Either You’re Listening to David Allan Coe’s Son’s Podcast, or Doing Country Fandom All Wrong
It’s so rare to find something that truly engages you as a traditional country fan and is being done in the here and now, and that’s exactly what Tyler Mahan Coe is doing with country music history via his Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast.
It’s incredible how relevant history can be when looking at it in the modern day perspective. The problems and issues that country music is facing today are the same problems it has faced from the beginning, from both the fan and artist’s perspective. This speaks to the cyclical nature of the business, where artists are always fighting for creative control, and then being reigned back in by the industry itself, and how almost every artist worth their salt has needed to overcome adversity and personal demons to find their success, while others fell victim to their own shortcomings and crafted even more intriguing stories and lessons from their failures.
As the son a former guitar player for David Allan Coe, Tyler Mahan Coe has seen both sides of the coin, and heard some of the stories not just second hand or in history books, but from the people who lived them.
Delving into the subject of why Loretta Lynn songs were banned, or the true “political” message behind some of Merle Haggard’s most signature tunes, all hold lessons to country music’s most vexing issues of today in almost blinding relevancy. Like Winston Churchill once said, “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Taking such deep dives into the historical context of not just songs and artists, but the cultural and economic issues that set the table for them really helps you understand things about country that go beyond the music itself.
Recent episodes of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast have covered Spade Cooley’s crazy murderous Western Swing career, the disappearance of Bobbie Gentry, breaking down the true meaning of Merle’s “Okie From Muskogee,” and the sordid past and harmonius importance of The Louvin Brothers.
The only concern is that eventually Tyler Coe may run out of stories. But country music has so many ghosts to give up and skeletons in the closet, this may take years, as new scandals and lessons worth delving into are being forged all the time.
You can check it out at CocaineandRhinestones.com.
November 30, 2017 @ 10:43 am
Listening to the latest episode right now. Love it!
November 30, 2017 @ 10:47 am
Thanks for turning on to this podcast. Have really enjoyed every episode.
November 30, 2017 @ 10:49 am
ill giv her a listen!
November 30, 2017 @ 11:10 am
Currently listening to the episode about Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill”…fascinating and very well done.
November 30, 2017 @ 11:23 am
My favorite so far has been the first about Ernest tubb. They all have been excellent though. With the stories intertwining with the music at times, it takes you to another period of life.
November 30, 2017 @ 11:42 am
Wow. I feel terrible for any harm I have caused to “fandom”…
November 30, 2017 @ 12:10 pm
Thanks for the recommendation. I will check out!
November 30, 2017 @ 12:40 pm
It’s interesting. I co-wrote the book with Charlie, and Coe nailed some of the inconsistancies. I don’t think Charlie hated Jim Denny, I think he just misremembered. He did have some strong words for Jim Dennry that I left out of the book, but he had strong words for lots of people, and I got the feeling he didn’t mean many of them. Coe’s dead right about the differing accounts Charlie gave between the book and some interviews too. What happened was that Charlie passed away before it was even close to completed. I had something like 40 hours of recordings I did with him at his home in Tennessee and on the phone, but there wasn’t any chance to follow up, so I made a choice along the way to write from the material he’d told me firsthand, even knowing that some of it probably wasn’t 100% accurate for exactly the reasons Coe talks about in his liner notes. I figured it was Charlie’s story told at a certain time in his life, and it wasn’t my place to gainsay him, even where I was pretty sure things didn’t add up.
November 30, 2017 @ 1:22 pm
I’m currently subscribed to WB Walker, Chris Shiflett and Wheeler Walker. I’ll have to give this one a go. Thanks for the heads up Trigger.
November 30, 2017 @ 1:33 pm
Two other podcasts that I really like that I feel do justice to country is Thanks for Giving a Damn w/ Otis Gibbs & Walking the Floor w/ Chris Shiflett.
November 30, 2017 @ 1:35 pm
I’ll have to check it out. I was wondering if you were going to mention the show on Cinemax Mike Judge Presents: Tales From the Tour Bus. I got caught up on season one last weekend and it’s great story telling of some country music legends. I’m not sure how to watch unless you get Cinemax but it looks like there are some youtube videos of it.
https://www.cinemax.com/mike-judge-presents-tales-from-the-tour-bus
November 30, 2017 @ 7:58 pm
I’ve mentioned the show a few times. In fact I think I was one of the first outlets to break the story:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/mike-judge-is-making-a-country-music-themed-animated-series/
Unfortunately though, I don’t have Cinemax, and my requests for review copies went unanswered.
December 1, 2017 @ 7:39 am
I really enjoyed the Tales from the Tour Bus and watched all the episodes one Saturday morning on On Demand. I didn’t even know I had Cinemax but apparently I do. Watching and listening to some of these guys old stories of drinking, drugging, and partying really made me want to relive some of my old times but that stuff is best left in the past 🙁
November 30, 2017 @ 2:24 pm
His vocal inflections are a little, I don’t know… weird. It’s like he’s really over-enunciating a lot of sentences. I don’t know if it’s for effect, or maybe that’s just the way he converses normally. I can’t really hold that against him though. The content is excellent. I’ve listened to every one, and will continue to do so.
November 30, 2017 @ 7:38 pm
I listened to the first 2 podcasts and had the exact same feeling about his enunciation and inflections of certain words and phrases. It grated on me the same way some singers voices do. The content is really interesting though and I am trying to listen to more shows. BTW that is a great handle…G harp and a Larrivee. Love them good ole Canadian guitars…that are made in California now. 🙂
December 1, 2017 @ 10:07 am
Thanks! They’re great guitars. Not quite boutique, but not a Taylor either… Love my LV-03!
November 30, 2017 @ 3:47 pm
Like Winston Churchill once said, “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
…..
So applicable to today. If you don’t know history you’re doomed to repeat it. If you don’t know where you’ve been you can’t know where you’re going.
November 30, 2017 @ 3:49 pm
Waiting for the SCM podcast….
November 30, 2017 @ 7:55 pm
I know my lane.
But there might be some changes in store for 2018.
November 30, 2017 @ 4:09 pm
Just listened to the one about The Pill, it’s an interesting story and some amazing music featured. I’ll definitely be following this one.
November 30, 2017 @ 5:05 pm
I applaud what he’s doing but I don’t agree with a lot of his conclusions. On “The Pill” he mentions previously songs that weren’t banned because of allusions to abortion ignoring the fact that many of these weren’t not meant for country radio (and of course not played on it) or the fact that Lorene Mann’s “Hide My Sin” in fact could be considered banned considering it most certainly was less played on country radio than Loretta’s “The Pill” (a top 5 hit on the Billboard chart largely based on airplay proving Loretta’s song was banned only in a handful of markets) while Lorene – admittedly not a major star – failed to crack the chart at all but the truth is Lorene’s record probably was just tossed in file 13 after a half-listen by most country radio programmers like thousands of other records, controversial or not.
And while I admire Merle Haggard very much I’m a little tired of his fans who are apologists pushing the “Okie From Muskogee was just sharp satire” angle which is brazenly false. All you have to do is read any of Merle’s interviews from the era to know he clearly meant what this song narrator was saying and you just have to listen at his later recordings of “The Fighting Side of Me” or the sexism in “Are The Good Times Really Over” (“when a girl would still cook and still would”) and “My Own Kind of Hat” (“two kinds of cherries, two kind of fairies” ) to know that the real Merle was an arch-conservative (let’s not even go into the notorious “I’m A White Boy”) who as he became more aware that the philosophy in some of his music was alienating the bigger mainstream and pop audience so he soft-peddled the Okie message in later interviews. As a liberal I can admire Merle as an artist for a lot of brillant work while still remaining appalled at some of his ideas, I see no reason why other fans – liberal or conservative – feel the need to make revisionist history about some of his controversial material.
November 30, 2017 @ 6:17 pm
Yeah I don’t think we should revise the history of the songs you mentioned either – cause they are freaking great tunes. But I do believe Merle aged into some more libertarian viewpoints judging by some interviews he gave later in life… And the fact that he claims “Okee…” was an ode to his dad is reasonable – he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who be ashamed of changing his opinions.
November 30, 2017 @ 7:43 pm
I believe Merles outlook changed due to a combination of aging, less booze, and a whole lot more pot smoking.
December 1, 2017 @ 9:16 am
Waylon wasn’t buying that stuff about “Okie” being satirical either, at least according to his autobiography: “The war between ‘hippies’ and ‘straights’ was getting more intense, and songs like ‘Okie from Muskogee’ weren’t helping, even if Merle insists his intent to be satiric was misenterpreted as flag waving.”
November 30, 2017 @ 6:15 pm
I’ve listened to a couple episodes. Love what he’s doing.
November 30, 2017 @ 7:48 pm
Man, thanks so much…and damned you! I just listened to Tyler’s Bobbie Gentry story and now I’ll be down a Gentry wormhole for the next 2-3 days! Seriously, Coe is detailed, a good researcher & obviously enjoys his subject. Good recommendation
December 1, 2017 @ 12:00 am
Holy shit that Spade Cooley episode was disturbing. I had heard of him off and on from time to time, and knew he was Tex Williams’ boss but I did not know he was a true pyschopath.
December 2, 2017 @ 9:38 pm
Yes that was very disturbing. I knew that he had been found guilty of murder but I had no idea about the details.
December 1, 2017 @ 12:46 am
oh wow. i didn’t think he was actually blood related. thanks for the heads up.
weird, i discovered that podcast just yesterday. started with the merle haggard episode. good stuff. props to him for taking the time to properly source his opinions. i hope he keeps the podcast going. he’ll only get better, more confident, less rambly, as time goes by.
December 1, 2017 @ 6:17 am
It’s become my favorite podcast. It’s great.
December 1, 2017 @ 8:59 am
Finally. Something we can agree on.
December 1, 2017 @ 8:50 pm
I haven’t listened yet, but I will try to do so soon.
I like Tyler a lot.
December 2, 2017 @ 9:36 pm
I’m lovjng this podcast! I’ve only listened to the first three so far and I really appreciate the detailed research he does.
December 3, 2017 @ 4:34 pm
Great minds think alike. I posted this on my blog the same day http://www.steveterrellmusic.com/2017/11/throwback-thursday-cocaine-rhinestones.html
December 4, 2017 @ 11:48 am
Just to clarify, the song The Pill is not about abortion. No one here ever heard of contraceptives, you know, like condoms and such? It’s just like that, only more harmful to women than condoms are too men.
December 5, 2017 @ 6:02 am
for those of you who don t like the voice, there are transcripts of the podcast on the site. Plus track listings, and sources for the informations provided.
November 12, 2018 @ 9:18 pm
If I kept up on SCM, I would know how damned good Cocaine & Rhinestones is… better late than having it completely pass me by.