Your Take: Making A List, Checking It Twice…
This week in the Wall Street Journal, journalist Barry Mazor looked at the role family plays in Roseanne Cash and Ricky Scaggs’s new releases.
Mazor talked with Skaggs, who released Solo: Songs My Dad Loved earlier this fall, and Cash, whose album The List came out in October, about what these projects meant to each of them:
… And both Ms. Cash and Mr. Skaggs have released new collections this fall in which they interpret afresh the old, deeply established American songs their fathers, now deceased, had loved and recommended to them. Ricky Skaggs’s “Solo: Songs My Dad Loved” (on his own Skaggs Family Records) is built on instrumentals, gospel songs and country ballads that Hobert Skaggs, a welder by trade and a practiced amateur musician, began teaching his son from earliest childhood. Rosanne Cash’s “The List” (Manhattan Records) culls numbers from a list of 100 essential songs that her father—the now legendary, and in her childhood often absent, Johnny Cash—gave her at age 18. She had just finished high school, was more steeped in the Beatles than country, and was contemplating a possible career of her own.
“At that same time my dad gave me the list,” explained Ms. Cash in a recent interview in Nashville, “I was receptive to it, but I don’t think I really understood the import of it until now. . . . The list was what he was, what informed him. And he had as deep and broad an understanding of the evolution of Southern and American music as anyone alive. He had thousands of songs in his mind, and he could sing them all; he had gone so deeply into the lexicon that this list encompassed Appalachian, protest songs, history songs, gospel, delta blues, early country—all of it. It’s as if he were a martial-arts expert and he passed down a secret. So it’s not a salute to him; it’s about the secret—which is our legacy of music. …
In addition, Mazor notes that both Cash’s daughter Chelsea Crowell and Skaggs’s daughter Molly are following in their musical footsteps, continuing the chain.
To borrow from a question we featured in September’s Skaggs giveaway, what are the songs that a family member shared with you that inspired your love for music?
Also, if you had to come up with a list of essential country songs for a loved one, what would they be? Johnny gave Roseanne 100 of them, but tell us your top 10.
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November 28, 2009 at 9:57 am Permalink
Coat Of Many Colors- Dolly Parton
Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash
El Paso- Marty Robbins
Lost Highway- Hank Williams
Crazy- Patsy Cline
Always On My Mind- Willie Nelson
The Dance- Garth Brooks
The Devil Went Down To Georgia- Charlie Daniels
She Stopped Lovin’ Her Today- George Jones
Seven Spanish Angels- Ray Charles & Willie Nelson
November 28, 2009 at 10:40 am Permalink
My mom, when I was 3 or 4, I was young, had a mix tape she played in the car, and to this day 2 songs from that tape stand out and were my first exposure to country and everytime I hear them takes me back to driving around when I was a kid, Dolly Parton’s -Why’d You Come In Here Lookin Like That’ and Alan Jacksons ‘Chasin That Neon Rainbow’ So I guess she inadvertantly exposed and inspired me to love country music.
November 28, 2009 at 10:50 am Permalink
One year my dad gave me a walkman and the follow two cassettes:
Anne Murray Sings the Songs of the Sesame Street Generation
Jimmy Martin–Greatest Hits.
That was weird.
November 28, 2009 at 10:52 am Permalink
As a teen, I loved metal and hard rock. I didnt like Country, hated it. My dad played the radio in the barn all the time and it was tuned to this classic country station he loved. One day they played Hurt by Johnny Cash. Since that day I have been hooked, so I would say the songs they played on there by Cash, Willie and Waylon pretty much got me into Country.
November 28, 2009 at 11:09 am Permalink
My parents cassette copy of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Partners Brothers and Friends” album was highly influential for me. For years, as a young adult, I tried to find another copy of it but it was out of print. Thank goodness for ITunes, and I was able to download it earlier this year. A flood of memories hit me like a tidal wave – what a wonderful feeling.
The other one that sticks out is the CCR – Chronicle greatest hits album that my folks used to listen to ad nauseum, and instilled my love of southern rock/country.
November 28, 2009 at 11:42 am Permalink
He Stopped Lovin’ Her Today – George Jones
I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash
Your Cheatin’ Heart – Hank Williams
There Stands The Glass – Webb Pierce
Amarillo by Morning – George Strait
The Dance – Garth Brooks
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground – Willie Nelson
Act Naturally – Buck Owens
Mama Tried – Merle Haggard
Make The World Go Away – Eddy Arnold
November 28, 2009 at 5:35 pm Permalink
This is definitly the must gift year for country music fans! I was very happy to see the women in country make such a fine stand at the AMA’s. In case you have forgotten here are some of the best females in the country music genre, sure to spark some great gift ideas for the music lover in your home.
November 29, 2009 at 5:47 am Permalink
1. 25 Minutes To Go – Johnny Cash
2. Cold, Cold Heart – Hank Williams Sr.
3. Crazy – Willie Nelson
4. The Thunder Rolls – Garth Brooks
5. The King of Broken Hearts – Jim Lauderdale
6. Smoke Rings In The Dark – Gary Allan
7. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind – Dolly Parton and Chet Atkins
8. Love Hurts – Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons
9. Sunday Morning Coming Down – Kris Kristofferson
10. Jolene – Dolly Parton
November 29, 2009 at 1:15 pm Permalink
My mom used to play the Urban Cowboy Soundtrack, Earl Thomas Conley, and Jo-el Sonnier a lot when I was young. Her boyfriend of many years was into Hank Jr. and Dwight Yoakam. I guess you could say all of these artists contributed to my love for country music.
November 29, 2009 at 7:51 pm Permalink
Okay, I’m bored with this repeat topic so I’m going to do something completely different!
I want to list the rock and country artists whom I think are grossly over-rated in many ways, from album sales to perceived significance. Okay, here we go:
Grossly Over-Rated “Country” Artists:
1.) Garth Brooks (I hope he “Stays In Vegas…”)
2.) Shania Twain (Mutt’s musical mannequin)
3.) Carrie Underwood (Pop Idol Divabot Prototype)
4.) Taylor Swift (‘Teeny screecher w/ adolescent fixation)
Grossly Over-Rated Rock Artists:
1.) Bruce Springsteen (Dylan can’t sing either, but at least his songs really meant something)
2.) U2 (About as pleasant as sitting on a Joshua Tree)
3.) Stevie Nicks (Not even Lindsey Buckingham could redeem her)
4.) Prince (Strangeness confused for greatness)
There, isn’t this a lot more fun? And what a great way to create controversy! (lol)
November 30, 2009 at 12:21 pm Permalink
In no particular order:
Rocky Top -Osborne Bros
You Ain’t Woman Enough -Loretta Lynne
Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ -Loretta Lynne
Uncle Penn -Bill Monroe
I Walk The Line -Johnny Cash
Knoxville Girl -Delmore Bros
Cold, Cold Heart -Hank Williams
(It Wasn’t God Who Made) Honky-Tonk Angels -Kitty Wells
Walkin’ The Floor Over You -Ernest Tubb
Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms -Buck Owens
November 30, 2009 at 3:22 pm Permalink
Nice to see Bill Monroe mentioned, but FYI, it’s “Uncle Pen” – short for Pendleton.
December 1, 2009 at 1:08 pm Permalink
Love for music – my mom had some great records, lots of Beatles and Elvis. Love for country – my dad played Waylon a lot. Birthday and Christmas gifts for him were easy as I would always get him a Waylon he didn’t have.
As for my Top 10 (man, it’s hard to limit to just 10, but here goes)…
Blue Yodel No. 1 (T For Texas) – Jimmie Rodgers
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – Hank Williams
Big River – Johnny Cash
A Good Year For The Roses – George Jones
El Paso – Marty Robbins
What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me) – Jerry Lee Lewis
For The Good Times – Ray Price
Luckenbach, Texas – Waylon Jennings
Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground – Willie Nelson
Hot Burrito #1 – The Flying Burrito Brothers
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