A Truer Halloween Part 2: ...Revenge of The Witch Puppy

Witch puppy is back and he's pissed! Spooky Spooky x 2!

1. Rabid Monkey - The Sadies
2. Dark Night - Flat Duo Jets
3. Wicked Old Witch - John Fogerty
4. Vampire Lake - The Builders & The Butchers
5. The Plank - Devil Makes Three
6. Am I Demon? - Bonnie Prince Billy
7. The Curse of The Little Bastard - Dexter Romweber
8. Walking On My Grave - The Cartwrights
9. Graveyard Song - I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House
10. Vampires & Failures - Grandpa Boy
11. The Haunt - Roky Erickson
12. Ghost On The Highway - The Gun Club
13. Hell's Gate - Jason & The Scorchers
14. Vampire - Bap Kennedy
15. Werewolves Of London - Magnolia Electric Co.
16. Devil's Stomping Ground - Southern Culture On The Skids
17. Walkin' With Scary Hillbilly Monsters - Dexter Romweber
18. Hanged Man - The Meat Purveyors
19. Mr. Undertaker - Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
20. It's A Monster's Holiday - Buck Owens
21. Pardon This Coffin - Jon Rauhouse
22. Night Walk - The Country Gentlemen
23. Werewolf - Michael Hurley
24. The Hellbound Train - Those Poor Bastards
25. The Lost Soul - The Handsome Family

MP3

A Truer Halloween 2

A Truer Christmas 2

By popular demand (well, one guy) we have another fricken Christmas comp (I know, I know...just what the blog world needs right now). What's amazing to me is the fact that I was able to compile not one, but TWO half decent christmas comps in a fairly niche genre.

Now first off a little warning....if there is is one time of year a person should be allowed to listen to cheesey songs it is Christmas. Keep that in mind while spinning this....cause some of these would be right at home at your christmas party on a little tray with ritz crackers. But I tried to keep it a fairly even mix (believe me, I could have made it MUCH cheesier). Features one of my absolute favorite Merle Haggard songs of all time, which of course is "If We Make It Through December". I was also VERY surprised when I found a Scott Miller Christmas tune. Thanks to Payton at This Morning I Am Born Again for a few of these tracks that really helped fill out this collection.

Oh and about that Unknown Hinson track.....well nothing quite says Christmas like wifebeating (to quote one Axle Rose, take it for what it is people).

Now download this and get to singing Ho-Ho-Ho we was po po po :)


1 Hank Snow - Reindeer Boogie
2 Buck Owens - Christmas Time's A-Comin'
3 Michael Reno Harrell - More Than I Deserve
4 Commander Cody -Daddy's Drinking Up Our Christmas
5 Merle Haggard -If We Make It Through December
6 Scott Miller - Skeptical Christmas
7 Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison - A Winter's Tale
8 Doc Watson - Snowbird
9 Bill Anderson - 'Po Folks Christmas
10 Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper
11 Hank Thompson - Gonna Wrap My Heart in Ribbons
12 Jim Lauderdale - Holly And Her Mistletoe
13 George Jones - My Mom and Santa Claus
14 Tennessee Ernie Ford - Christmas Dinner
15 Old 97's - Here It Is Christmas
16 The Long Ryders - Christmas In New Zealand
17 Chuck Berry - Christmas
18 Mojo Nixon - Christmas, Christmas
19 Unknown Hinson - Black and Blue Christmas
20 The Gougers - Just Because It's Christmas
21 Dale Watson - Honky Tonk Christmas
22 Loretta Lynn - To Heck With Ole Santa Claus
23 Ernest Tubb - I'll Be Walkin' the Floor This Christmas
24 Bobby Bare - Christmas Train
25 Frontier Ruckus - Driving Home, Christmas Eve
26 Felice Brothers - Christmas Song
27 Johnny Cash - The Ballad of Harp Weaver

MP3 @ 192 (111MB)
A Truer Christmas 2

A Truer Easter

Who says songs about Jesus have to suck. Here's a good set of mostly straightforward gospel songs (mostly). First I want to talk about the cover image I used. Now these three crosses, exactly like those in the picture are all over this area....every road just about you will see them. They first started appearing around here in the mid to late 80's and there were many local legends about them. These legends state that a local millionaire had a near death experience during which he had a vision of God who told him he would spare his life if he spent the rest of it building these wooden crosses and placing them beside highways. Other parts of the legend state that some folks didn't take too kindly to these crosses being on their land or near their land or what have you and tried to tear them down. Supposedly one guys tractor suddenly caught on fire, one guy's boat engine died and he was stranded in a lake. One guy even supposedly had a heart attack whilst trying to remove the wooden crosses. There were also stories of lightning striking them but nothing happening, and them surviving forest fires, floods and hurricanes.
Now I don't know how true those last parts are, but a little research has confirmed that the man in question was indeed a succesful businessman from Craigsville, WV named Bernard Coffindaffer. He had a heart attack in 1982 which was when he recieved his holy vision and life's mission. Pretty interesting stuff I thought.

Here is an article about his death in the NY Times

There is even an organization that carried on his mission after his death called "Christian Crosses"

Here is some more history about Mr. Coffindaffer

Have a good Easter folks, and in the words of Billy Joe; "If you don't love Jesus go to hell"

01 Ralph Stanley - Sing Songs About Jesus
02 The Dillards - Somebody Touched Me
03 Johnny Cash - Wildwood in the Pines
04 Ray Wylie Hubbard - When She Sang Amazing Grace (Live)
05 Billy Joe Shaver - Jesus Christ Is Still The King
06 The Byrds - Jesus Is Just Alright
07 Old Crow Medicine Show - God's Got It
08 Uncle Tupelo - Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
09 Link Wray - Backwoods Preacher Man
10 Tom T. Hall - Me and Jesus
11 The Gourds - Hallelujah Shine
12 Scott H. Biram - Only Jesus
13 Billy Joe Shaver - If You Don't Love Jesus
14 Slobberbone - Trust Jesus
15 The Meat Purveyors - Working on a Building
16 Jim Lauderdale - I Met Jesus In A Bar
17 Bobby Bare - Dropkick Me Jesus
18 Steve Earle - Elijah's Church
19 Scott Miller - Is There Room on the Cross for Me
20 Buddy Miller - This Old World
21 J. D. Souther - Jesus In 3/4 Time
22 Dillard and Clark - I Bowed My Head And Cried Holy
23 Earl Scruggs Revue -Gospel Ship
24 Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris - Great High Mountain
25 Johnny Cash - It Was Jesus
26 The Carter Family - Let the Church Roll On

MP3 @ 192
Download A Truer Easter here

A Truer Sampler14 - The Sadies

Surf, bluegrass, byrdsian psychedelia, garage rock, country, spaghetti westerns, canada. If you like any 2 of those then odds are your gonna like The Sadies. If you like all of them then buddy you're gonna love 'em. Hailing from Canada The Sadies have been going at it since 1998. Core members are lead singer/guitarists Dallas and Travis Good, it's like someone locked them in a room when they were kids with nothing but ventures, byrds, various garage rock records, and two guitars. What came out is damned good. They can play.....buddy can they play. Some of the best b-bender licks since Clarence White invented the damned thing. They are known as one of the best live bands around too. Whether they are backing Alt Country diva Neko Case, dirty soul legend Andre Williams, or punk rock twangster Jon Langford....all of whom they have toured with and released album collaborations with.

This was kind of tricky to do, cause their songs are best heard on their albums...with all the quirky instrumentals and all. I tried to include some of that feel by adding some of my favorite instrumentals on here but it's still not the same.....the albums are great, get the albums. Their latest one New Seasons is in my opinion probably their best album and certainly one of the best albums of last year. Do not pass it up, if you like this get that album...it will not dissapoint.


An Afterthough: GO SEE 'EM LIVE! (courtesy Rockstar Aimz)

http://www.thesadies.net/
http://www.myspace.com/thesadies
Sadies Message Board
Buy their stuff here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sadies
Video for "The Horseshoe"
Sadies Interview

MP3 @ 128
ATS14 - The Sadies

A Truer Christmas

I believe Vaughn planted the bug for this one back during the Truer Halloween post. Let me just say this, this was no easy task my friend. I found out 2 important things will compiling this: 1. There are a shit ton of christmas albums, 2. Most of them suck (as a matter of fact the cover I made reflects what I felt like doing after about the 14th listen to some crappy over produced rendition of "insert christmas song here". But I think I came up with something workable. I tried to seperate them a little so the sadder songs (christmas tearjerkers my friends) are towards the back, but some of them (like the Dwight Yoakam "santa can't stay") I couldn't decide whether they were tragic or funny. You will also come to realize I have a special love for surf music in my heart (I had to try hard to keep from puttin a ventures song on here, and the next to final draft DID INDEED have a ventures song on it). A couple of the songs were mandatory (like the "Merry Christmas From The Family" & "Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy") but I tried to veer away from the traditional stuff. One thing on here that bugs me though is the censorship of the otherwise excellent "Oklahoma Christmas". I couldn't for the life of me find an uncensored version, doubt their even is one. I kept the song on the mix though cause hell it's still a funny song and since it's censored, you can play this mix in front of the little ones without getting on Santa's bad list....too much.

01-Dwight Yoakam-Run Run Rudolph
02-Reverend Horton Heat-Jingle Bells
03-Adam's House Cat-Santa's Out of Rehab by Christmas
04-Southern Culture On The Skids-Merry Christmas Baby
05-Robert Earl Keen-Merry Christmas From The Family (Live)
06-Asylum Street Spankers-Red Nosed Reindeer Blues
07-Los Straitjackets-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
08-Buck Owens & Susan Raye-Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
09-Old 97's-Holly Jolly Christmas
10-Reverend Horton Heat-Santa On The Roof

11-Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison-Oklahoma Christmas
12-John Prine-Everything Is Cool
13-The Refreshments-My Christmas Baby
14-Ry Cooder-Christmas In Southgate
15-Robert Earl Keen-Happy Holiday Y'all
16-Dwight Yoakam-Santa Can't Stay
17-Buck Owens & Susan Raye-All I Want For Christmas is My Daddy
18-Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison-Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk
19-Clarence White-Silver Bells
20-Squirrel Nut Zippers-Gift Of The Magii

21-Roger Miller-Old Toy Trains
22-Steve Earle-Nothing But a Child (Demo)
23-The Band-Christmas Must Be Tonight
24-John Prine-Christmas In Prison
25-Red Star Belgrade-Xmas Day

MP3 @ VBRs

A Truer Christmas

A Truer Sampler 13 - Tom T. Hall

This one's very near and dear to my heart. I am a huge Tom T. Hall fan and when I found out a friend from work had NEVER heard of him I just had to make this. Lucky for you guys I decided to post it on here too. Tom T. is a master songwriter in the storyteller vein. Listening to one of his songs is like reading a good short story, I would go so far as to call Tom T. Hall the Mark Twain of country music.....he's that good. He's able to take you from laughter to teardrops with just one verse, for example just listen to "Mamma Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)"....about a soldier coming home from vietnam sans legs but at least "he'll save some money buying shoes". If this is your intro to Ol' T, well your in for a treat my friend. If your already familiar, well I tried to put in some of my favorite lesser known songs too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_T._Hall
http://tomthall.net/
http://www.tthproject.com/
http://countrymusic.about.com/od/news/a/bltthll_cma.htm
http://www.morethings.com/music/tomt/
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/tomthall.html
http://oneweb.utc.edu/~tnwriter/authors/hall.t.html
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/tom_t_hall.html

MP3
ATS13 - Tom T. Hall

Re-Post: A Truer Sampler 03 - Ray Wylie Hubbard

This is in honor of our 100,000 visitor. This is my favorite sampler plus my favorite artwork I have made to date, so I'm gonna re-post it.



Download in the original post

A Truer Halloween

This just in, a special halloween edition sampler for your hearin' ears. Spooky spooky!!

01-The Sadies-The Creepy Butler
02-CCR-Sinister Purpose
03-Frank Carlier-Hellbound
04-Supersuckers-Sleepy Vampire
05-Blanche-Superstition
06-David Childers and The Modern Don Juans-Burning In Hell
07-David Alan Coe-The Ride
08-Drive-By Truckers-Demonic Possession
09-Freakwater-Cloak of Frogs
10-The Meat Purveyors-I Have A Devil In Me
11-The Sadies-Lucifer Sam (with Gary Louris)
12-Southern Culture on the Skids-Tombstone Shadow
13-Wil Ridge-Devil's Toenail
14-Trailer Bride-Ghost on the Highway
15-Hank III-Satan Is Real/Straight To Hell (Medley)
16-The Sadies-Locust Eater
17-Tony Joe White-Conjure Woman
18-Blue Mountain-My Wicked, Wicked Ways
19-Bobby Bare-Marie Laveau
20-William Elliott Whitmore-Diggin' My Grave
21-Split Lip Rayfield-Devil
22-Songs Ohia-I've Been Riding With The Ghost
23-Christa Meyer & Jon Langford-The Hangman's Song

MP3
A Truer Halloween

A Truer Sampler 12: Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 4

The final volume, I could have probably done more, but I had to stop somewhere. This one has more of a concentration of folks who started in the 90's, but are more known for their post 90's work.....if that makes sense.

Anyway, I had a blast compiling this and making the artwork, hope you guys enjoy

MP3

ATS12 - Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 4

A Truer Sampler 11: Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 3

Volume 3. Just fleshing this thing out, so much good music came out of this era it was impossible to compress into 1 (or even 2) discs.

MP3
ATS11 - Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 3

A Truer Sampler 10: Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 2

Ok, here's volume 2. This one has more of an emphasis on mid 90's, and includes some deeper cuts and lesser known artists (some even more well known as well).

To clear some things up, I won't be going away for about a week, which is why I'm trying to overload you with crap right now.....mainly this "Alt Country 1990 - 2000" sampler.

there's still 2 more volumes, so stay tuned.

MP3

ATS10 - Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 2

A Truer Sampler 09: Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 1

Well now, this was an ambitious project. I originally intended it to be a single disc type thing, but the more I got into it the more songs I had to include.....I finally stopped at 4 volumes. This is Volume 1. The other volumes will follow in the next few days. On this one I tried to mainly include the heavy hitters of Alt Country (whatever that means), and I typically gave precedence to songs that received radio airplay. I did however (throughout the whole series) only include one song from an album.....in case your wondering why "Windfall" is not on there (yeh, yeh....).

Anyway, I wanted to hurry and get this series up....cause I'll be moving in a few weeks and will be without internet for a couple of months. What that means to you guys is no updates for 2 months!! So I'm trying to overload you with stuff before I take my hiatus. I had alot of fun making this, and it is by no means comprehensive.....it's just songs from my CD collection, and it had to be songs I at least on some level like (in case you were wondering why no 16 Horsepower on here....sorry, but I just don't like them very much)

Enjoy it guys....more to follow.

MP3

ATS09 - Alt Country 1990 - 2000 Vol. 1

A Truer Sampler 08 - Whiskeytown

As promised a while back, alt country's darling Ryan Adams' first (and best) band, Whiskeytown. Whiskeytown was centered around Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary and the sweet harmonies they made have yet to be recreated. Based out of the Chapel Hill, NC area in the mid 90's, they quickly rose to the top of the crowded scene that was happening there (it was a killer scene back then too) picking up where Uncle Tupelo left off. I think ol' Ryan summed it up best with the lyric "So I started this damned country band, cause punk rock is too hard to sing".

Whiskeytown split up after only 3 official albums with Ryan Adams going on to pursue his solo career and Caitlin doing the same (though not as high profile). What they left us with though remains essential alt country and this is a good overview of this seminal band.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskeytown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Whiskeytown_albums

Buy some albums here and some here

MP3

ATS08 - Whiskeytown

A Truer Sampler 07 - The Bottle Rockets

OK, we're having a 4th of July blowout on Bottle Rockets!! The Bottle Rockets are the band of former Uncle Tupelo roadie/member Brian Henneman. He formed The Bottle Rockets just before Uncle Tupelo broke up and they actually opened for them on their final show (which I will be posting sometime soon). So in that respect, The Bottle Rockets are another band formed in the wake of Uncle Tupelo.....Son Volt, Wilco, & The Bottle Rockets.....the Big 3. Of those 3, the B-Rox are probably the most straigtforward rock band.....mid west style roots rock that is, and their first 3 albums are among the best in the whole genre of this thing somebody decided to call alt-country. Check out the song 'Radar Gun', one of my favorite songs of theirs off their 1995 masterpiece "The Brooklyn Side". If that don't make you a fan, well maybe 'Welfare Music' will, off the same album. The B-Rox are still going strong too, still touring, still putting out albums, check the links below.

http://www.bottlerocketsmusic.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bottle_Rockets

Buy Their Stuff Here

MP3

ATS07 - The Bottle Rockets

A Truer Sampler 06 - The Sound Of Texas 1970 - 1979

Allright, first let me state that I'm not from Texas, nor have I ever been to Texas. I do know a couple people from Texas, but that still doesn't qualify me to make a definitive "Texas Music" sampler.....even though I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night :P. So this is just a compilation with an outsider's (who happens to love Texas music) perception. Besides, I like to think Texas and Virginia have a rich musical connection that goes all the way back to when the Carter Family relocated there to be on border radio back in the 30's, and more recently....Steve Earle who was born in VA and legend has it that his grandfather had dirt brought in from texas in a shoebox so that the first piece of soil Earle's feet touched would be Texas soil.

So with this sampler I wanted it to be different and not include the "standard" texas songs you would normally get on something like this, so I tried to choose more obscure songs from the higher profile guys. Also, a couple of the guys on here aren't specifically Texas (Steve Young & Gary Stewart) but I would consider them "Texas-centric". Another thing is the Blaze Foley song was not released until 2006 but was recorded in 1979, so I snuck it in there. I think the end result is a pretty good compilation that is easy on the ears.
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1. The Year 2003 Minus 25 - Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
Off the 1978 album "Waylon & Willie". It's a Kristofferson song, so he's represented too. Just thought I would kick it off with the two who really opened the doors for everyone else.
2. Dallas - The Flatlanders
Originally released in 1972, then re-released years later on "More a Legend Than A Band", this is just a classic Texas song.
3. Texas Lullaby - David Allan Coe
Off his 1975 album "Longhaired Redneck" which is among his best work. DAC gets a bad rap but in my opinion he is one of the best.
4. Kiss Money - Bob Neuwirth
Off his 1974 self-titled album, Bob Neuwirth is often overlooked but I just love this song. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mercedes Benz" with Janis Joplin. He also helped Bob Dylan assemble his Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
5. Desperados Waiting For A Train - Guy Clark
Off his 1975 debut album "Old No. 1" this is another classic song. Features Steve Earle on background vocals, so he's represented too. (Emmylou sings backup vocals too)
6. Pancho and Lefty - Townes Van Zandt
Off his 1972 album "The Late Great Townes Van Zandt". His most famous song, made famous by Willie & Merle and Emmylou. I always liked the sparseness of his version though.
7. Treat Me Like A Saturday Night - Joe Ely
Off his self titled 1977 debut album. Joe Ely was 1/3 of the legendary Flatlanders out of lubbock.
8. Amarillo Highway - Terry Allen
Off his 1979 masterpiece "Lubbock (On Everything)", Terry Allen also hails from lubbock and is well known in the artists community for his artwork.
9. Election Day - Blaze Foley (and the Beaver Valley Boys)
OK, this is off the 2006 release "Cold, Cold World" but was actually recorded in 1979 Sessions and lost for years. Blaze was a character....and one of my favorites. He was best friends with Townes Van Zandt, and was shot in 1989 by one of his friends son. Also the subject of numerous songs, most notably Lucinda Williams "Drunken Angel".
10. (Up Against The Wall) Redneck Mother - Ray Wylie Hubbard
Off his 1978 release "Off The Wall", this song was made famous years earlier by Jerry Jeff Walker, and is what I would like to consider an anthem for the cosmic cowboys. Check out this Youtube vid where RWH tells the storie of writing this song.
11. Georgia On A Fast Train - Billy Joe Shaver
Off his 1973 masterpiece "Old Five And Dimers Like Me". Billy Joe was the fuel behind the whole outlaw/progressive country movement, and many, many others recorded his songs and made them famous. Hell Waylon did a whole album of his songs.
12. Jaded Lover - Jerry Jeff Walker
Off his 1975 album "Ridin’ High" Jerry Jeff is probably most famous for penning the song "Mr. Bojangles" but his later mid 70's stuff is where I think he really shines.
13. Devil In A Sleepin’ Bag - Willie Nelson
Off his 1973 album "Shotgun Willie", It's vintage Willie, what else can I say. Also he namechecks Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge in this song....so there represented.
14. Memories of You and I - Waylon Jennings
Off his 1974 album "The Ramblin’ Man", this is when Waylon was really hittin' his stride and could do no wrong.
15. The White Trash Song - Steve Young
Steve Young, not from texas. This is off his 1972 album Seven Bridges Road....that's right, THAT seven bridges road. Probably his most famous song, but he also wrote "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" which Waylon made famous.
16. Drinkin’ Thing - Gary Stewart
Gary Stewart, also not from texas. This is off his 1975 release "Out of Hand" and Stewart was a master of the hardcore honkytonk style, and was at home in Texas during the 70's.
17. Texas Tornado - Doug Sahm
Off his 1973 LP Texas Tornado, Doug Sahm was a true Texas rebel. Probably most famous for his late 80's early 90's band The Texas Tonadoes with Freddy Fender, this is the song that band took their name from.
18. Asshole From El Paso - Kinky Friedman
Off 1976's Lasso From El Paso album, Kinky is probably most famous now for his bid for governership of texas this past election. Shame he didn't win.
19. Gettin’ By - Jerry Jeff Walker
Off the essential 1973 live album Viva Terlingua!, just a good song.
20. Ride Me Down Easy - David Allan Coe
Off his 1977 album with controversial cover art Texas Moon. This is a Billy Joe Shaver song, but I love what DAC has done with it.
21. The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma - Terry Allen
Another song off his 1979 "Lubbock (On Everything)" album. I love it when he gets to the part about her sitting in a french chair naked.
22. Let Him Roll - Guy Clark
Another one off Guy's 1975 album "Old No. 1", I just really like this song so I put it on here.
23. Rake - Townes Van Zandt
Off 1971's Delta Momma Blues, another song I really like and thought it was a fitting end to this collection.

MP3

ATS06 - The Sound of Texas 1970-1979

A Truer Sampler 05 - Scott Miller (with The V-Roys & The Commonwealth)

Allright, now Scott Miller is another of my favorites. Been following his career for a long, long time. I first heard him was on the Bubbapalooza CD which I had bought strictly for the SCOTS live song on it. Scott Miller was a pleasent surprise to find on that album. Then a year or so later I picked up the first V-Roys album "Just Add Ice" and instantly fell in love with it. The V-Roys were the pride of Knoxeville, TN and the first band signed to Steve Earle's record label (E-Squared). Truth be told, the only reason I picked the album up in the first place was cause I saw Steve Earle's name on the back of the case as producer. It wasn't until I started reading through the liner notes that I figured out this was the same guy from the Bubbapalooza CD.

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The V-Roys still remain one of my favorite bands from that era and it's a shame they broke up, but luckily Scott persevered and has had a fruitful solo career since the V-Roys. I remember when I picked up his first solo album "Thus Always To Tyrants" and finally figured out that he was from VA....that made me like him even more. All of his solo album have been pretty good, but his shows....that's where he really shines. I'm hoping to catch him this coming august. If you can't catch him, go out and buy his newest album (which is a live album) "Reconstruction"

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Buy His Stuff Here

http://www.thescottmiller.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Miller_(musician)

http://www.w3st.com/vroys/

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MP3

ATS05 - Scott Miller

A Truer Sampler 04 - Drive By Truckers

Now this one was incredibly hard to whittle down, they have so many good songs. And I don't want to hear any crap about the artwork either....I tried and tried and that's the best I could come up with...I just went for the cheese factor like their early album covers :P......besides, you can print it out and color it if you want. So I talk about DBT alot on here, they are one of my absolute favorite bands, they are actually THE band that restored my faith in new music. See I had kind of lost faith in new music sometime around '98/'99. I just couldn't find anything that excited me, that is until I discovered the mighty Drive-By Truckers.

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But before I get into that let me talk about the local record shop (RIP) I used to frequent. This is the same shop I would go buy all the SCOTS & Old 97's albums and they had a killer section for this type of music that didn't have a label on it because that was before anyone had settled on a proper name. Well anyway, this section on the CD rack was only about 4 rows of CD's but it was all killer stuff, and sometimes I would just buy something from there to see what it sounded like. Well one of the CD's they had in there that I must have picked up a gazilion times to look at but for some reason never bought was a CD called "Gangstabilly" by a group called "Drive-By Truckers". Now I never bought it cause I thought it would be some cheesy cheesy music....novelty music. This is one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made concerning a music purchase. It wasn't until years later that I heard about this strange band called Drive-By Truckers again....I had read a few reviews in a couple magazines of their album "Southern Rock Opera" which was highly spoken of. So I downloaded a few tracks (this was in Napster's heyday) and was just blown away by songs like "Zip City" and "Ronnie and Neil". I went out and bought "Southern Rock Opera" the next day. Now this was right before "Decoration Day" came out. When it did come out, I ran out and bought that too.....the day it was released.....which I have done with every one of their albums since. They were the first band I was genuinly excited about in years.....I felt like I was a young'n again just discovering music.....and they opened the door for me to dig deeper into new music and I started discovering all kinds of stuff I was not even aware was out there. And I'm still excited about music now, their's in particular....and for that I would like to thank them.

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I had to cut alot of good songs from this, some of my faves too like: Nine Bullets, Ronnie and Neil, One of These Days, Company I Keep, Sounds Better In A Song, Sinkhole, Where The Devil Don't Stay, Cottenseed, Danko/Manual, Goddamn Lonely Love.....just too many to list that I had to cut, I could have easily made this a double discer.....but I would encerouge each and everyone of you, if you don't already own them to go out and get everyone of their albums. If you only got the bread for a couple albums, then definitely at least get "Decoration Day" and "The Dirty South". Those two are essential. After that get the DVD "Live at the 40 Watt", then "Southern Rock Opera", "Pizza Deliverance", "Gangstabilly", the amazing early live album "Alabam Ass Whoopin" & Patterson Hood's solo album "Killers & Stars"....then if you like all that get "Blessing and a Curse".

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Buy Their Albums Here

http://www.drivebytruckers.com/

http://www.ninebullets.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-By_Truckers

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MP3 @ 128

ATS04 - Drive By Truckers

A Truer Sampler 03 - Ray Wylie Hubbard

OK, this one was really hard to whittle down to 80 minutes. But I think what I came up with is a good overview of an artist I can only describe as a lyrical genius. Ray Wylie Hubbard is my latest musical obsession, download this sampler to find out why. Nasty grooves, gruff vocals, killer slide guitar, and some of the best damn lyrics you're likely to ever hear. Now on this disc I had to leave out his most famous song (made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker in the 70's) "Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother" but you can find a killer version of it on the Stingaree bootleg I previously posted. I also did not put a song off his first album after his reinvention as, what I like to describe as "a mystic troubador", 1992's "Lost Train of Thought". Though It has some good songs on it, the flow was better without them.

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Now I seriously love Ray Wylie Hubbard....I think he is the best artist out there performing and recording right now. I first heard of him a long time ago....with the aforementioned song "Redneck Mother". I kind of thought he just faded into obscurity during the 70's never to be heard from again. Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I hear the song "Choctaw Bingo" on a DBT station I created on Pandora.com. "Holy Shit, this song is amazing" I thought, so I did a little research and found out that he had in fact faded into obscurity & drug addiction during the 70's and 80's, only to clean himself up and be "musically reborn" in the early 90's. He took his first guitar lessons, and learned to play the blues like Lightnin' Hopkins....and man he can play it too. Then he started putting out killer album after killer album....I went out and bought them all (well I had to order most of them). Every album was fantastic, I especially like "Eternal and Lowdown". I would call that his masterpiece, it's just a perfect album from start to finish. And "Choctaw Bingo" though it's a James McMurtry song, is in my top 10 of greatest songs ever....it's a song I wish would never end....I just want to hear more and more, and when Ray Wylie sings it you believe every last word of it

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Buy His Stuff Here

http://www.raywylie.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Wylie_Hubbard

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MP3 @ 192

ATS03 - Ray Wylie Hubbard

A Truer Sampler 02 - Old 97's

OK, so here's the second of the planned Samplers......which I'm calling "A Truer Sampler" (clever eh). Now the Old 97's were my second musical obsession after I got burnt out on SCOTS. I first heard them on some sampler CD that came with some long out of print magazine...it was the song "Time Bomb" off their 1997 masterpiece album "Too Far To Care". Now I'm not one of those "indie cred" types that pretend they were into every band before they got popular, I think that is about as douchebag as it gets, so I don't have any problem admitting I was late to the game on them....as Too Far To Care was that one thing all those aforementioned indie douchebags hate to see....a MAJOR LABEL DEBUT (oh the horror). But I digress....I seem to have gotten off track.

So after hearing this song "Time Bomb" I went out to my favorite local record store (RIP) and picked up Too Far To Care.....sounded like heaven to my ears. Then I did what I always do with a band I get obsessed with, I dug through their back catalouge....which was pretty easy cause the only older album still in print was "Wreck Your Life", which is also a masterpiece.

Then out comes "Fight Songs" and I rush out to my local record store (RIP) to pick it up, jam it in my discman and the first song is "Jagged"..."holy shit! this is good" I thought. Then the others songs played on, but I wasn't as excited about them cause they weren't as "twangy" as I thought they should be....but it was still a damned good album. Then "Early Tracks" came out which was a collection of early singles....THIS was the old 97's that I loved, they even had a Johnny Cash cover on it, and it was a NEW Johnny Cash song...unheard of....but great!

Around this same time I was waiting for the much fabled "Ranchero Brothers" album (Rhett Miller & Ken Bethae acoustic) but I'm still waiting for that, as I'm sure alot of Old 97's fans are. What they did give us was Satellite Rides. Now I know alot of people out there love this album....but to me, all I could think was "what happened to my favorite band", "where did the twang go". This was the album where they really went downhill for me, and even the newest one didn't really do much for me....Rhett Miller's solo stuff REALLY didn't do it for me. But I still hold a dear place in my heart for those first three albums (I eventually got their out of print first album) and the "Early Tracks" EP.

So anyway, here is my collection of songs for you guys to check them out with....you'll notice that the tracks lean towards the early stuff, but like always I try to include at least one song from each album (and the later albums weren't all bad anyway). Really there is not a bad track on "Too Far To Care" though, I could have put that whole album on here. Rhett Miller really knew how to turn a phrase too, those early albums hold some of my favorite lyrics ever. I hope you guys enjoy this, cause I enjoyed compiling it.

Buy Their Stuff Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_97

http://www.old97s.com/

MP3 @ 192

ATS02 - The Old 97's

A Truer Sampler 01 - Southern Culture On The Skids

Ok, so here's the first sampler.....one of my favorite groups....Southern Culture On The Skids, or as the fans call them SCOTS. Now let me just preface this by saying that when I was around 12 or 13 I used to steal my sister's hair metal tapes, and tape over them with my boom box that sat in the headboard of my bed. Now I would always just tape stuff off the radio that I thought was cool, and typically I would end up taping stuff off the local college station. This was always late at night too and if you've ever listened to college radio you know that they play some pretty weird stuff, especially late at night. Well I had a bunch of these tapes, and my favorite was a taped over Night Ranger tape that had this bad ass song about a mexican wrestler who was also a super hero at night.

Fast forward a few years, and I had completely forgotten about those tapes. I hear this cool song on the radio (different station this time) about little debbie cakes and snack crackers. So I search it out and find out it's a group called Southern Culture On The Skids. I go buy the CD "Dirt Track Date" and loved the hell out of it...used to cruise around to it in my old LTD with the discman plugged into the tape deck. Naturally I start collecting their back catalouge....and find stuff that just keeps getting better and better....songs about wrestling bears & eatin' biscuits and chicken shit. Then I get a newly released EP of some early tracks, it was called Viva Del Santo....I walk out of the local record shop (RIP) plop it in my discman...and holy shit! it's that song I taped off the radio about the mexican wrestler! Pretty Cool I thought.

They became one of my all time favorite bands, and if you've never seen them live you really need to, one of the (if not the) best shows I've ever seen.

Now the way I'm gonna do these samplers is to try my best to put at least one song from every album an artist or group has. On this one though I did not include a song from their very very early first album (from 1985) cause they weren't really the same band then, and I didn't include one from the "Zombified" EP cause well....I kinda ran out of room and the songs weren't as strong as others. Also, the songs I pick are based purely on my tastes, and nothing else.....so if you think something is missing or don't like what I picked, well.....they are just songs I like and think other people should hear.

Buy There Stuff Here

http://www.scots.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Culture_on_the_Skids

MP3 @ 192
ATS01 - Southern Culture On The Skids