I know what…. how about a little Porter Wagoner?
November 1st, 2009 @ 17:19
Posted by: John
Have you ever been paid “weakly”? Songs like this were in that cusp between the Ralph Stanley three part harmony bluegrass sound and Country and Western pop music. The spot where Elvis and Buddy Holly punched through and anglicized rock and roll.
I saw a little of the tail end of the golden age of television. I was looking at these YouTubes and thinking how the overall feel of TV music shows was “early house concert”. Remember how they’d always say “thanks for inviting us into your living room” – they absolutely saw it as a house concert. In those days when not everybody had a TV, people would come over and sit and watch with neighbors of relatives who did – that was really like a house concert.
TV started off not having nearly enough programing. They were starved for anything they could get and that led to a lot of cool regional and niche stuff. Then the point came when they did have plenty to choose from and they, of course, were chasing the money so they shifted to widening the market. Each hour of airtime had to appeal to everybody. If a recording artist got a show from the late 50’s forward music wasn’t nearly enough, it had to be a variety show. But in the golden age there were a bunch of really cool independent programs that were like 1940’s radio shows – just gathered around the mic, smiling and singing. Like…. a house concert. But you know what, a connection to the soul doesn’t require comedy or juggling. The song was enough in the beginning, it was enough in 1954; it’s always really been enough.
Notice how this one sounds more Country? This was an influence on Merle Haggard and others in the upcoming hard core country world.
A couple of days in the mountains never hurt anybody!
