Country

The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (Official Documentary)

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“Redemption,” observes an off-camera Springsteen. “For Johnny, that was an enormous part of his whole career.” With “The Gift,” Cash’s 71-year reckoning with the wages of sin and salvation is put in eloquently humbling, myth-busting perspective.
– Los Angeles Times

YouTube Originals presents The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash stands among the giants of 20th century American life. But his story remains tangled in mystery and myth. This documentary, created with the full cooperation of the Cash estate and rich in recently discovered archival materials, brings Cash the man out from behind the legend.

Taking the remarkable Folsom Prison recording as a central motif and featuring interviews with family and celebrated collaborators, the film explores the artistic victories, the personal tragedies, the struggles with addiction, and the spiritual pursuits that colored Johnny Cash’s life.

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Rest in peace, Honky Tonk Hero, Billy Joe Shaver

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

 

Tonight we salute one of the finest, Billy Joe Shaver.

 

He lived the outlaw lifestyle that others only sang about.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]’Cause movin’s in my soul, i guess a gypsy boy got a hold
Of somebody in my family long ago
If some night while half asleep you hear the back door softly squeak
You’ll touch my empty pillow, then you’ll know
That restless wind, is calling me again
– Billy Joe Shaver (from “Restless Wind” (one of his best songs))

«He’s a real writer like Hemingway. He’s timeless»
– Kris Kristofferson

“Billy Joe was already there before anybody was talking about an outlaw movement”
– Steve Earle

«Billy Joe is unique. One of a kind. They threw away the mold. The best.»
– Robert Duvall

I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver And i’m reading James Joyce
-Bob Dylan (I Feel a Change Comin’ On)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Restless Wind:

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Dwight Yoakam Top 10 Music Videos – Happy birthday!

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Iv’ve liked Dwight Yoakam since the late eighties. There was a music magazine here in Norway, Beat, that really championed those new country (country/rock) artists and I was smitten. His first two records really got worn out at my student home in Bergen.

Today I am going to list his 10 best videos (you know he came up at the same time as MTV and he’s always had great music videos). This is my own list and it is not discussed with Egil (the other half of BTL) before putting it out here.

1. Guitars, Cadillacs:

2. Streets of Bakersfield (with Buck Owens):

Dwight Yoakam to the magazine Country Guitar in 1994:

‘Bakersfield’ really is not exclusively limited to the town itself but encompasses the larger California country sound of the Forties, Fifties and on into the Sixties, and even the Seventies, with the music of Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, the Burrito Brothers and the Eagles — they are all an extension of the ‘Bakersfield Sound’ and a byproduct of it. I’ve got a poster of Buck Owens performing at the Fillmore West in 1968 in Haight Asbury! What went on there led to there being a musical incarnation called country rock. I don’t know if there would have been a John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival had there not been the California country music that’s come to be known as the ‘Bakersfield Sound’.

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Bob Dylan Sings Dwight Yoakam – Happy Birthday Dwight Yoakam

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The biggest surprise followed when Dylan pulled out Dwight Yoakam’s “The Heart that You Own.” Larry played pedal steel and Bob had some good vocals. The song was performed well and Bob seemed really into it. ..
-Matt Stroshane (boblinks.com)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor, known for his pioneering style of country music. First becoming popular in the mid-1980s, Yoakam has recorded more than twenty albums and compilations, charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and sold more than 25 million records. He has recorded five Billboard #1 albums, twelve gold albums, and nine platinum albums, including the triple-platinum This Time.

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Treasures from the archives: Bob Dylan and Earl Scruggs East Virginia Blues (Video 1971)

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

This song is by The Carter Family and appears on the compilations  The Carter Family Volume 1 – 1927-1934 (2002) and Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934) (1998) . This will be included in Bpb Dylan’s Bootleg  Series Vol. 15 (along with 4 more Scruggs collaborations), but it is nice to be able to share some live video footage from this sit-down.




It’s a historical gem, Enjoy.

I was born in East Virginny
North Carolina I did go
There I spied a fair young lady
And her age I do not know

Her hair was dark in color
Her cheeks were rosy red
Upon her breast she wore white lilies
Where I longed to lay my head

Oh, at my heart you are my darlin’
At my door you’re welcome in
At my gate I’ll always meet you
For you’re the girl I’ve tried to win

I’d rather be in some dark holler
Where the sun refuse to shine
Than for you to be another man’s darlin’
And to know you’ll never be mine

– Hallgeir

The Best Songs: Cold Cold Heart by Hank Williams

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you, the more we drift apart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

“Cold, Cold Heart” is a country music and pop song recorded by Hank Williams. This blues ballad is both a classic of honky-tonk and an entry in the Great American Songbook. The first draft of the song is dated November 23, 1950, and was recorded with an unknown band on May 5, 1951.

This is dark stuff, filled with jealousy, bitterness and hopeless love.

Country music historian Colin Escott states that Williams was moved to write the song after visiting his wife Audrey in the hospital, who was suffering from an infection brought on by an abortion she had carried out at their home unbeknownst to Hank. Escott also speculates that Audrey, who carried on extramarital affairs as Hank did on the road, may have suspected the baby was not her husband’s. Florida bandleader Pappy Neil McCormick claims to have witnessed the encounter:

“According to McCormick, Hank went to the hospital and bent down to kiss Audrey, but she wouldn’t let him. ‘You sorry son of a bitch,’ she is supposed to have said, ‘it was you that caused me to suffer like this.’ Hank went home and told the children’s governess, Miss Ragland, that Audrey had a ‘cold, cold heart,’ and then, as so often in the past, realized the bitterness in his heart held commercial promise.”

“Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue, and so my heart is paying now for things I didn’t do.”

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