Sunday, November 13, 2005

johnnies 'n' insiders

finishing out the evening with some hardcore country faves: johnny cash at folsom prison (in its expanded cd version) and johnny paycheck's the real mr. heartache: the little darlin' years.

the cash is stone classic, of course, and actually improved by the inclusion on the cd version of some between-songs banter that was understandably excised from the 'riginal elpee version. the naked sentimentality of some of the songs is excusable, even _necessary_, in light of the setting where these recordings were made. as my sweetie points out, cash doesn't sound like a "country" singer; he's more of a rockabilly or more accurately, a pure folksinger, telling stories of _real ppl_ through his songs.

it doesn't get much more real than some of paycheck's early hits like "a-11," "the real mr. heartache," "he's in a hurry (to get home to my wife)," "the ballad of frisco bay," "(pardon me) i've got someone to kill," and the bobby bare-penned "motel time again." forget his later, "outlaw" / "take this job and shove it" period; sixties paycheck is classic honky-tonk, which is to say, urban whiteguy's blues, or working class cole porter. reggie rueffer turned me onto this stuff a coupla yrs back, and he and his brother chad routinely perform it in real-life honky-tonks as the insiders. i haven't been to a show in awhile, a situation i need to remedy. perhaps november 26th at the stagecoach on belknap will be the opportunity.

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