Country Manners

This was a huge crossover hit. Back then, that meant parents were listening to the same songs their kids were.

I've remarked elsewhere that vernacular music has a distinctly regional accent when it's performed by people of another country, and this is no exception. It seems that, in Canada, even their country music is polite.

Here's Anne Murray with her first U.S hit, "Snowbird".

The Crooked Gospel Way

 Gospel music has always been a part of bluegrass music and culture; Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, designed it that way. “It’s got Methodist, Baptist, and Holiness singing,” Monroe said of bluegrass, naming three Christian denominations with three then-distinct singing styles.

Anyone who has an inside knowledge of bluegrass can point to artists, past and present, whose sanctimonious public personas hardly match up to their hell-raising, sometimes addicted, sometimes downright mean private selves.

Some people would like to use that knowledge an excuse to jettison gospel music from bluegrass altogether. After all, if these artists are in such bondage to their socially-conservative culture, shouldn’t we free them — and non-Christian bluegrass fans in the process — from it?

Sure, if you think they’re so ignorant, culturally-unaware, and disempowered that they need you to come in and improve their culture for them.

For those who are still in school learning about these things, that’s called cultural imperialism. It’s just as ugly when upper-middle class white Americans force it on working-class, Appalachian southerners as when the American government forces it on, say, Native Americans.

That said, bluegrass gospel music will be a regular feature here on Uncouth Utterance. Doubtless that will irritate the stuffing out of some of you.

I’m fine with that. Cultural imperialism? Not so much.

This is a very early recording of The Louvin Brothers from a live, local radio show with “The Gospel Way”.

What We Have

Over on "The country is circling the drain" Twitter, certain members of the chattering class warn folks that we "don't want to go back to the 70s". They're not talking about casual sex, platform shoes, and disco.

Here's what I remember: People loved this song. They continued to love it through Vietnam, the Cold War, the murder of Olympic athletes, the energy crisis, Watergate, and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.

They don't sing songs like this anymore. What I mean by that is, they don't sing lyrics with this attitude anymore. Everything is revoltingly aspirational. Encouragement is reserved for workouts and climbing the corporate ladder. Everything exists solely in and for the future; nobody has any medicine for the times when yesterday, today, and tomorrow just suck.

I think this song has the answer: Pull yourself back down to earth. Listen more closely to those who love and value you than anyone else. Let friendship and true love be your medicine, and let them be the healing you dispense.

We live in dangerous times. The danger's not going away any time soon and, for some of us, it's right outside the door. We can't always change that, but we can change our focus. Love is all we have. Focus on that.

Here's Lynn Anderson with "Rose Garden".

Consummate Entertainers

How’s this for some Throwback Thursday fun? Doc Watson and Chet Atkins, from a 1980 appearance on Johnny Carson.

You may not know who Johnny Carson was, but you’ll appreciate the fun Doc and Chet have at the expense of some famous folk late in this clip. The medley starts off with “Beaumont Rag”. There might be another tune in the middle, but they end it with “I’m On My Way To Canaan’s Land”.

What a pleasure to watch two virtuosi entertain a tough crowd while still keeping things moving.

BTW, the record they made together is still available. It’s called “Reflections”, and it includes these tunes.

A Happy Take On An Angry Song, and Why That Might Be A Good Thing

Patty Loveless has a blast with this one. Who wouldn't, with Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and two crackerjack back-up singers? And that drummer? That's how to rock hard -- stay off the cymbal.

All that said, I want Loveless to be angry; clearly she's singing about a toxic relationship with a psychopath. Even Richard Thompson, who wrote this one and a whole host of other brilliant songs about toxic relationships, invariably comes across as someone who's more bilious than contemptuous. Bluegrass icon, Jimmy Martin, would have torn this one up and spat it out -- and we would have been wildly entertained.

If we can't have Jimmy, we might as well have Loveless' transcendent country pop. It's not a bad alternative.

What, you thought I was saying I hated her interpretation? Quite the contrary; I love it. I just wouldn't sing it this way.

Perhaps what Patty Loveless is saying is, "Thank the good Lord I've never been through this with some crazy man."

In any case, here she is with Richard Thompson's legitimately "Tear-Stained Letter".

Here’s more from that live radio broadcast by The Louvin Brothers. This one’s called “Weapon Of Prayer”.