Last week when I posted a link to Johnny Cash’s American Recordings Outtakes I posted a sign of Johnny shooting the bird. Not the first time I’ve posted that picture, but after some inquires and a few conversations over it, it’s come to my attention that maybe the story behind Johnny Cash’s middle finger is [...]
Today is the 4th of July: the birthday of The United States. It is also arguably the birthday of the Outlaw movement in country music. Nailing down an exact date when the Outlaw movement started depends on who you talk to, but a popular one is when Willie Nelson’s legendary 4th of July Picnics started [...]
I’d love to tell you that I know a lot about Larry Jon Wilson, who died Monday at 69 from a stroke, but truth is I only know him through the bits of his music that have passed under my nose over the years, and from his appearance in the documentary Heartworn Highways. There isn’t [...]
Today we’re met with the sad news that actor Dennis Hopper has died of cancer. As a star in films like Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now and others, and as a long time friend of Willie Nelson, Dennis could could be kind of seen as an honorary country music Outlaw so to speak. Especially since [...]
Today is the day that original country music Outlaw Billy Joe Shaver faces trial for shooting 50-year-old Billy Coker in the cheek outside of Papa Joe’s Saloon in Lorena, TX, on March, 31st of 2007. Shaver’s charged with aggravated assault. The incident has been memorialized in the song Where Do You Want It? from the [...]
If you’re anything like me, if I want to hear some new music, you sure aren’t going to find me sniffing around CMT or burying your nose in the latest Rolling Stone. No, I’m likely going to be looking to the past, not the future. And man, what a thrill it is when you find [...]
It was 35 years ago today, or tonight, that Austin City Limits, inspired by Jan Reid’s book The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock and the exploding Outlaw country music scene in Austin, aired their first episode. And who better to book for the first show than the Improbable Willie Nelson. It was 1974; two years [...]
Of all the rough characters the Outlaw Country music scene can boast, only one has a glass eye and is a former gang leader and pimp. Only one when asked once by a 20/20 reporter if he carried a gun, and if so could he see it answered, “Which one?” because he notoriously carried two [...]
Back in the mid 70′s-the first time country music was saved- The Outlaws of country like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings found a home and harbor from Nashville’s ill ways in the Austin, TX singer-songwriter scene. People like Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphy, Townes Van Zandt, and Ray Wylie Hubbard had made Austin a [...]
Death has been busy lately in the world of country music. When Vern Gosdin passed away, I hated to admit that for all my country music geekness, I had never heard of the man. But I can’t say the same about Poodie Locke, who passed away last Wednesday (5-6-09). I knew exactly who he was, [...]
Country music is an interesting thing. More so than in any other genre of music, you can look back at it’s history and almost see a grand design; an underlying purpose to all of it’s ebbs and flows. Country music has created folk heroes and arch villains within it’s ranks of performers and business handlers. [...]
In a poll conducted by The Birmingham News in Alabama where over 31,000 ballots were cast in six total rounds since March 5th, Hank Williams was named Alabama’s “Top Music Icon” by the people. I first learned about this contest from the General of European Operations Restless in Amsterdam. Unfortunately I heard about it too [...]
I’ve said it many times before. About the only country music institution you can count on nowadays to honor the old greats and preserve the traditions of REAL country music is The Country Music Hall of Fame. But unfortunately like so many of us they are having financial troubles. I first read about this on [...]
I’ve seen this theme hashed out many times, in my blogs and blogs of others, on message boards, etc. etc. : How am I supposed to feel when one of my country heroes hooks up with a country zero of the modern pop country era? Whether you’re talking about the love fest between Hank Jr. [...]
I was happy to hear the news yesterday that the Queen of Rockabilly, the immortal Wanda Jackson is going to be inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame on April 4th as an early influence inductee. If you do not know who Wanda Jackson is then shit, I don’t even know where to [...]
First off, this blog is a follow up to the Shooter Jennings VS. Shelton Hank Williams III blog, so if you didn’t catch that one you might want to read it first. I always try to be as accurate as possible in my blogs when it comes to facts. I give my opinions more often [...]
Xmas is nigh upon us people, and for that certain special hellibilly or hellbetty I have a few suggestions if you’re short on ideas. First you can always check out 3bay for the latest in III gear and Reinstate Hank merch. There is also issue #1 of Metal Farm Magazine, JD Wilkes’ & Blake Judd’s [...]
George Jones Receives the Kennedy Center Honors: The silver-toned devil, the greatest living country music singer George Jones received the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Medal this week for giving country music 50+ years of his life, and counting. George hasn’t missed a step either, despite the drug abuse and brushes with the law. He’s completely [...]
So on Saturday night, I get a phone call from a friend who knows I like pop country about as much as getting a splintered board shoved up my ass, telling me that the perfume peddling Timberly McGraw is the host of Saturday Night Live. So I tune into the last half of the show [...]
Well, it’s been just over a week since I suffered through watching the whole CMA Pop Country Award Infomercial, and I am happy to report that I am finally able to keep solid foods down, and I finally achieved my first solid bowel movement since Kid Rock took the stage with “Lil Wayne,” making me [...]
