It wasn’t just a country album. It was the country album. It ended one era in country music, and began a new one, while going on to define the era it founded, and to define country music for generations.
Willie Nelson’s 1975 conceptualized album Red Headed Stranger is considered by many to be the greatest country music album of all time. The film Red Headed Stranger based off the album and released 11 years after holds a bit of a different legacy. Starring Willie Nelson, Morgan Fairchild, and Katharine Ross…
Once comprising one half of the ravishing country singing duo Copper and Coal, Mamma Coal, a.k.a. singer and songwriter Carra Stasney, has re-imagined Willie Nelson’s country music epic ‘Red Headed Stranger’ into an epic of her own. This may be a story about a mother and her child, but just like Willie’s original, ‘Raven Haired Vixen’ is a Western.
Tuesday was the release of Jerrod Niemann’s dumb new album High Noon, and before we’ve even had a chance to really delve into just how much of a mockery it makes of country music, Niemann’s already out there on the defensive, preaching to us how country “purists” really don’t know what the hell country music is all about, and how he’s just carrying on the traditions of Willie and Waylon.
Willie Nelson is in many ways a microcosm of the American experience. He grew up during The Depression, had a rough and tumble youth, battled through familial and financial problems for years, struck it rich, and reformed himself from his violent past to become one of the world’s most well-known and greatest pacifists and advocates for the poor and social justice.
Late last week, Willie Nelson released a new song “Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die”. It’s a good, catchy song, just like his recent collaboration with Snoop Dogg called “Superman”, that starts out, “Too many pain pills, too much pot. Trying to be something that I’m not.” And we can’t forget (though many of us have tried) the Toby Keith joke song “I’ll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again.”
Those that have been around here for a while know that I like to come out of left field with my vintage album suggestions. You already have a big stack of records, no need for me to rehash through them. Still I know some of you are rolling up to this thinking, “What kind of […]
I’m going to have a lot to say about this record, but the upshot is that its damn good. It is an improvement from Hank III’s last offering Damn Right, Rebel Proud. It may not be his best album, or the album of the year, but considering all the different factors Hank had to juggle […]
Hank III News: –There’s a great new interview with Hank III, probably one of the best I’ve ever read on americanroots.com. –There a contest to win an Epiphone guitar and other Hank III gear you can read about on the Hank III MySpace blog. –Please if anybody recorded the Hank III stuff on Fuel TV, […]