Boulder To Birmingham - Emmylou Harris
Not so long ago, whenever someone asked me the question "what kind of music do you like?", I could answer for certain that whatever I liked, it definitely wasn't country music. I couldn't stand the quivery, regional vocals; the slide guitar; the cheesy string sections; the hillbilly bass lines; the sickly lyrics. As I've grown older though, I've learnt that not all country music is bad. Some of it is very good. A lot of music that came from the 60s and 70s had strong links with country music. Johnny Cash influenced many and possessed traits that were "rock". The further you gaze into the expanse of music, the harder it becomes to maintain a high level of disdain for country music.
I'm not applying this reassessment of country to the entire genre. Some of it... most of it, is truly awful. In fact, bad country music is probably the most vile of all sounds (Hobart FM "the sound of the city" sometimes plays this type of stuff). Modern country is awful as well, and it's inexplicably popular. Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw... vomit. Alt/Country is OK because it takes the good parts of country music (discarding the bad) and blends them with more digestible sounds.
Emmylou Harris is good country, and this is a song she wrote about her collaborator and friend Gram Parsons (another hugely influential country dude), after his tragic death. It's great how classic songs can lead you to discover more classics - by reading their back stories, or by trying to interpret them. So many of these old songs seem soaked in history. 'Boulder to Birmingham' is a sad and beautiful song that doubles in emotion when you think about why it was written.
Colorado (where Boulder is, of course) seems like a very "country" place... maybe because John Denver named himself after the capital city. The Colorado of my mind is a desolate plain, inhabited by coyotes, lonesome campfires, and cacti. I'm not sure how accurate that picture is but I know about the Rocky Mountains.
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Well, this Colorado girl (age 3 to age 18, plus summers and that one "boomerang" year after uni) can tell you that Boulder is just about the total opposite of country. We call it "The People's Republic of Boulder" -- it's nouveau-hippie central, the leftiest place in the whole state.
Emmylou is at the top of Country music for me -- classic, rootsy, exactly what Country ought to be. I think what makes that kind of music great is its sort of spiritual closeness to the Appalachian music created by Scots-Irish immigrants. Can you tell that I love it? :)
And THIS is what Colorado looks like in my mind.
I know what you mean about evolving a love for good country music... and now I'm off to raid the folk/country CD collection that is temporarily being stored at my place to see if any of the Emmylou Harris CDs contained therein have that song on them. But not before I click on Laura's link to see what her Colorado looks like.
Kate and Der, there's a great program on public radio here called "Roots and Boots" that should be easy to find -- it's a pretty diverse show of what I'd call "good" country. Whether you can stream it overseas or not remains to be seen, but here's the link anyway.
Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson's OLD stuff (his new stuff SUXORS), Waylon Jennings, George Jones... obviously Johnny Cash, whose music is essential.
Laura, thanks for the link. The stream works - and they play good music on that station! I can't seem to podcast the 'Roots and Boots' show separately though. I'll have to tune into it sometime.
Emmylou Harris was on Garrison Keillor a couple of weeks ago, she was fantastic.
(Can I just say, if anyone doesn't listen to Garrison Keillor's radio program on Radio National Sunday nights, you're missing the best entertainment America provides on all Australian broadcasting, all week?)
I think, increasingly, that if I had to listen to one style of music it would be country.
I am sooo with Benny on the 1 style of music thing. So long as it can incorporate Allison Krauss who is strictly Blue Grass (if you haven't got into her and her band Union Station then do so as soon as JB HiFi opens tomorrow) and maybe Phil Ochs who is probably more of a folksy kinda guy.
My penchant for country music comes from a love of story and melody. Merle Haggard is awesome. And the great Jimmy Webb wrote some stuff that's been sung by country folk (eg Highwayman).
And even though any shred of credibility I had will now evaporate: Travellin soldier by the Dixie Chicks is a beautiful song.
There are "Prairie Home Companion" fans in Australia? Wow!
My ex-boss's brother (who lives in Minnesota) is a friend of Garrison's. He was even a musician extra in the Prairie Home Companion film.
In our house we are loving Gillian Welch at the moment... thanks, State Library of Tasmania!
I looked up Gillian Welch the other day because of the poster in Music without Frontiers and figured I would like what she does.
Absolutely Laura, Garrison has a significant cult following...
Just back on Emmylou Harris, she has a great sound. She did a really cool spoken word song called "Jersulaem" about a hoaxy miracle worker who meets Jesus...
Good voice, good imagination...
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