Just In the Mood

I've been listing to a lot of the older country music lately, I think the Ken Burns narrated "Country Music" shows on PBS got me down the rabbit hole. Great series if you haven't seen them.

Another person I've enjoyed watching on youtube, his live performance recordings, is Vince Gill, he usually tells some stories between songs and some of them have me rolling on the floor.
 
when they were alive Johnny Cash and June Carter used to appear every year at the Claremont College in California near where we lived. His business manager was a graduate of there and it was done to support his Alma Mater One appearance, once a year. The venue was very small and in order to get tickets you had to buy them a year in advance. We saw Johnny Cash and the whole Carter Family including "Mamma May Bell Carter" on a number of occasions and it was well worth the cost of admission.
 
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We also used to go to Bridges Auditorium every year . . . But, that was on Mother's Day to see Frank Zappa. Different roads yet we all ended up here ;-)

Thanks for my wake up music this morning Paul.
 
The Ken Burns series is one of the best pieces I’ve ever seen on TV. It will make you understand that there were very few people who had more influence than Johnny Cash. Or Maybelle Carter, too. One segment struck me, having to do with how many different genres got together on a regular basis and just played. To them there was no country or rock or folk music. It was just music.
 
I have to say, when I think of "country western music" I have to think back to the old timers... not sure I like some of the more "modern" country singers...
I remember Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Lefty Presell, Little Jimmy Dickens, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Johnny Horton (met him once - liked his music, he wasn't all that nice of a person himself - my boss at the time helped him get started in music)... many others I can't think of names of just now.
My brother in law was one of the old time fiddler's and when it started to hurt his neck switched to the base... remember he played in a trio at my parents house for a dance when I was about 4 or 5(way back in the mid 1940's) ... Hank Snow tried to hire him more than once to play with his band, but BIL didn't want to travel and be away from home.... he was auto mechanic by day and musician on the weekends.
 
+1 with Darren on the PBS Special on Country Music. Great information, great music, and great story. The thing that struck me was how young what we know as Country Music actually is. Most of the real founders started singing it less than 100 years ago. One of my first memories is going to a gym at a National Guard Armory in Abilene, TX with my Dad to see Earnest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours.

Got the opportunity to meet and work with Ken Burns in the late 90s in Montana when he was filming the Lewis & Clark story. What a talented artist and fine gentleman. Worked with Dayton Duncan, too. Great guy. No one makes them like Ken Burns does.
 
+1 with Darren on the PBS Special on Country Music. Great information, great music, and great story. The thing that struck me was how young what we know as Country Music actually is. Most of the real founders started singing it less than 100 years ago. One of my first memories is going to a gym at a National Guard Armory in Abilene, TX with my Dad to see Earnest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours.
I forgot about Earnest Tubbs....
another group I saw as a kid, probably only about 5 or 6 ... Smiley Burnett came to the theatre in my home town with a band... don't remember who the band was, but remember him because he came on state in costume for one of his characters dressed in cowboy outfit and wearing a pistol belt and gun... I remember being worried about why was he wearing a gun and what was he going to do with it.
 
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