Random Records: Charlie Daniels Band - Way Down Yonder

Here's a feature I haven't done in a while, and I know I promised a Kasey Anderson live thing, but due to technical problems that will have to wait until tomorrow (hopefully). Now, I dug this album out yesterday while giving the basement a much needed cleaning. I don't know if I have ever even listened to this one before, but man it was the perfect album for that moment.

Now most of you fine folks out there are probably familiar with Charlie Daniels, and hopefully your familiarity extends beyond "Devil Went Down To Georgia". Now don't get me wrong, I love Devil Went Down to Georgia. What person my age doesn't. I Guarantee you every one of us in our early 30's have childhood memories of singing "Granny does your dog bite no child no!!!". No....just me...? Well regardless, the Charlie Daniels well is much deeper than that.

You see by the time Urban Cowboy came along and propelled "Devil Went Down To Georgia and Charlie Daniels" into the pop and country charts, CDB had put out around 11 studio albums, and 4 Volunteer Jam live albums. You see before Urban Cowboy....Charlie Daniels Band had been primarly known as a Southern Rock Band. After Urban Cowboy, they began to morph into strictly a mainstream country band that has kind of an edge. This album, Way Down Yonder is a testament to the early southern rock era.

Way Down Yonder was released in early 1974, right before what I consider CDB's finest album Fire On The Mountain, from the same year. Listening to Way Down Yonder and listening to Fire On The Mountain is almost like listening to 2 different bands. Way Down Yonder marks the end of one era and Fire On The Mountain marks the beginning of another. You see, this album is what some call SOUTHERN BOOGIE. Think Allman Brothers. This is heavily blues and country influenced rock...this is Southern Rock, and this is good southern rock (unlike Molly Hatchet).

The track I pulled off this album for you all to hear is a fine, FINE example of what this first southern boogie CDB phase sounded like (the other phases of course being country rock CDB, mainstream country CDB, gospel CDB, and patriotic CDB). The song jumps right out of the gate with an opening lick that just screams SOUTHERN ROCK, before being joined by one funky ass bass line and a Duane Allman like slide lick. This is the foundation of the song, and it's a solid foundation. Now like the Allmans, this song gets a little jammy, but I love how they start layering on the other instruments towards the end until you can't tell where the slide guitar stopped and the fiddle began.  Listening to this song on the computer.....doesn't really do it justice. I had this puppy pumping through my vinyl rig with the big ass all wood house speakers and that bassline....man that bassline.

Recommended if you dig southern rock.

Listen to Charlie Daniels Band - Low Down Lady here

Random Records: The Marshall Tucker Band - Searchin' For A Rainbow

Oh man....I LOVE this album. I remember stealing the cassette (one of the many) from my parents and listening to it endlessly on my dual deck tape player in the headboard of my bed, and later in my '86 Ford LTD tearing up the back roads and hollers of Floyd County and Allegheny Springs.

Now I realize a lot of folks probably don't like Marshall Tucker Band at all, and that can be understood if all they have ever heard is "Heard It In A Love Song". While not the worst song out there, it was certainly horribly overplayed. Fear not brave reader, cause Heard It In A Love song is NOT on this album. No that song came a few years later.

This album was released in 1975 and starts out with my two favorite Marshall Tucker Band songs....wait, first let's get something out of the way first. Marshall Tucker was not the name of any of it's band members rather a name the band members found on the key of their practice space and liked the sound of so much they named their band that. What was with 70's bands naming themselves after people? Ok, so back to what I was saying, this album starts with my favorite two Marshall Tucker Band songs. They are "Fire On The Mountain", and "Searchin' For A Rainbow". Fire kicks off the album with a mournful and huge pedal steel lick before kicking into the song which features some of my favorite pedal steel work throughout. The song reads like an episode synopsis of HBO's Deadwood series. With a man who takes his family away from his Carolina home in search of gold out west. What he finds is a place where "sin is the big thing", and "folks are shot down for sake of fun" or "just to hear the sound of their .44 guns". This is the song I'm featuring as a download cause I love it. Also features a flute solo, which is a trend that Marshall Tucker really tried to get going in country rock but thankfully never did. It's not really bad just different....I mean, makes you wonder why more country songs don't feature flute solos. Ahh but I guess Tull and Tucker are alone in their flute endeavors.

"Searchin' For Rainbow" is the follow up, and a slightly more upbeat song than "Fire" was. Searchin' feels like a look at the thought patterns from the character we got to know in Fire On The Mountain, here we get the tale of a man who is searching for his metaphorical pot of gold, an endless search that possibly drove him to the events that took place in Fire. At least that's my take on it. I'm probably way wrong on that :-P

Some other great songs on this album are the laid back "Virginia", the even more laid back western swing ode to the poor man's meditation that is fishing, "Bob Away My Blues", and the love ballad "Keep Me From All Wrong". Some of the other songs on this album tend to lean a little more to the jazz country side, but they are certainly in the minority, and even then they keep it reigned in. Also included is the live version of classic rock staple "Can't You See" tagged on at the end that is probably the best recorded version of that song. Overall I love this album (did I already say that?), and think it should be included with other great country rock albums of the 70's though I doubt it ever will.

Listen to Marshall Tucker Band - Fire On The Mountain here

Random Records: Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like A Wheel

Well you guys talked me into making this a recurring feature. Luckily I keep my records fairly organized (in a chaotic fashion that only makes sense to me of course), so I can assure the first few won't be complete duds. I'll wait till this feature gets established before I start reaching into the other shelfs. So what does that get us this week. It gets us Linda Ronstadt's 1974 album Heart Like A Wheel. One of her best albums no doubt, though I prefer 1977's Simple Dreams to this one.

Heart Like A Wheel was the album that propelled Ronstadt to superstar status, hitting number one on the Billboard charts, the country charts, and also earning her a grammy.

The biggest single off Heart Like A Wheel was undoubtedly "You're No Good", made famous a few years later by an up and coming band called Van Halen you may have heard of. This album like her earlier albums featured a plethora of musicians from the Laurel Canyon area of L.A. including JD Souther, Don Henley, Glen Frey, Emmylou Harris, Herb Pederson, Dave Lindley, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, etc... Laurel Canyon in the late 60's early 70's was a nexus of country rock artists, starting with The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield and culminating years later with The Eagles and Jackson Browne. Ronstadt was square in the middle of this movement with The Eagles themselves as her backing band on her earlier albums.

This is also the album where Ronstadt established herself as a master interpreter of others songs. Including what I like to think is a tribute to recently deceased Gram Parsons with her version of "Dark End Of The Street", which of course was recorded by The Flying Burrito Brothers on their first album. Other covers include "You're No Good", originally an R&B hit for Dee Dee Warwick, The Everly's "When Will I Be Loved", Hank's "I Can't Help It I'm Still In Love With You" (which features some beautiful harmonies with Emmylou), and my favorite off this album, her version of Little Feat's "Willin" (featured in one of the best music scenes ever a few years later in the movie Abyss). This album is a masterful blend of country, rock, r&b, and just enough Pop to take it up the Billboard charts to #1. Cosmic American Music indeed.

Listen to Linda Ronstadt - Willin' (Download link removed, stream here)

Random Records: Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee

So the other day I was down in my shop/dungeon/secret lair/basement doing a few chores and decided to pull a record at random from the ol' shelves to listen to. I thought...hey, that would make an interesting recurring feature on the ol' blog, and what a great way to increase my coveted blogger cred ;-). so here we are. What I plan to do is post a few thoughts on the album and a track from the album.

The record I pulled ended up being Merle Haggard's 1968 live album Okie From Muskogee.

The fact I pulled a Hag record should come as no surprise to me, as I have a lot of Hag records. This one in particular though is one of my favorites. I like to call it Merle's "Folsom". That is a good comparison because much like Cash's "Folsom" & "San Quentin" twofer, Merle had "Okie" and 1970's "Fightin' Side of Me". Both great live albums that should go together as a pair (much like Cash's).
Okie was recorded live in Muskogee, Oklahoma and features the song the album takes it's title from. Sadly I don't think the fine folks of Muskogee realized they were on the butt end of Merle's very tongue in cheek (and often misunderstood) "Okie From Muskogee". "Okie", written from his dad's perspective about the events of the time (the 60's man...) became sort of anthem that Haggard never intended. Here are his own words on the subject: "It started out as a joke. We wrote to be satirical originally. But then people latched onto it, and it really turned into this song that looked into the mindset of people so opposite of who and where we were"
For my money though the best song on this album is without a doubt "Silver Wings". This version of the song is in my opinion THE version of "Silver Wings". So stripped down, just Haggard and the strangers, some of Hag's most soulful vocals and I just love it when he says to Roy Nichols "Pick it Nichol's" right before he lays some tasty licks on us.
This is without a doubt one of my top 3 Country albums of all time, which is what inspired me to start this recurring feature.....Might as well start it with something REALLY GOOD, call it luck of the draw.

Listen to Merle Haggard - Silver Wings (live) here