As a teenager in the seventies there was one genre of music I didn’t really take to. Country & Festering – sorry Western. All those plaid shirted cow pokes and lasses with bee hive hair-dos hollering and wailing about life’s myriad of woes. The sort of songs that when you play them backwards you get your dog back, your farm back and your wife back ! I thought Waylon Jennings was uncontrollable sobbing. Johnny
Cash change from a condom machine. Glen Campbell is just beyond Glencoe and Willie Nelson is a firm grip of the genitals. There were of course the lovely ladies Dolly, Linda R and Emmylou but that was more down to raging teenage hormones.
Why are you watching that well endowed lady on the telly with the sound down ? And put some pants on !
I remember seeing Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen on The Old Grey Whistle Test and thinking this band could really swing in a country boogie sort of way.
It wasn’t until later in the decade that I came upon Asleep At The Wheel. Western Swing was out there and I had only just discovered it in my early twenties. This was not your average country band – a second rate rock band with a fiddle player – this was the real deal. The Wheel were an eleven piece party machine with pedal steel, Cajun accordion, a horn section and a brace of fiddles. They were the whole enchilada with extra chilli sauce !
It turns out AATW were from Philadelphia and were invited to head west by the aforementioned CC and his LPA (I’m not writing all that out again !) A lot of the band’s repertoire dates back to the 1940s – Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington. Swing with a real hoedown feel.
I had the great privilege to play with former Asleep At The Wheel pedal steel player Lucky Oceans which I wrote about on my own blog :
Credit, of course, must be given to the Grandaddy of the genre, Bob Wills who, with his band The Texas Playboys toured, recorded, and even featured in film and radio throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
I’ve since broadened my mind to other C & W music, particularly Bluegrass, with artists like Alison Krauss and Punch Brothers.
So put on your best checked shirt and neckerchief, polish up the old cowboy boots and crank up the dial for some good ol’ Western Swing.
Grab your partners Dosie Doe !
(Post by John Allan of Bridgetown, Western Australia – September 2023)
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I don’t hear much twang in the first tune, but nice meld of it with swing in the 2nd. I grew up with country music and stuff like Dean Martin, Nancy Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, Elvis P, and The Beatles when they came along. Have you listened to any bluegrass? A couple of modern bluegrass bands, Billy Strings (and his band) and Leftover Salmon are big traveling bluegrass bands, and the young’ns really love it. It’s the same kind of hippy adulation of the 60’s and they look a lot like hippies.
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Don’t know about John (author) but I do actually have a Bluegrass anthology double CD in my collection. The names you mention aren’t in it … looks like they are all pretty old school traditional. 😃
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I really enjoy the energy of Western Swing and bands that follow as you point out, ASATW in that tradition. Lyle Lovett has produced some great songs in that style as well. I have to say I’ve pockets in most all sub genre of Country that I really enjoy. Full marks for Alison Krauss in my books!
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I’m watching the Ken Burns documentary on country music right now and they just got into Bob Wills. Great series so far.
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Got into Country /rock, before i had listened to “Country ” singers. Asleep at The Wheel do the definitive version of my all time fav. movie tune. “The Green Leaves of Summer,” just grabbed me when, as a seven year old, I saw “The Alamo ” for the first time. For many years a have listened to the aforementioned gorgeous Linda and Emmylou,along with country cross-over artistes like Rodney Crowell , Keith Urban. Always loved Willie Nelson and Kris.Kristoph. A few years ago I got into Texas singer song writers. Two artistes I have sinced listened to extensively . Townes Van Zant and Guy Clark, tremendous amount of wonderful songs on all subjects . Would recommend them to any one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTwUpkEK6yk
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PS don’t know why I’m identified as anonymous. Should I feel slighted and insulted ? !! 🙂 :-).. jonsouthgen
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Not sure either … do you write a WordPress blog, and have your own gravatar? If so, and you’re logged in to your account then it should appear. If not, then perhaps that’s why you show as a man of mystery. 😉
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