June 22: Happy Birthday Kris Kristofferson (born 1936 – age 83) – His 10 best songs
One of my fav artists, and he’s written many great songs.
This is a list (+ videos), not a bio… so here goes:
(preferred album version included)
Sunday Morning Coming Down – The Austin Sessions (1999)
Me and Bobby McGee – Kristofferson (1970)
Why Me – The The Austin Sessions (1999)
Help Me Make It Through the Night – Kristofferson (1970)
For the Good Times – The The Austin Sessions (1999)
Here Comes That Rainbow Again – The Essential Kris Kristofferson (2004)
The Silver Tongued Devil and I – The Silver Tongued Devil and I (1971)
To Beat the Devil – The Austin Sessions (1999)
Nobody Wins – The Austin Sessions (1999)
The Pilgrim, Chapter 33 – The Silver Tongued Devil and I (1971)
Yes! I LOVE “The Austin Sessions” album…
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There are many great video clips on youtube, and I’ve tried to compile the best versions (live versions are as always preferred):
Sunday Morning Coming Down
Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An’ I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An’ stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]… When I was 12 years old, or however old I was when Bringing It All Back Home came out, I’d just skip back and forth endlessly between ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and ‘It’s Alright, Ma’ and ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ and now my Dylan roots are showing big time.
— Rodney Crowell[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris – Shelter From The Storm (live 2006)
From Wikipedia:
Born
August 7, 1950 (age 68)
Houston, Texas United States
Genres
Country
Occupations
Musician, Songwriter
Instruments
Vocals
Guitar
Years active
1978–present
Labels
Warner Bros., Columbia, MCA, Sugar Hill, Epic, Yep Roc
Associated acts
Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, The Notorious Cherry Bombs, Los Super Seven
“The preacher asked her and she said, ‘I do’
The preacher asked me and she said, ‘Yes, he does too’
The preacher said, ‘I pronounce you 99 to life
Son, she’s no lady, she’s your wife.’ “
– Lyle Lovett (She’s No Lady)
“Writes like Guy Clark, only plainer, sings like Jesse Winchester only countrier.”
– Robert Christgau
“While Lyle Lovett’s self-titled debut album made it clear he was one the most gifted and idiosyncratic talents to emerge in country music in the 1980s, his follow-up, 1987’s Pontiac, took the strengths of his first disc and refined them, and the result was a set whose sound and feel more accurately reflected Lovett’s musical personality.”
– Mark Deming (allmusic)
This classic country album was Lyle Lovett’s second album, and to me it’s his best still. The Texas singer-songwriter uses the same elements that made his 1986 debut such a delight, dry humour, observational storytelling told in a personal and devastating way. Relationship stories as dark and as funny as they sometimes are…and with great singing and music.
Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris visits on this first of many masterpieces from Lyle Lovett.
Pontiac (official video):
The release date is uncertain, some sites said it was released in 1987, but most reviews started coming out mid January 1988. Anyway that’s not the important part, what’s important is to celebrate a very fine album no matter if it was released December 1987 or January 1988.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]“There’s nothing ‘retro’ about this record,” Earle says. “I’m just acknowledging where I’m coming from.” So You Wannabe an Outlaw is the first recording he has made in Austin, TX. Earle has lived in New York City for the past decade. “Look, I’m always gonna be a Texan, no matter what I do,” he says. “And I’m always going to be somebody who learned their craft in Nashville. It’s who I am.”
–amazon.com[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]
For me this is Steve Earle´s best album since Transcendental Blues (June 6, 2000). Backed by his band The Dukes (guitarist Chris Masterson, fiddle player Eleanor Whitmore, bassist Kelly Looney, and new members drummer Brad Pemberton and pedal steel player Ricky Ray Jackson) & recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin. Produced by Richard Bennett.
“Mother” Maybelle Carter (May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician. She is best known as a member of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s and also as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
Perhaps the most remarkable of Maybelle’s many talents was her skill as a guitarist. She revolutionized the instrument’s role by developing a style in which she played melody lines on the bass strings with her thumb while rhythmically strumming with her fingers. Her innovative technique, to this day known as the Carter Scratch, influenced the guitar’s shift from rhythm to lead instrument.
—Holly George-Warren
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Mother Maybell Carter performing “Black Mountain Rag” live on The Johnny Cash Show:
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Johnny Cash Mother Maybelle Carter – Pick The Wildwood Flower – Johnny Cash Show:
I didn’t know how babies were made until I was pregnant with my fourth child.
~Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is one of the classic country singers. During the ’60s and ’70s, she ruled the charts, racking up over 70 hits as a solo artist and a duet partner. Lynn helped forge the way for strong, independent women in country music.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires.
~Loretta Lynn
Tibute to Loretta Lynn, Hall of Famer’s Tribute
Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (live):
Wikipedia:
Birth name
Loretta Webb
Also known as
The Coal Miner’s Daughter
The First Lady of Country Music
The Decca Doll
The Queen of Country Music
Born
April 14, 1932 (age 85)
Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, USA
Genres
Country, honky-tonk, gospel
Occupations
Singer-songwriter, author
Instruments
Vocals, guitar
Years active
1960–present
Loretta Lynn (Born Loretta Webb April 14, 1932) is an American country-music singer-songwriter and author born in Butcher Hollow, near Paintsville, Kentucky, USA, to a coal-miner father. At the age of 15 she married, and soon she became pregnant. She moved to Washington state with her husband, Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. (1926–1996), nicknamed “Doo”. Their marriage was tumultuous; he had affairs, and she was headstrong; their life together helped to inspire her music.
On their 6 year anniversary, at the age of 21, (1953), Lynn’s husband bought her a $17 Harmony guitar. She taught herself to play and when she was 24, on her wedding anniversary, he encouraged her to become a singer. She worked to improve her guitar playing, started singing at the Delta Grange Hall in Washington state with the Pen Brothers’ band, The Westerners, then eventually cut her first record (Honky Tonk Girl) in February 1960. She became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s, and in 1967 charted her first of 16 number-one hits (out of 70 charted songs as a solo artist and a duet partner) that include “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “You Ain’t Woman Enough”, “Fist City”, and “Coal Miner’s Daughter”.
One’s on the way (live):
She focused on blue collar women’s issues with themes about philandering husbands and persistent mistresses, and pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control (“The Pill”), repeated childbirth (“One’s on the Way”), double standards for men and women (“Rated “X””), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War (“Dear Uncle Sam”). Country music radio stations often refused to play her songs. Banning 9 of her song. But Loretta pushed on to become “The First Lady of Country Music”. Her best-selling 1976 autobiography book was made into an Academy Award-winning film, Coal Miner’s Daughter, starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, in 1980. Her most recent album, Van Lear Rose, was released in 2004, produced by Jack White, and topped the country album charts. Loretta has received numerous awards in country and American music. For over 50 years Loretta has been performing and was honored in 2010 at the Country Music Awards for her stellar career. Loretta has been a member of The Grand Ole Opry for 50 years since joining on September 25, 1962.
Honors & Awards
Lynn has written over 160 songs and released 60 albums
She has had ten Number 1 albums and sixteen Number 1 singles on the country charts
Lynn has won dozens of awards from many different institutions, including four Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, twelve Academy of Country Music, eight Country Music Association and twenty-six fan voted Music City News awards
She was the first woman in country music to receive a certified gold album for 1967’s “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”.
In 1972, Lynn was the first woman named “Entertainer of the Year” by the Country Music Association, and is one of six women to have received CMA’s highest award
In 1980 she was the only woman to be named “Artist of the Decade” for the 1970s by the Academy of Country Music
Lynn was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999
She was also the recipient of Kennedy Center Honors an award given by the President in 2003
Lynn is also ranked 65th on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll
She was the first female country artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977
In 1995 she received the country music pioneer award
In 2001, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was named among NPR’s “100 Most Significant Songs of the 20th Century”
In 2002, Lynn had the highest ranking (No. 3) for any living female CMT television’s special of the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music.
On November 4, 2004, Lynn, who has been a BMI affiliate for over 45 years, was honored as a BMI Icon at the BMI Country Awards.
In March 2007, Loretta Lynn was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music during her performance at the Grand Ole Opry.
In 2008, Loretta Lynn was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City. To date Lynn had been inducted into more music Halls Of Fame than any other female recording artist
In 2010, Lynn received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her 50 years in country music
Bob Dylan recorded “Jokerman” (& “Man of Peace”) in 1983.
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Win Butler (born April 14, 1980) is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.
