Country

One of the good things about Spotify is that it takes absolutely zero effort to hear music you're interested in. (There's a lot of bad things, too... it's not nearly as comprehensive as I would like, it crashes on me every so often for no particular reason... and I'm probably going to end up spending $5 a month once my free subscription runs out.) For some reason I've been feeling country as of late. Or "country-rock", or whatever label one might apply to indicate that it's not-crappy-country.

I'm going to post some YouTube videos whether or not anyone listens to them. Cause that's what I do.



Gram Parsons joined the Byrds for a moment enough to help them release Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, which was considered to be *the* seminal "country-rock" album. I listened to it once. It's... okay. But I much prefer Gram Parsons' next project, the Flying Burrito Brothers. (Which, for my money, has to be one of the greatest band names of all time, although that might be my own strong bias towards burritos influencing that opinion.)

This song is pretty poppy, plus it features some prominent electric guitar work, so I guess it's not strictly country. But they're wearing those swank suits, so it doesn't matter.



My entry point for this guy was through the Big Lebowski soundtrack, with a cover of the Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers, which he probably made pretty much his own with minimal effort. I hadn't really listened to anything else by the guy other than a couple of songs here and there, but I kept coming back to the Dead Flowers cover and how wonderfully road-weary his voice sounds.

Not that I'm posting that song, but here's another one. It's a little different than the one I was listening to, but it's close enough. Dark and melancholic music always sounds good to me.



You know, if I judged a song strictly by the lyrics, I'd most likely hate this quite a bit. You know, on account of the fact that I don't like to drink, do drugs, carry firearms, and other general redneck-y manners. But the banjo player sure can shred, and there's so much rebellious attitude seeping through every inch that lyrical content doesn't matter a bit. And I suppose the lyrics the whole "outlaw" persona anyway, so...







And... Ween.

One song is completely devoid of any satirical edge and is wonderfully pretty. One song has fantastic harmonies and I would say should be played on radio stations were it not for the vulgar lyrics. One song features The Greatest of All Time. It's up to you to figure which ones are which.

It's easy, though. You just have to actually listen to the songs.