odds and ends: Roger Miller etc...

well the Roger Miller was a big hit....this surprised me actually. You guys never let me down. So now I get a chance to pretend I'm a music blogger, and well if there is one thing music bloggers love to do it's talk about their record collections. Being able to show pictures of your vast vinyl library is the ultimate music blogger cred. It's the equivalent of shanking a nazi in prison culture. And if you happen to have some super rare out of print limited edition french edition with a misprint on the cover.....oh hell.....you are like music blogger God!

So with that said.....here are some pictures of my sweet record collection :P

Now since I've posted that Roger Miller show I've been on a big Roger Miller kick....matter of fact it's about all I've been playing down in my secret lab whilst building my mom's mother's day gift. While burning through the grooves and wood, one song in particular stuck out, it's called Private John Q, and it's about a reluctant soldier fighting World War III. A song as apt today as ever. I can just hear this song being used in the opening credits of some kick ass war movie.....like say the new Tarantino flick Inglorious Basterds.....
Roger Miller - Private John Q

While I'm at it I thought I would post my favorite Roger Miller tune, the absurd My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died
Roger Miller - My Uncle Used To Love Me But She Died

Now I said about all I've been playing has been Roger Miller, well since I heard of Vern Gosdin's passing I've also been playing this bad boy

Now I am an unashamed fan of 70's country music.....Don Williams, Hank Jr., Johnny Lee, Eddie Rabbit, you know all of the "Urban Cowboy" type country that I'm not supposed to admit I like (there goes my recently aquired music blogger cred!!). Well this album, Vern's first solo album from 1977 has that sound in spades. At the end of the 60's after a couple albums with his brother (as the Gosdin Brothers), most notably a seminal album with country rock legend Gene Clark, Vern had tired of the music scene and was running a glass company in Atlanta, Georgia. Lore has it that Emmylou Harris convinced him to record again in 1976 and this album is the outcome....this album was the springboard that led him to become a country hitmaker throughout the 80's. Well anyway, if you want to know more about Vern "The Voice" Gosdin I suggest you read his bio on his official website.

So here are two of my favorite tracks off the above pictured album....the ode to country music herself....."Mother Country Music", and maybe my favorite version of the classic Harlan Howard song "The Chokin' Kind" (that's saying a lot right there, but hey, I love this funky smooth country soul version)
Vern Gosdin - Mother Country Music
Vern Gosdin - The Chokin' Kind

Thanks for "the voice" Vern.....R.I.P.