I am extremely satstified with and Welch is one of them. This album is absolutely beautiful. Breathtaking at times. It's more honest of an album than you'll find anywhere during any point in history.

'Stardust'

Essentially an album of a country legend (Willie Nelson) doing very un-country covers of a bunch of dumb songs that no one cares about.

Plus, they all have that dumb harmonica sound that, unfortunately, Nelson used as a crutch throughout the 1970s.