THE B@@MER S@@NER, Kiowa Blues King - Jesse Ed Davis!!

Among American Indians, The Blues is big. Around Indian Country, where I live, there are many great Blues Artists. So it is no surprise to me to find a Kiowa Indian, whose dexterity with a Fender, and with his degree in Literature from Oklahoma University, took to writing of Blues songs, Jesse's influence is still thundering. Davis played with all the greatest Blues Artists in the world, including Eric Clapton. It is time for The Oklahoma Music Heritage Foundation, to vote Jesse into its Music Hall of Fame. It is time that Oklahoma becomes, ... "JesseEdDavisized."

Jesse was born in 1944 in The Naval Hospital on the North Campus in Norman. His mother was a full-blood Kiowa Indian, named Saumkeah. Jesse graduated from the University of Oklahoma, but afterward wasn't happy doing anything but playing the Blues. I believe that Jesse graduated in 66 or 67. during his first two years, the Folk Music Craze was big, and OU sponsored Friday-At-Four, on the patio of the Student Union. I don't recall him playing, though, they did bring in some of the great historical African American Blues players. I remember one, :) who played the blues using a knife as a slide. It was incredible. After graduation, Jesse spent two years in the business community and was drawn back to his heritage and love, The Blues. Davis played with Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, The Beatles and is considered one of the greatest Blues players of his time. If you can name a Blues artist, Jesse played with them. Davis was out of the limelight during the late '80s, struggling with overcoming a drug abuse problem.

Jesse graduated from Norman High School, in 1962. His dad was of Comanche decent, so the full-blooded Kiowa Indian is incorrect, but close, if his dad was of Comanche and Kiowa bloodline, his American Indian veins held pure Indian blood. Four years of college, which he did, would put him graduating from Oklahoma University in 1966 or 1967.

With The Beatles, and the exit of folk music, the coffee shops in OKC and Norman shut down. Friday-At-4 was a thing of the past. From his bio, Jesse really didn't start his music career for a couple of years after his graduation, so that would explain why he wasn't on the campus scene. On the other hand, after '65, I was off the campus housing, and, thus, wasn't part of the music scene. Jesse was a full-blood Kiowa Indian/Comanche Indian. He died in a Laundrymat in 1988, Venice, California. He left his wife and son. I live in Kiowa Country with their headquarters at Carnegie, Oklahoma, two skips and a hollar down the road where we presently live. All of the information above is incontrovertably true. Listening to his double LPs on one CD, you will find referrences to the Washita River, Market Street in Anadarko, Anadarko, The Drum, Reno Street in Oklahoma City, a place where homeless still live the street of homeless and drug addicted used to hang out, and one can hear Tulsa mentioned in his songs.

Anadarko hosts a Blues Festival every year in August. Most of the Blues Artists who perform are American Indian.

There is some grainy, 38 MM film of him playing at a Blues Fest, a benefit, and, in fact, more than likely the first of those type of festivals. Farm Aide, AIDs, and other "raise money" festivals are now a part of our life.

Look at his picture above. Thanks, to my son, Darrin, I wouldn't have had any clue that Jesse existed. I have, also, put out a call on my Blues List, and if anyone can come up with accurate Bio's, it will come from that list.

So, come back here to find the most accurate facts on this great Kiowa Indian. Remember, too, that many other Blues artists, think Janice Joplin, died of drug over-doses. If you have seen the documentary on the Canada Railroad event, you will see all of the artists smoking reefers, drinking tons of booz, and partaking of hard drugs, supplied by the Railroad events manager. I've seen the documentary, but most assuredly, Jesse was on that train.

Jesse Ed Davis web gleanings

I saw him play in '68 and again in '70. Jesse Ed was one of the all time greatest guitar players. (Chris lists his middle name as Edwin.) Thanks Chris!

" In April of 1979, Trudell met Jackson Browne. This meeting led Trudell into the world of music. In 1982, with Jackson Browne's help, John Trudell recorded Tribal Voice, a fusion of poetry and traditional Native music, which was released on cassette. In 1985, Trudell met legendary Kiowa guitarist and songwriter Jesse Ed Davis. Together, they recorded Trudell's debut album AKA Grafitti Man, with Trudell writing and performing the spoken word vocals and Jesse writing and performing the music. Released on cassette in 1986, it was dubbed "the best album" of that year by none other than Bob Dylan. AKA Grafitti Man served early notice of Trudell's singular ability to express fundamental truths through a unique mix of poetry, Native instrumentation and unfettered blues and rock." (Internet Records)

"Trudell recorded two more albums with Jesse Ed Davis before Davis' untimely death in 1988 and would continue the work the pair had pioneered, this time in partnership with Mark Shark, on such landmark early 90's releases as Fables and Other Realities and Child's Voice: Children Of The Earth. A touring stint with Australia's incendiary Midnight Oil and roles in the feature films Thunderheart and Smoke Signals and the documentary Incident At Oglala helped spread the word of the artist's multi-faceted talents, as did a 1992 rerecording of AKA Grafitti Man, this time produced by Jackson Browne. Released on Rykodisc, the album was dubbed by Rolling Stone Magazine "a moving, shape-shifting rock & roll treatise on the state of the world." Two years later, Trudell would return with Johnny Damas & Me and, in 1999, released the acclaimed Blue Indians, once again produced by Browne. The album, remarked Parke Puterbaugh, in Rolling Stone, "is an affecting marriage of tribal rhythms, traditional chanting, modern musical backdrops and Trudell's penetrating poetics." (Net and record Bios)

"A full-blooded Kiowa/Comanche Indian, Jesse Ed Davis was perhaps the most versatile session guitarist of the late '60s and early '70s. Whether it was blues, country or rock, Davis' tasteful guitar playing was featured on albums by such giants as Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, John Lennon and John Lee Hooker, among others. It is Davis' weeping slide heard on Clapton's "Hello Old Friend" (from No Reason to Cry), and on both Rock n' Roll and Walls & Bridges, it is Davis who supplied the bulk of the guitar work for ex-Beatle Lennon."

"Born in Oklahoma, Davis first earned a degree in literature from the University of Oklahoma before beginning his musical career touring with Conway Twitty in the early '60s. Eventually the guitarist moved to California, joining bluesman Taj Mahal and playing guitar and piano on his first three albums. " by Steve Kurutz

A full-blooded Kiowa (sic) Indian, Jesse Ed Davis was perhaps the most versatile session guitarist of the late '60s and early '70s. Whether it was blues, country or rock, Davis' tasteful guitar playing was featured on albums by such giants as Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, John Lennon and John Lee Hooker, among others. It is Davis' weeping slide heard on Clapton's "Hello Old Friend" (from No Reason to Cry), and on both Rock n' Roll and Walls & Bridges, it is Davis who supplied the bulk of the guitar work for ex-Beatle Lennon.

Born in Oklahoma, Davis first earned a degree in literature from the University of Oklahoma before beginning his musical career touring with Conway Twitty in the early '60s. Eventually the guitarist moved to California, joining bluesman Taj Mahal and playing guitar and piano on his first three albums. It was with Mahal where Davis was able to showcase his skill and range, playing slide, lead and rhythm, country and even jazz guitar during his three-year stint.

The period backing Mahal was the closest Davis came to being in a band full-time, and after Taj's 1969 album Giant Step, Davis began doing session work for such diverse acts as David Cassidy, Albert King and Willie Nelson. In addition, he also released three solo albums featuring industry friends such as Leon Russell and Eric Clapton.

In and out of clinics, Davis disappeared from the music industry for a time, spending much of the '80s dealing with alcohol and drug addiction. Just before his death of a suspected drug overdose in 1988, Davis resurfaced playing in the Graffiti Band, which coupled his music with the poetry of American Indian activist John Trudell. The kind of expert, tasteful playing that Davis always brought to an album is sorely missed among the acts he worked with.

There is a CD of Jesse's which can be found on eBay. I've ordered it. It says it is a combination of two vinyls. I have ordered the CD. Of course, as well, you can pick up som Taj Mahal CD's of that era and find him playing lead on those.

+++
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Mahal, Taj - Taj Mahal CD

Taj Mahal CD
Taj Mahal
Our Price: $9.89
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Detailed Information
List Price $11.98 (You save $2.09)
Category Rock/Pop, Urban Soundtrack, Blues, Contemporary Blues
Label Legacy Recordings
Orig Year 1968
CDU Part# 1089076
All Time Sales Rank 19243
Catalog# 65858
Discs 1
Street Date Sep 05, 2000
Studio/Live Studio
Mono/Stereo Stereo
Guest(s) Jesse Edwin Davis; Ry Cooder
Additional Info Remastered

Posters From Allposters.com
Spirit - At the Whiskey A-Go-Go

14 x 20 inch
Art Print

Price: $15.99

Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes 12/13/68
Kooper, Al
Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes 12/13/68

CD $7.69

Notes
Personnel: Taj Mahal (vocals, slide guitar, harmonica); Ryland "Ry" P. Cooder (guitar, mandolin); Jesse Edwin Davis (guitar, piano); Gary Gilmore, James Thomas, Charles Blackwell (bass); Sanford Konikoff (drums). Producer: David Rubinson. Reissue producer: Bob Irwin. Recorded in August 1967. Originally released on Columbia (9579). Includes liner notes by Tom Nolan, Taj Mahal & Stanley Crouch. Though these 1968 sides were cut in LA at the apex of the burgeoning counterculture movement, the main influences at play here are those of the Mississippi Delta blues. Featuring early performances from Ry Cooder and Jesse Ed Davis, TAJ MAHAL is the joyfully confident debut that propelled the eponymous bluesman to national recognition. Comparable to similar experiments by Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield and British blues maven John Mayall, Mahal's sound is both intensely traditional and aggressively pure. For an example of the former, check out the album's closer, "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues," the intro of which sounds as if it could Mahal's self-titled solo debut, released in 1967, featured an amalgamation of musicians from different ethnicities. "We were a mixture of what America was all about, red, black and white," Mahal said.

He considers the band's electric guitarist, the late Jesse Edwin Davis, a Comanche Indian, "one of the most underrated electric guitar players of the century." Audiences weren't accustomed to such diversity on stage. been recorded any time in the previous 30 years, while "Statesboro Blues," with Davis's thrillingly raw slide interjections featured heavily throughout, is an intensely focused performance still capable of producing chills decades after the fact. There's no tinkering with genre here, as was later to become the style with countless '60s and '70s blues rock bands--what's on offer on TAJ MAHAL is a direct electrified line to the heart and soul of a seminal American art form. This edition features alternate artwork to the original, chosen by Mahal himself, and contemporary liner notes by celebrated critic Stanley Crouch.

Jesse Ed Davis* -- Washita Love Child -- Jesse Edwin Davis -- Wounded Bird (Washita River meanders through Carnegie, Anadarko, and Chickasha, Oklahoma.

Goog Taste Music

2103 Edwards Ave

Muscle Shoals, AL 35661

GOOGLE THEM

Song Titles on double LP DISk. All Songs written by Davis

1) Reno Street Incident (Every Okla resident knows of Reno Street in OKC)

2) Tulsa County

3) Washita Love Child (River runs through Carnegie, Washita, Anadarko

4) Every Night is Saturday Night

5) You Belladonna You

6) Rock'n Roll Gypsies

7) Golden Sun Goddess

8) Crazy Love

9) Red Dirt Boogie, Brother

10) White Line Fever

11) Farther On Down The Road

12) Sue Me, Sue You Blues

13) My Captain

14) Ululu

15) Old Susannah

16) Strawberry

17) Make a Joyful

18) Alcatraz

"Haven't had it yet," he says. "Maybe it'll happen tonight. There have been a lot of highlights though: Abraham's Children's Ivor Wynn Stadium concert, where a minor teenage hysteria riot broke out and the police had to stop the show after the third song. Sharing a bill with Teenage Head at the Millhaven Pen. Getting to play bass for Taj Mahal's band for two sold-out Toronto shows when his bassist got turned back at the border. Jesse Edwin Davis actually taught me the bass parts 20 minutes before we hit the stage!"
by Arlo Guthrie

"Concert collaborations between Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger had a truly magical cross-generational folk music bond, but also were a showbiz boxoffice venture, an aspect that no amount of shucking or jiving can hide. The recordings that were released from these onstage meetings are enjoyable, but hardly memorable. In some cases the shlock factor is so mighty that, on a track by track basis, this album could be used to repelf as well as attract, just as surely as the hefty double-album itself could be used as a weapon. Not that Seeger nor the young son of his former singing partner Woody Guthrie would advocate such a thing."

"The Guthrie connection leads to a strong "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)". "Joe Hill", tough as ever, might require a bit of patience, but the jug band "Stealin' sneaks up at the beginning of the fourth side to give the entire album a new jolt of energy. The set's promise of a concert recording is not entirely misleading, though the sides mix and match excerpts from four different gigs. Cowboy songs are a nice connection for the two men, with "Lonesome Valley" another strong part of the final side. "Guantanamera" is horrid, though, and Seeger is sure stilted when it comes to old English balladry. In the musicians' musician column, these recordings feature nice back-up lead guitar from native American picker Jesse Edwin Davis, who has a nice feeling for both country and blues. Some listeners will want to give the two frontmen the hook and just listen to Davis."

Posted by Eugene Chadbourne [+] |

" In April of 1979, Trudell met Jackson Browne. This meeting led Trudell into the world of music. In 1982, with Jackson Browne's help, John Trudell recorded Tribal Voice, a fusion of poetry and traditional Native music, which was released on cassette. In 1985, Trudell met legendary Kiowa guitarist and songwriter Jesse Ed Davis. Together, they recorded Trudell's debut album AKA Grafitti Man, with Trudell writing and performing the spoken word vocals and Jesse writing and performing the music. Released on cassette in 1986, it was dubbed "the best album" of that year by none other than Bob Dylan. AKA Grafitti Man served early notice of Trudell's singular ability to express fundamental truths through a unique mix of poetry, Native instrumentation and unfettered blues and rock." (Internet Records)

"Trudell recorded two more albums with Jesse Ed Davis before Davis' untimely death in 1988 and would continue the work the pair had pioneered, this time in partnership with Mark Shark, on such landmark early 90's releases as Fables and Other Realities and Child's Voice: Children Of The Earth. A touring stint with Australia's incendiary Midnight Oil and roles in the feature films Thunderheart and Smoke Signals and the documentary Incident At Oglala helped spread the word of the artist's multi-faceted talents, as did a 1992 rerecording of AKA Grafitti Man, this time produced by Jackson Browne. Released on Rykodisc, the album was dubbed by Rolling Stone Magazine "a moving, shape-shifting rock & roll treatise on the state of the world." Two years later, Trudell would return with Johnny Damas & Me and, in 1999, released the acclaimed Blue Indians, once again produced by Browne. The album, remarked Parke Puterbaugh, in Rolling Stone, "is an affecting marriage of tribal rhythms, traditional chanting, modern musical backdrops and Trudell's penetrating poetics." (Net and record Bios)

"A full-blooded Kiowa/Comanche Indian, Jesse Ed Davis was perhaps the most versatile session guitarist of the late '60s and early '70s. Whether it was blues, country or rock, Davis' tasteful guitar playing was featured on albums by such giants as Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, John Lennon and John Lee Hooker, among others. It is Davis' weeping slide heard on Clapton's "Hello Old Friend" (from No Reason to Cry), and on both Rock n' Roll and Walls & Bridges, it is Davis who supplied the bulk of the guitar work for ex-Beatle Lennon."

"Born in Oklahoma, Davis first earned a degree in literature from the University of Oklahoma before beginning his musical career touring with Conway Twitty in the early '60s. Eventually the guitarist moved to California, joining bluesman Taj Mahal and playing guitar and piano on his first three albums. " by Steve Kurutz

A full-blooded Kiowa Indian, Jesse Ed Davis was perhaps the most versatile session guitarist of the late '60s and early '70s. Whether it was blues, country or rock, Davis' tasteful guitar playing was featured on albums by such giants as Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, John Lennon and John Lee Hooker, among others. It is Davis' weeping slide heard on Clapton's "Hello Old Friend" (from No Reason to Cry), and on both Rock n' Roll and Walls & Bridges, it is Davis who supplied the bulk of the guitar work for ex-Beatle Lennon.

Born in Oklahoma, Davis first earned a degree in literature from the University of Oklahoma before beginning his musical career touring with Conway Twitty in the early '60s. Eventually the guitarist moved to California, joining bluesman Taj Mahal and playing guitar and piano on his first three albums. It was with Mahal where Davis was able to showcase his skill and range, playing slide, lead and rhythm, country and even jazz guitar during his three-year stint.

The period backing Mahal was the closest Davis came to being in a band full-time, and after Taj's 1969 album Giant Step, Davis began doing session work for such diverse acts as David Cassidy, Albert King and Willie Nelson. In addition, he also released three solo albums featuring industry friends such as Leon Russell and Eric Clapton.

In and out of clinics, Davis disappeared from the music industry for a time, spending much of the '80s dealing with alcohol and drug addiction. Just before his death of a suspected drug overdose in 1988, Davis resurfaced playing in the Graffiti Band, which coupled his music with the poetry of American Indian activist John Trudell. The kind of expert, tasteful playing that Davis always brought to an album is sorely missed among the acts he worked with.

There is a CD of Jesse's which can be found on eBay. I've ordered it. It says it is a combination of two vinyls. I have ordered the CD. Of course, as well, you can pick up som Taj Mahal CD's of that era and find him playing lead on those.

+++

Personnel: Taj Mahal (vocals, slide guitar, harmonica); Ryland "Ry" P. Cooder (guitar, mandolin); Jesse Edwin Davis (guitar, piano); Gary Gilmore, James Thomas, Charles Blackwell (bass); Sanford Konikoff (drums). Producer: David Rubinson. Reissue producer: Bob Irwin. Recorded in August 1967. Originally released on Columbia (9579). Includes liner notes by Tom Nolan, Taj Mahal & Stanley Crouch. Though these 1968 sides were cut in LA at the apex of the burgeoning counterculture movement, the main influences at play here are those of the Mississippi Delta blues. Featuring early performances from Ry Cooder and Jesse Ed Davis, TAJ MAHAL is the joyfully confident debut that propelled the eponymous bluesman to national recognition. Comparable to similar experiments by Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield and British blues maven John Mayall, Mahal's sound is both intensely traditional and aggressively pure. For an example of the former, check out the album's closer, "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues," the intro of which sounds as if it could Mahal's self-titled solo debut, released in 1967, featured an amalgamation of musicians from different ethnicities. "We were a mixture of what America was all about, red, black and white," Mahal said.

He considers the band's electric guitarist, the late Jesse Edwin Davis, a Comanche Indian, "one of the most underrated electric guitar players of the century." Audiences weren't accustomed to such diversity on stage. been recorded any time in the previous 30 years, while "Statesboro Blues," with Davis's thrillingly raw slide interjections featured heavily throughout, is an intensely focused performance still capable of producing chills decades after the fact. There's no tinkering with genre here, as was later to become the style with countless '60s and '70s blues rock bands--what's on offer on TAJ MAHAL is a direct electrified line to the heart and soul of a seminal American art form. This edition features alternate artwork to the original, chosen by Mahal himself, and contemporary liner notes by celebrated critic Stanley Crouch.

This is certainly not definitive. I have emailed The University of Oklahoma and will contact the State of Oklahoma Musical Heritage Commission, to celebrate this great artist's impact on the US musical culture.

COUNTRY DUETS

In the years 40s and 50s, it was a time when women simply could not be recorded. There was no women singers in those years making a difference in CW environment.

Hank Thompson had a HUG hit with "I Didn't Know God Made Honky Tonk Angels." It was hugely successful, and so was the remake of it, by Kitty Wells, "God Doesn't Make Honky Tonk Angels." It was a Thompson song, so she suffered to survive on a Country Music Atmosphere.


With the 60's some Women/Men Duets moved some vinyls. Porter Wagoner let his woman act, status, and called Dolly Parton to appear on his show. Dolly that Wagoner called because he wanted to sing some of her songs, so she was blown away that Wagoner was wanting to be part of his Show. She told him that she would give 5 years, and after that, she wanted to pursue her single career. After 7 years, Dolly quit, under a bitter ending of a classic duo.

Now, on this blog, I will be writing about a Macro-Level to introduce you some of the Duets that were hitting the Charts in the 60 and 70's. My favorite was Parton and Wagnor, but I've mentioned that before.

The strongest Duet, of all times, was Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. I will spend a full blogg on this couple's duet. To say it was top duet act in the Nation, would be under-playing the venture.

Other acts we will be studying about, all had some ties to Oklahome.

Buck Owens and Susan Ray.
Waylon Jennings and Jesse Coulter
Tammy Wynette and George Jones (Look at that act with interest. Notice I put the hugely successful who dominated Nashville music for years, George Jones, behind Tammy Wynette.)
Kenny Rogers flirted with duets with little success.
I will add more, when I think of them. It is time for me to try to get some "sleep-eye."

COUNTRY DUETS

In the years 40s and 50s, it was a time when women simply could not be recorded. There was no women singers in those years making a difference in CW environment.

Hank Thompson had a HUGE hit with "I Didn't Know God Made Honky Tonk Angels." It was hugely successful, and so was the remake of it, by Kitty Wells, "God Doesn't Make Honky Tonk Angels." It was a Thompson song, so she suffered to survive on a Country Music Atmosphere.


With the 60's some Women/Men Duets moved some vinyls. Porter Wagoner let his woman act, status, and called Dolly Parton to appear on his show. Dolly that Wagoner called because he wanted to sing some of her songs, so she was blown away that Wagoner was wanting to be part of his Show. She told him that she would give 5 years, and after that, she wanted to pursue her single career. After 7 years, Dolly quit, under a bitter ending of a classic duo.

Now, on this blog, I will be writing about a Macro-Level to introduce you some of the Duets that were hitting the Charts in the 60 and 70's. My favorite was Parton and Wagnor, but I've mentioned that before.

The strongest Duet, of all times, was Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. I will spend a full blogg on this couple's duet. To say it was top duet act in the Nation, would be under-playing the venture.

Other acts we will be studying about, all had some ties to Oklahome.

Buck Owens and Susan Ray.
Waylon Jennings and Jesse Coulter
Tammy Wynette and George Jones (Look at that act with interest. Notice I put the hugely successful who dominated Nashville music for years, George Jones, behind Tammy Wynette.)
Kenny Rogers flirted with duets with little success.
I will add more, when I think of them. It is time for me to try to get some "sleep-eye."

History of Violence

A kid and his dad leave a motel in Podunk, America. The dad tosses the keyes to the son.

"Drive it up to the office. I'll take care of the manager."

The kids drives up and parallels the office. George Jones or Ray Price is on the radio. The kid turns off the key and waits.

"What took you so long?" asks the kids.

"Nothing. Ah, ... had some problems with the janitor. Took care of it, though."

"Water, we need water," the conversation goes.

"There's a cooler in the back. Go fill it up."

The kid opens the door. Blood streaks are seen on the counter. The kid looks over and sees two dead people. He is not surprised. He checks the cards, and tries to find a quarter in the pay telephone. He bumbles around to the water and starts filling it up.

The camera switches where it is behind him and sees the water and pictures the door.

The door opens. A little girl, maybe 10, holding a teddy bear. She whimpers and looks toward the dead boddies.

"Shh," the kid says. He reaches for the gun behind him in his pants and pulls it out.

"Shhh," the kid says. The camera closes in on the gun.

"Boom!!"

Screams can be heard in the background. The watcher is stunned, juxtaposing the dad racing into the bedroom, while just being a witness to, at least, a triple murder." (I heard the scream on Jay Leno from the little girl.)

"I was dreaming that monsters were about to get me!"

"So what are you up to, today?" The scene switches to a mail box with "Stall" written on it and a home, where the daughter and son are getting ready for school.

"I got a game in PE. Not much. else. Should be early."

The scene switches to a baseball field The son is playing center. A kid strikes out.

A smart-mouthed kid walks up to the plate laughing with his blue clad buddies.

"Out of the park," he spews.

The second pitch the kid gets good wood, and the son goes back and catches it. The batter is burned. They go for the showers, and the hitless phenom, threatens the "sissy kid from center field." But the young man won't fall for the fight.

The scene switches to cafe in a small town. A quiet owner is getting ready to shut the cafe down for the day. 3 customers are left. One man get's up and pays his tab and leaves. A teenage boy and girl are drinking Sodas.

The smart mouthed kid is driving - spots the kid sitting at the library chatting with his girlfriend.

"You should get him," comes from his friend. They start to make a U-Turn, but a pickup pulls in front of them. Smart-out shoots him the bone. The young killer looks at him and stares. Smart-mouth pulls his hand down sheepishly, and says, "No, I'm going home."

"I hate podunk towns," the kid killer says to his dad. "And I hate podunk people."

"I've heard you say that before. Get off of it."

"I don't have any money," the kid says.

"That's going to be easy to take care of," as he pulls in front of the closing restaurant. John Stall is closing down. A girl and boy share a shake, and the girl behind the counter is ready to leave. The kid and the father come in.

"Coffee!" the older man orders.

"Yes, and I'll take some pie, " the kid says.

"We are closing, " Stall says softly.

"COFFEE!" the man shouts.

"Okay, but we are closing. Why don't you go on home," the owner says to the waitress.

The kid gets out of his seat and grabs the lady. "You're not going any where!" He grabs her and pushes her down, running his hands over both breasts, and then smelling his hand.

"Do her," the dad orders. "We'll show them how serious we are."

"We don't have much money but you can have it," the owner says.

The man pulls a gun and orders, "Do her."

The owner has the coffee glass in his hand, and quickly breaks it on the dad's face, with the gun falling out. Quickly, Stall is over the counter, grabs the gun and shoots the kid twice. The dad, pulls out a knife and stabs the owners foot, John Stall.

Quickly Stall shoots the father in the face, and turns to see the other kid who is dead, crashed through the door window.

And the chilling story begins. Has sex and nudity in it, but, ... the story` unfolds when others come to Podunk, Oklahoma, having seen his picture on the televisions.

Let it be a warning. City guys who think they are tough, won't find pansies in Podunk, OK.

Ray Price and The Cherokee Cowboys



Marcella came in Saturday from working all day and baby sitting all Friday evening and she was pooped. I told her Ray Price was singing at Yukon, and she didn't want to go. I did, because I wanted Mr. Cecil's class to experience what it was like to go see and hear a Country Music Traditional, historical, and successful recording artist.

At the age of 80, last December, which makes him an octogenarian. Look up that word with your computer dictionary.

"You really want to go," she said.

"Yes, and I think you would like it. How much cash do you have?" She had 40 dollars and I had 20 dollars, plus about 10 dollars in cash that we were honored with at the pow wow, last Saturday night. The pow wow is another story, that I will share with you in a special report just for your class, later.



So we headed out on the beautifully scenic route going through, Gracemont, where we bought our Mazda S6, and then turned by the Caddo Tribal World Headquarters, a very rich tribe, and went by Salyer's Lake. If you get to Oklahoma, we will take you that route, even though we hit a jack rabbit on the way back. Those suckers are big, but our car was bigger. Marcella didn't want to stop and get it, so we could have eaten it. No road kill for her. We also just missed an armadillo on the way back as well.. Do a google on jack rabbits and armadillos.

So we got to Yukon, and began searching for the Gymnasium. It was supposed to be an out door thing, but we had lots of rain and it was changed to the gym. We got there in plenty of time.

We pulled out our "pow wow" chairs and sat down in the handicapped section. Great gym. You will see pictures of the Steinway Grand Piano that he had and see the 4 violinists, 3 who came up from their homes to play. One was from Oklahoma City. They read music. The piano player played by ear, which is okay, if you do the same songs over and over, but, ... trying to play Classical Music without reading is like trying to push a dump truck up a hill, by yourself.

Two kids got up and sang. One harmonized, and they had just got back from Nashville with a "paid for" CD. We could see their mother so proudly videoing them. It was neat, but Chance and Chad has about as much luck as a snow storm in an Oklahoma in July.

One could harmonize and faked playing the harmonica, and bombed on playing his banjo. I mean the kid couldn't even play the thing. And the harmonica, well, I would have blown him away. I should have brought my harps and we could have done some double harmonica stuff. But, they played about 40 minutes. AND THEN, ... RAY PRICE'S ORCHESTRA CAME OUT. YES, that is right, ... an orchestra.

I kid you not, they had the grand piano, an upright base, his son Cliff playing a guitar, somewhat, a drummer and a fiddle player. The last 40 minutes, he had three more "free lance" violinists come in and play. They were professionals and all read sheet music. (See Picture>



It was a great show. Enjoy the pictures when I get them up. I want all of you to go to iTunes and do a search on Ray Price. He started singing in 1948, fronting for Hank Williams and at 80, his voice sounded the same.

Where they get their money, is under the table. They had sponsors that probably paid their 40,000 dollar show fees, and then the 20 dollars a pop for two different CDs, they made some big time bucks. There was probably 300 people there, most of them the same age as Ray. I will be putting Marcella's picture with him in the local newspaper. Marcella had fun.



After the program, they set up a table and signed audographs for all the CDs that they were selling. The retarded kid sitting next to me, asked to save his lawn chair and left. He went to Hastings and bought a Ray Price CD for 4 dollars. Who says that if you are retarded, you are dumb?

So, I took a bunch of pictures. Have fun looking at them. I went down to try to get a picture for the Anadarko Paper, but these idiot guards wouldn't let me go out and take a picture. So I went back up, grabbed my camera bag that has a "Press Pass" sign hanging on it and went back down to show the guards the press pass and said, "Because of you, this picture will not show up in the Anadarko Daily News. I may write a letter-to-the-editor to the Yukon Paper, and tell them thanks for the show, and no thanks for the rude ushers. Hee, Hee.

Now, what I want you to do, is go to iTunes and do a search on Ray Price and see how many downloads they have. Then I want you to go to WalMart.com and run a check through them to see how many CDs that they have.



See if you can find out on the web if Ray Price is a member of the Grand Ol' Opery and is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Have fun with it, because music is fun. I will learn his "A Lifeless Mansion on a Hill." Great song. Now it is time for a signature and a smile for the students in Bangkok!

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton

The greatest Country Duet in
Country Music History




Darrin was graduating from the Navy Boot Camp outside of Chicago, and we were going up to see him graduate. We had a new USED, Flivver - a vintage 1976 Buick Custom that had been setting in a garage for years and had low mileage, as well. Sound like a good buy? Not really. As cars set for long periods, tires get hard, hoses get hard, and seals get crispy.

We thought we had all the bugs out of the Buick, when we hit the road. We'd replaced a leaky water pump, checked the tires, and drove it far enough that it looked "good to go!" Well, it wasn't, and close to the Dolly Madison donut factory in Kansas, we had one tire lose its tread, and when he pulled in to replace it, the other was losiing tread quickly.

Now, I had found a tape of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, and we listened to it over and over all the way to Chicago. Dolly and Porter created some of the greatest, pure Country Music for years. The car had a tape player in it.

Oklahoma City was a central point of the Country Nation. The Mathis Brothers Furniture Store and Jude and Jody Furniture Stores had a music program that played on the Saturday TV times when TV time is cheaper. The brothers, both sets, sang and had visitors. Whoever showed up with their bus, found a place to shower and sleep, and even get time on the TV. This is absolutely true. The Mathis Brothers Furniture was the hub of every traveling Country Music Bus on the roads in the 50s and 60s. Didn't know that, did you, Bro Cec? In fact, the Jude and Jody Furniture store is giving away a free Vintage DVD of their old programs for anyone who stops in and buys furniture. Their kids run the stores now, and they are high volume trade stores. No music any more, just regular commercials with the two brothers, one holding a pure bred "Schnotzipoodle" - perfectly trimmed.

Judy and Jody have their commercials done, and their sons usually have a doll in their hand or a Teddy Bear to mock fun at the Mathis Brothers. Mathis probably makes a million a day, right now. They have put two awesome skateboard parks in the city.

Back in the '60s, Country stars like Porter Wagoner, Buck Owens, The Levin Brothers, made their own thirty minute shows, usually played on Saturday afternoon. Porter had lost his girl partner, who moved on, hopefully, to greener pastures. But Porter pulled an 18 year old girl with a silkish, chipmunk voice named Dolly Parton, out of the open mike restaurants and boy, did they change the industry.


Back through the years
I go wonderin’ once again
Back to the seasons of my youth
I recall a box of rags that someone gave us
And how my momma put the rags to use
There were rags of many colors
Every piece was small
And I didn’t have a coat
And it was way down in the fall
Momma sewed the rags together
Sewin’ every piece with love
She made my coat of many colors
That I was so proud of
As she sewed, she told a story
From the bible, she had read
About a coat of many colors
Joseph wore and then she said
Perhaps this coat will bring you
Good luck and happiness
And I just couldn’t wait to wear it
And momma blessed it with a kiss
Chorus:

My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

So with patches on my britches
Holes in both my shoes
In my coat of many colors
I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing
And making fun of me
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

And oh I couldn’t understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
And I told ’em all the story
Momma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colors
Was worth more than all their clothes

But they didn’t understand it
And I tried to make them see
That one is only poor
Only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
Made just for me


Now Bro Cecil doesn't know this, but Porter Wagoner is kin to us on the Wright side of the family, ... or our father's side. If you asked Porter, he would deny it, but his roots are firmly planted in Cook County, Tennissee where our Grandma Hill came from.

"It was odd," said my mother. "When it came time for the Porter Wagoner Show in your father's family, every one would get quiet, speaking not a word, listening to Porter." Porter Wagoner was a great song writer and had a "port-folio" filled with promising songs.

It must have been good for Dolly, because she became one of the great writers of songs, Country, soft listener, and somewhat poppish music of her time. Her song, Working 9 'til 5, became not only a hit, but a song for a series of critically released weekly, fun-loving shows by the same name that lasted several years. Dolly is now working on a Broadway production for 9-5.

I have a CD of "The Greatest Wedding Songs" on it, and there with all those others, including, "Here Comes The Bride," and Paul Stookies "The Wedding Song," was Dolly's "And I will Always Love you." She wrote the song after Parton left Wagoner, and the break-up had hurt Wagoner big time. He filed suite, and she paid him a million dollars to get out from under him. But Dolly was going no where on his program, and she wanted more than to be recognized as the girl who sings with Porter. Believe me, she did.

Dolly Parton is now recognized well beyond just a Country Singer. She has had lots of great parts in movies, and was in one that received an Oscar, ... "Steel Magnolias," about a lady who was diabetic and chose to have babies, even though she knew it could and did kill her. Dolly played, herself, of course, as the local hair dresser, who looked and dressed like the town's tramp. She owns all of her songs with copyrights on all of them, just like Ray Charles. Sharp Cookie.

Elvis wanted to sing her, "And I Will Always Love You," but his manager said that he always received 50% royalty on all songs he sings. Dolly hated it, but she said no. "I own it; it has already proven that it is a worthy song, one that I wanted Elvis to sing. But I have to turn him down."

Whitney Houston made a big hit out of "I Will Always Love You," Vince Gill and Dolly made a duet hit out of it once again. If she had gone the Elvis way, Elvis would have gotten half the millions that Dolly made on that song.

While Parton blossomed, Wagoner aged, and usually would appear at the Gaylord Country Music Park to sign autographs. Then, like Willie Nelson, Porter was hit with a 2 million dollar IRS debt. He was facing sure bankruptcy, and Dolly stepped in and bought his song collection for 2 million dollars, and sold them back to him for a dollar.

Both are doing well in Nashville now. Dolly had met a car dealership owner in Nashville and married him with no children. I figure it was Dolly's choice. Three years ago, her husband died, and Dolly went into a grieving time that lasted for three years. But she is back with a new album and tending to her "DollyWood" Amusement Park, just east of Nashville. So, the big question now is, which duo song do I like best. All of them are incredible, but one has been rated as the greatest duet in Country Music History. "Just Someone I Used To Know." But, I can't get by without, proudly displaying some of their other incredible song history. Listen to the following:"Please Don't Stop Loving Me," "Better Move It On Home," and "Is Forever Longer Than Always." Oh, yes, :"If Tear Drops Were Pennies." But, I am prejudice. I think the duo can never be unseated as the greatest Country Duo in the history of the business.

Now the strange thing is, ..., as I am writing this on my laptop, I switched to A&E Documentary on none other than the Dolly Parton was being shown. Dolly Parton, now keeps a full town in jobs with her Dollywood Attraction. I guess, we will have to go see Dollywood. So, get your teacher to get a copy of A and E's Documentary on Dolly, sit back, and have fun. Life dreams can really can true in the United States.

So, your job, if you choose to do it, is go to iTunes and do a search for all Dolly Parton songs. The one that gets the right number, gets a candied Apple with peanut butter in the middle of it.

Oklahoma Music

Oklahoma, holds its own in music with Texas, New Orleans, Tennessee, ... the world.
Friday, April 28, 2006
"The High Priest Of Country Music:"
The Incredible Life of CONWAY TWITTY!

Conway Twitty was and still is one of the "hugest" names in Country Music. But get this, Twitty started out at the same time that Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins (Blue Suade Shoes," Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, ... and along with many other musicians started in the middle of the 50s. Conway Twitty WAS NOT one who started his career with Sun Records in Memphis as a rock 'n roler. Put "sunrecords.com" in your browser's find-space or go to google and use it. But not yet. Read this post before you do, so you'll know what you will be browsing for.

There is a neat documentary out now, on Sun Records. I'm not going to lie to you. Back in the 50's there were white or caucasion radio stations and there were Black radio stations. Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Records was color blind. If you could sing, had a different sound, and were good, he'd record you. The new Cash movie is great as it approaches the Sun Record times. Our family never bought records back in those days, but, ... . (MORE)

There was a kid who went to school with us at Marland, Oklahoma named Andy Horney, who was into Sun Records. I can remember him telling me, "You should buy some of the Sun Records 45 RPM records because they are good."

Andy had more money than we did. He lived on a farm, and he was the only child that his parents could have. Back then, doctors didn't know about A- and B+ blood types as incompatible. Today they do. But what happened to Andy's mom, was, she had Andy, and his blood type was A- or A Negative. Having one baby was easy, but then the A negative blood would get into her system, and the B Positive blood type would be attacted by the negative blood, and it meant a sure death of any more babies.

Marcella has A negative and I am B positive. Now doctors just give the A- mother a shot before she gives birth, and the drug wouldn't allow the negative blood to pollute the mother's negative blood. We have five children, and our first one that died while young, Darla, was an A positive.

Parents would still try to have more babies, and they had a chance, if she happened to have an A negative blood baby. Andy's mother never had any more children, so they had money to buy the albums. I think of Andy a lot, these days, now with eBay. He could sell those old Sun Records for a hefty amount on eBay.

So back to Conway Twitty. First, I want you to know his last name was really Jenkins. Please do some research on him and find out what his first name is and how he got the name Conway Twitty! Believe me, you would not get your name that way.

Twitty controlled his songs, much like Elvis did. He would put a hold on a song for years, until he thought the time was right for him to release it as a record. Did it work? He had more number one songs than Elvis Presley. Is that incredible or what? I think he had 8 straight years that he had at least one number one song, and all of his songs ended up being in the top 10 anytime he released them

Holli doesn't call it a note, when I go way down and get a rumbly note. Not sure what she calls it, but Twitty's trade mark was that "growl." Another trade mark of Twitty was the personalization of the message. "Hello Darling," blew away the charts and when the gals listened to it, they believed he was talking to them. "You" was his big trademark. "I Want To Lay YOU Down," was a killer song. Have Bro Cecil download one of his songs.

Now this is going to be tough, but I want you to find his very first hit, and it was when I was in the 9th grade; and believe me, ... Twitty growled his way through it like no other artist.

Conway Twitty lived in Oklahoma City, forever, and would often sing at Spring Lake Amusement Park. He was killing Nashville so badly, that they "... offered him a deal that he could not refuse, ..." to move to Nashville. That is how influencial he was in the Country Music business. His first few songs weren't considered country. Dig this and it is a true story.

Twitty calls up his record company and says, I want to sing "oh Danny Boy."

"You gotta be kidding. Everyone has sung that song because it is Public Domain. I am not wasting my time and vinyl on, yet another cover of that song."

"Yes you will, " Twitty scolded. "You will or I'll find another record company that will." He forced his company to let him do it. Did it work?

Who would have ever believed you could record a rock 'n role version of that song, but he did. He started it as a ballad, then blew everyone away when he got to "Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling." Wham, the song landed squarely in number one on the survey. But he did another song earlier than that, that is your job to find out what it was and was able to growl through it. It was in the TOP 10, but never hit number one.

He did move to Nashville and his title was, "The High Priest of Country Music." The only way I can do service to him, is for you to read about him on the Internet. Get ready for an incredible ride and a life that ended way too shortly. But his music lives on.

Twitty was also known for his "IN YOUR FACE" lyrics. That fact can be experienced in these lyrics. I want you to read them and then discuss them. If you can find a way, I want you to listen to them. They are simple and "In Your Face," the truth.

C TOP - COM... - Conway Twitty Lyrics - The Games That Daddies Play Lyrics


If you could only spare the time
And mom I hope you understand
How much I love and need you and
I don't want you to take this the wrong way
But don't you think I'm old enough
And big enough and strong enough to play
The games that daddies play

My friend Billy Parker's dad
Came by today to see me and
He wondered if I'd like to go
With him and Billy on a hike
And maybe camp out overnight
The way I've seen them do in picture shows
And there's one thing I'd like to do
And maybe if I asked him to
He's sit and talk to me man to man
We'd only be gone overnight
And I could find out what it's like to play
The games that daddies play

She quickly turned to hide the tears
From her son of seven years
He didn't know she'd read between the lines
He'd never really known his dad
And although he'd never ask
She knew exactly what was on his mind
She searched her mind in desperation
Six long years of separation
Dimmed the words she knew she had to say
I hope you're never big enough
Or old enough or bold enough to play
The games that daddies play

I know you need and want his love
But son, you're the victim of
Another kind of games that daddies play

I will get more in depth with Conway on Separate posts. If anyone wants to buy a Chinese Made Ukelele, go for it. I would be glad to put up chords to any of the songs, as best as I can. I taught Guitar for 20 years, and my students ENROLLED, just for the lyrics and chords for their latest songs.

Now, I am going to do some posts on my favorite Duos or Duets, man and woman, and believe me, Conway had it down. Just get ready for it, because Bro Dale will give you my top two country duets and their incredible songs.

Okay, here is your job. The following is taking from a website, one of 933,000 on Conway Twitty. Just how big was this man in music. Welllll, read the following and be amazed. It is your job to find out where I clipped this item, if you so choose to do it.

"There are few artists who truly deserve the weighty crown of "legend," but if anyone
has earned a place in music history, it is Conway Twitty. For he and he alone passed
a milestone not reached by Hank Williams, The Beatles, or even Elvis Presley. Twitty
scored more #1 singles than any other recording artist, pop, rock, country or otherwise."

"Conway Twitty was a country superstar in the 60s, 70s and 80s. One of the most renowned and adventurous singers in Nashville, Twitty racked up 40 number one hits and over 30 industry awards during the course of his career. More than any other singer, he was responsible for selling country music as "adult" music, defying and expanding the limitations of country-pop by adding sublet R&B, pop and rock & roll influences. Though he had some pop success, Twitty remained country to the core. This comprehensive album features 15 of Twitty's best known #1 hits and is a must for all music fans."

posted by okharpman at 11:07 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Is this public domain or what!

Red River Valley is certainly public domain. Look a the three versions listed below. The words are different on all of them. As I research the song, it appears to me that there is a "mean spirited" disagreement on this song about who wrote it and where its about.

If you know anything about Oklahoma, you know that the bottom of Oklahoma has the center of the RED RIVER as its southern border. This actually means, that its border is liquid. One good rain can cause a meander, the nature of looping in old rivers, and when a meander has over looped itself, it forms a new boundry line where either Texas gains land and Oklahoma loses land, or Oklahoma gains land and Texas loses land. It is historically a hot potato.

An old, meandering river has made valleys and usually exist in a valley. But one of the writers below, makes a good case that "The Red River Valley" was written by someone who was closer to Canada and the valleys of Montana or South or North Dakota. Does it make any difference? Can we add verses to it? You bet we can, and we can do it and get up and sing them, without any fear of being sued by a controlling copyright. I have memorized this song before, and we have sung it at programs, where I sing the lead and Holli harmonizes. Holli is good at harmonizing and loves to do it. Her voice isn't that strong, but she is never off key. Can you think of other women singers who have not loud voices. Let's name a few women singers.

Emmy Lou Harris - Not Loud

Allison Kraus - Not Loud

Wynona Judd - Loud

Naomi Judd - Moderate but harmonizing

Dolly Parton - Loud

Shania Twain - Loud

Martina McBride - Loud

Reba McEntire - Loud

You decide.

Jessica Andrews

Suzy Bogguss

Deana Carter

Terri Clark

Patsy Cline

Tammy Cochran

Dixie Chicks

Sara Evans

Crystal Gayle

Faith Hill

The Kinleys

Alison Krauss

Patty Loveless

Loretta Lynn

Kathy Mattea

Martina McBride

Lila McCann

Reba McEntire

Jo Dee Messina

Lorrie Morgan

Jamie O'Neal
Dolly Parton
LeAnn Rimes

SHeDAISY

Pam Tillis

Tanya Tucker

Shania Twain

Lee Ann Womack

Chely Wright

Tammy Wynette

Wynonna Trisha Yearwood

So, do you feel creative. Red River Valley is a great song to hone-up your song writing skills. Who knows, we might have some budding songwriters in this class. Do I like to write songs? Is the sky blue? Do we have troops in Iraq? Do we have a Republican President in the US? Are grizzly bears dangerous? Can black bears be dangerous? Will a cougar eat your flesh? I love to write songs. So, where did this song come from?

Where oh where, are you tonight?

Why did you leave me here all alone?

I looked the world over and thought I found true love.

You found another and FFFFTHHHHHH you were gone.


Want to hear one of my verses? This song is not,
NOT public Domain. It is owned by Ya Hoo, I think.

Now we don't get older, we only get better.

The time of our life is always at hand.

We've waited so long and our ship has come in!

And no one can do it like McDonald's can!

(Everybody!)

Now we don't get older, we only get better.

The time of our life is here at our hands.

We've waited so long and our ship has come in!

And no one can do it like McDonald's can!

1) Red River Valley

From this valley they say you are going

We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile

For they say you are taking the sunshine

That has brightened our path for a while


Come and sit by my side if you love me

Do not hasten to bid me adieu

But remember the Red Valley

And the cowboy who loved you so true


Won't you think of the valley you're leaving

Oh how lonely, how sad it will be?

Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking

And the grief you are causing to me


As you go to your home by the ocean

May you never forget those sweet hours

That we spent in the Red River Valley

And the love we exchanged mid the flowers

Red River Valley

Lyrics

This was originally In the Bright Mohawk Valley, a tune popular in New York. It spread throughout the South and cowboys in the Red River Valley localized it to become the tune we are familiar with.

From this valley they say you are going

We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile

For they say you are taking the sunshine

That has brightened our path for a while

Come and sit by my side if you love me

Do not hasten to bid me adieu

But remember the Red River Valley

And the cowboy who loved you so true

2)Won't you think of the valley you're leaving

Oh how lonely, how sad it will be?

Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking

And the grief you are causing to me


(CHoRUS)Come and sit by my side if you love me

Do not hasten to bid me adieu

But remember the Red River Valley

And the cowboy who loved you so true


As you go to your home by the ocean

May you never forget those sweet hours

That we spent in the Red River Valley

And the love we exchanged mid the flowers

Come and sit by my side if you love me

Do not hasten to bid me adieu

But remember the Red River Valley

And the cowboy who loved you so true

I remember watching Roy Rogers when I was a Chicago cowboy in the 1940s. Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers sang Red River Valley in a movie by the same name. This song always reminds me of my childhood fantasies of riding the range with a cowboy hat and a good chestnut mare.

Lyrics:
Red River Valley

[G] From this valley they say you are going

We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile [D]

[G] For they say you are taking the [C] sunshine

That has [D] brightened our path for a [G] while


Come and sit by my side if you love me

Do not hasten to bid me adieu

But remember the Red River Valley

And the cowboy who loved you so true

Won't you think of the valley you're leaving

Oh how lonely, how sad it will be?

Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking

And the grief you are causing to me

As you go to your home by the ocean

May you never forget those sweet hours

That we spent in the Red River Valley

And the love we exchanged mid the flowers


Repeat first verse

Red River Valley

arranged and adapted by Arlo Guthrie

From this valley they say you are going

We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile

For they say you are taking the sunshine

That has brightened our pathways awhile

CHORUS:

Come and sit by my side, if you love me

Do not hasten to bid me adieu

Just remember the Red River Valley

And the cowboy who loved you so true


I've been thinking a long time, my darling

Of the sweet words you never would say

Now, alas, must my fond hopes all vanish

For they say you are gong away

Do you think of the valley you're leaving

O how lonely and how dreary it will be

And do you think of the kind hearts you're breaking

And the pain you are causing to me

CHORUS

They will bury me where you have wandered

Near the hills where the daffodils grow

When you're gone from the Red River Valley

For I can't live without you I know

CHORUS

posted by okharpman at 2:47 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Merle Travis, ... did you hear me? I said, "Merle Travis."

This musisian set the standard in Nashville for many years.

-----Merle Travis was virtually without peer as a guitarist and songwriter. A unique stylist, he was respected and prominent enough to have an instrumental style ("Travis
picking") named after him, and only Chet Atkins even comes close to the influence that Travis had on the way the guitar is understood and played in country music. (Indeed, Atkins was initially signed to RCA to be that label's Merle Travis.) More?

-----Click More? I have a friend who plays like Merle, but he regrets it, because he feels like Merle's style leaves little for lead and creativity. But, to say, Merle Travis had a giant effect on the Nashville as a writer and player, is an understatement. One of the standard songs I play is Merle Travis's "16 Tons."

-----He didn't like the song at first, second and even twentyeth, but then Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded it, and it was a HUGGE HIT. If you were in the United States right now, somewhere on TV, you would see this advertisement about coal-covered women in nifty, skin-tight apparel, working in a coal mine. Guess what song is playing behind them.

-----Without "16 Tons," I may have never really learned to play the guitar well. The song has a fast switch from C7 to B7, which is the basic element of the song, and once I had that down, I learned the song.

-----I spent a summer selling Bibles in Hinton, West Virginia. My sales manager hated me, because I didn't sell lots of Bibles. While selling in the summertime, I took off to see the sites. In Hinton, West Virginia, they have an open coal mine where visitors can pay to go through it. Of course, I did. They also sold a coal miner sculpture made up of fine coal pressed into a likeness of a coal miner with his hate and his coal mining bucket/jug/life saver.

-----When I worked in Kansas as a Career Education Specialist, I had a film strip about coal. The schools ran off the lady that was running the van, when I took over. I always said, "I can play the guitar and I can sing, but I can't do both at the same time." Well, now, the teachers up there changed my mind for me. I started doing Lyceums on Coal Mining, which fit right into their science unit, and every school and every teacher in our Northern District, had a fast change in attitude about their USAVE Career Education Source. And me? I learned to play the guitar and sing at the same time, without having to look at a paper. So, I owe my success as a guitar player to Merle Travis's "16 Tons," and "Pea Picken Tennessee Ernie Ford's rendition of Sixteen Tons of Number 9 Coal, and what did you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause, I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store." And that was all true.

-----The coal mine companies built homes for their coal miners, rented them out to them, and even provided a company store to buy things from, on credit, of course, and those coal companies owned the coal miners, "lock-stock-and-barrel." (An idiom.) Discuss with Mr. Cecil, what that means and discuss it in your class. I left out one of the verses, when I sang it to the students. Can you guess which one? "Dark As A Dungeon" is another Travis song. See if you can find out who are others who recorded it, besides Travis. Remember, Travis's sisters get the royalties. Be sure to check out, "Stonewall Jackson+Singer" to include his cover. Have Mr. Cecil down load Jackson's Travis songs.

Sixteen Tons
(Merle Travis)

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

Picked up a shovel and I walked to the mine

I hauled Sixteen Tons of number 9 coal

And the straw-boss said, "Well, bless my soul"


(Chorus:)

You haul Sixteen Tons, whadaya get?

Another older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store


Repeat Chorus

Born one morning it was drizzle and rain

Fightin' and Trouble are my middle name

I was raised in a canebrake by an old mama lion

And no high-toned woman make me walk the line


Repeat Chorus

See me comin' better step aside

A lot of men didn't and a lot of men died

I got one fist of iron and the other of steel

And if the right one don't get ya, the left one will


Repeat Chorus

Born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

Picked up a shovel and I walked to the mine

I hauled Sixteen Tons of number 9 coal

And the straw-boss said, "Well, bless my soul"

Repeat Chorus

posted by okharpman at 8:42 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 24, 2006

THE LIPS!!!

-----No, this doesn't involve Mick Jagger. The Lips put it all together in the early '80s - 1984 to be exact.

-----It would be good if you bought one of their CDs and listen to them. I am not an expert on them, but my son, Darrin, is up on them and is a big fan of theirs as well. I think he has met the Bands' MASTER in the Apple Store where he dropped in to buy an iPod.

Check out what it says about them in the wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

"
The Flaming Lips
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Flaming Lips, pictured in 2002. Left to right: Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins.
Above: Drozd, Coyne, Ivins
Country Oklahoma, USA
Years active 1983 – Present
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Label(s) Warner Brothers Records
Members Steven Drozd
Wayne Coyne
Michael Ivins

-----The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are an idiosyncratic and acclaimed American alternative rock band.

-----Although indie rock/post-punk approach to rock music, The Flaming Lips are known for their lush, multi-layered, psychedelic-ish arrangements and their spacey lyrics and bizarre song titles. They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows; featuring animal suits, puppets, video projections and complex stage light configurations. In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 bands to see before you die".

-----The group recorded several albums and EPs on an indie label in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers, they scored a top ten hit in 1995 with "She Don’t Use Jelly" (known in Australia as "Vaseline"). Although it has been their only hit single, the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability with sonically majestic albums such as 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

-----Now this one is a biggy and you can research it to death, with "Results of about 17,300,000 for the flaming Lips." Now, even in the Thai number system, that is a heck of a lot of sites. 17 million. Are you kidding me? Are we going to have to spend the rest of this semester researching all those sites? Hope not. Divided it up, into groups and then go for it.
-----If the Flaming Lips have had an accidental career then this documentary is indeed an accident. In 1991, I was simply Wayne's art school neighbor in Norman, Oklahoma with a film camera and some tenacity. They were in need of a willing and somewhat competent cinematographer and I was on a constant hunt for action-packed stories and oddball characters. And thus a relationship built of geographic convenience and a mutual desire to create ourselves. And now, 15-years later, I have thankfully made my filmmaking career through working with the Flaming Lips.

After combing 400 hours of footage that includes a decade of home movies, personal interviews, live shows, music videos, and behind the scenes of Christmas on Mars, The Fearless Freaks is at last realized. Although I am certainly excited and ready to share this film with the world I have to admit it's bitter sweet. I can't image not filming a Lips concert, a Drozd brother jam session or the Coyne family Christmas. I am forever grateful to Wayne, Steven and Michael for their patience and trust. Without the unbelievable access that the band allowed this film would just be another okay rockumentary. Instead, together we have created an insightful and personal piece of cinema."
-BRADLEY BEESLEY

Who do you love? Tell the world.
A Chronology of Insanity
by Sean Neumann

Two things stick out in my mind when it comes to the Flaming Lips: The band playing a transvestite bar, and playing on "Beverly Hills 90210." I can't think of anyone crazy enough or ballsy enough to do those gigs besides maybe the Butthole Surfers, Ween or Tom Jones.

Rarely does a band go from being associated with acid-popping, glue-sniffing urchins to being hailed as one of the most important acts of the past 10 years. I mean, who in the hell would have even thought that this band would have one of their albums - The Soft Bulletin - mentioned as one of the best of the past year? A band that have written songs entitled "Talkin' 'Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortatlity Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)" and "March of the Rotten Vegetables" are considered a critical success? I just thought they were my own private indulgence, like a secret affinity for inhaling nitrous-oxide from whipped-cream cannisters. If 10 years ago, you would have told me that the Flaming Lips would be incorporating classical music into their repertoire, I would have called you a crack-addicted bonehead with a subdural-hematoma.

But lo-and-behold, I am professing my love for the Lips, based not only on my own predilection for the bizarre and outrageously creative, but because these guys have broken down their own barrier between improvisation and crack-addled musical arrangement.

The Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983. Rumor has it that Wayne Coyne stole a cache of instruments from a church hall and got his brother Mark and Michael Ivins to play with him. Another legend is that Ivins and Mark Coyne met when Coyne showed up at a party Ivins was throwing at his parents' house. Either way, the bunch made a four-song demo tape and started sending it out. Their legendary first gig did in fact take place in an Oklahoma City transvestite bar called the Blue Note, and by 1985, after numerous drummers floated in and out of the band, they settled on Richard English to pound the skins while Mark Coyne departed to get married.

In 1986, the Lips were signed to Restless Records and released Hear It Is, which was followed by 1987's Oh My Gawd!! They met the like-minded Butthole Surfers and were invited to be the openers for a tour. On that trip they met Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, and he became the band's sound technician for 1988's Telepathic Surgery. After afew extrememly weird and improvisational efforts, English gave way to Nathan Roberts. Donahue took on the name "Dingus" and became a full-fleged member of the group while he worked on Mercury Rev's debut album Yerself Is Steam. In 1990, the Lips released In A Priest Driven Ambulance, a record filled with references to the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, and various riffs from divergent popular songs of the time. In the minds of many, it's the band's finest recording.

These early records are some of the strangest to leak out of the brains of human beings. The simple fact is that none of the records carry a shred of normalcy. They're excercises in excessive experimentation and distorted reality. Their cross-pollination of pop-music, psychedelia, abstract language, and free-association can make a listener feel as though he's on acid even though he's never touched the stuff. Imagine a tripping George Gershwin in a leisure suit and purple hair playing a viola, a piano, and peddle effects on an out-of-tune piano all at the same time, and you'd be pretty close to what the Lips sound like.

Reckless Records folded in 1990, and the Lips were picked up by Warner Brothers. They went into the studio and began to expand (yes, expand) their sound with Hit To Death In The Future Head. Released in 1992, the record was a mess of musical hedonism, but it also marked a turning point for the band. The Lips began to build musical arrangements with a direction.

Roberts left the band and in mid-1992, Steven Drodz and Ronald Jones joined on to cut Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, and by 1994, something very strange happened: The record produced a huge hit, "She Don't Use Jelly." The cut earned the band a slot on Lollapalooza's second stage, a number-one hit, heavy rotation on MTV, and the infamous spot on "Beverly Hills 90210" in which Ian Ziering's character thought the Lips "rawked."

Every time I think of the Flaming Lips and 1994, I think of the video for "Turn It On." The Boom Box ExperimentIn it, the band play three gorgeous women doing their laundry and dancing on washing machines while psychedelic strobe lights pulsate in the background. A transcendental moment, friends. I never looked at doing laundry the same way again. I also remember Wayne Coyne on MTV, sounding as if he'd been inhaling paint fumes from a sock and drinking turpentine all day, talking to Kurt Loder about how important the bubble machine is for a live show. My favorite lunatics, whom my "Summer of Love" mother thought were demented and bizzare, were getting critical recognition from the likes of Rolling Stone.

After three years of touring, the band went to Chicago and recorded, the straight forward Clouds Taste Metallic. After a year of touring to support the record, Jones was replaced by Steven Drozd and the Lips stopped touring as a conventional band. In a very risky move, Lips shows became excercises in audience participation. The band also began to expand their sound, again.

First, Coyne organized the "Parking Lot Experiment" in which some 40 cars took part. Coyne distributed pre-recorded music tapes to the folks in each car, and with their doors open and on cue, each driver began to play his tape. Brilliant. The Parking Lot ExperimentNext up was the recording of Zaireeka, four-CDs meant to played simultaneously on separate players. The album makes you experience vertigo, dementia, disorientation, and aural hallucination, and feel the strange calm that sets in when good mushrooms get their hooks in your mind. Now, after warping minds - their own and their audience's - they released The Soft Bulletin which is nothing short of a wonderfully orchestrated album. When I heard it, I could hardly believe that this was the same group of morons that sang about "Brainville" and "The Abandoned Hospital Ship." They developed a true integration of progressive rock and classical music and blended it with their own predilection for whacked-out blues and psychedelia. Coyne's lyrics also became more introspective and - gasp - serious! Not only that, the album was hailed as everything from the second coming to album of the year.

It's been almost 16 years since they played in the trani-bar.Wayne Coyne Now they're staring down the barrel of legitimacy without a sense of self-importance. When they are asked about their own impact on the music scene, Coyne, Ivins and Drozd brush aside any gushing praise. Instead, they just talk about how they decided to stop being cool and just be the geeks they truly are. They've listed progressive rock, the blues and classical music as their influences. They've toured with people more insane than themselves, used toilet bowls as instruments and done the Letterman show. They've gone from being dust-bowl psychedelics to critical sensations. Hell, everyone should be such geeks.

Biography by Jason Ankeny

Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. From their beginnings as Oklahoma weirdos to their pop culture breakthrough in the mid-'90s to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 2000s, the Lips have ridden one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as true originals.

The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne allegedly stole a collection of musical instruments from an area church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips ...
Biography by Jason Ankeny

Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. From their beginnings as Oklahoma weirdos to their pop culture breakthrough in the mid-'90s to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 2000s, the Lips have ridden one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as true originals.

The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne allegedly stole a collection of musical instruments from an area church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips (its origin variously attributed to a porn film, an obscure drug reference, or a dream in which a fiery Virgin Mary plants a kiss on Wayne in the backseat of his car), the band made its live debut at a local transvestite club. After progressing through an endless string of drummers, they recruited percussionist Richard English prior to recording their self-titled debut, issued on green vinyl on their own Lovely Sorts of Death label in 1985.

When Mark Coyne soon departed to get married, Wayne assumed full control of the group; in addition to remaining its lead guitarist, he also became the primary singer and songwriter. Continuing on as a trio, the Lips released 1986's Hear It Is, followed a year later by Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips. While touring in support of the Butthole Surfers, they played Buffalo, NY, where they were befriended by concert promoter Jonathan Donahue; after a jam session with Donahue's nascent band Mercury Rev, he and Coyne became close friends, and Donahue eventually signed on as the group's sound technician.

After recording 1988's difficult Telepathic Surgery, English exited, reducing the Lips to the core duo of Coyne and Ivins; after adding drummer Nathan Roberts, Donahue adopted the name Dingus and became a full-time member in time to cut 1990's stellar In a Priest Driven Ambulance while simultaneously recording the brilliant Mercury Rev debut, Yerself Is Steam. Following a series of hopeful phone calls to Warner Bros., the company signed the band in 1991, and in 1992 their oft-delayed major-label debut, Hit to Death in the Future Head, appeared to little commercial notice; Donahue soon exited to focus his full energies on Mercury Rev, followed by the departure of Roberts.

With new guitarist Ronald Jones and drummer Steven Drozd, they cut 1993's sublime Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, which they supported by playing the second stage at Lollapalooza and touring the nation in a Ryder truck. Initially, the album stiffed; however, nearly a year after its initial release, the single "She Don't Use Jelly" became a grassroots hit, and against all odds the Flaming Lips found themselves on the Top 40 charts. They took full advantage of their requisite 15 minutes of fame, appearing everywhere from MTV's annual Spring Break broadcast to an arena tour in support of Candlebox to a memorably surreal lip-synched performance on the teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, where supporting character Steve Sanders (portrayed by actor Ian Ziering) uttered the immortal words, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!"

After the 1994 release of a limited-edition sampler of odds-and-ends titled Providing Needles for Your Balloons, the Lips returned in 1995 with Clouds Taste Metallic, a strikingly mature and diverse collection highlighted by the singles "Bad Days" (also heard in the film Batman Forever), "This Here Giraffe," and "Brainville." Despite the inclusion of the remarkably melodic "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles," "Christmas at the Zoo" (rumored to be under consideration for inclusion on an upcoming John Tesh holiday record), and the epic "Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World," the album nonetheless failed to live up to the commercial success of Transmissions, and the band was once again relegated to cult status.

In 1996, the Lips' world went haywire; first, Jones disappeared to undertake a spiritual odyssey from which he did not return, then Drozd's hand was almost needlessly amputated after he was bitten by a spider. At about the same time, Ivins was the victim of a bizarre hit-and-run accident after a wheel came off of another vehicle and slammed into his car, trapping him inside. Ironically, Coyne was having car problems of his own when rumors of his latest sonic foray -- conducting an orchestra of 40 automobiles, all with their tape decks playing specially composed music at the same time -- prompted fan discussion of his possible psychological collapse. "I would try to tell people what I was doing and found that I couldn't explain it very well," Coyne later remarked about the project, dubbed the Parking Lot Experiment. "Plus, I had a sore on the side of my tongue for a week and it made me talk kind of weird. I'm sure they thought I was retarded."

By the following year, the Flaming Lips (who continued as a trio, opting not to attempt to replace Jones) were back in the studio, recording an album that, according to Coyne, would be "so different and exciting it will either make us millionaires or break us" -- in short, 1997's Zaireeka, a breathtaking and wildly experimental set of four discs designed to be played simultaneously. A previously unreleased track, "Hot Day," also appeared earlier that year on the soundtrack to Richard Linklater's film SubUrbia. A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording...by Amateurs, a retrospective of their Restless label material, followed in 1998, and a year later the Lips returned with a breathtaking new studio effort, The Soft Bulletin. After a three-year absence from the shelves, 2002 brought several new releases, including the new record Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and a two-volume retrospective of the Restless years. Yoshimi won the group even more popular and critical acclaim than The Soft Bulletin, which the group maximized by spending half of 2002 appearing with Beck on his Sea Change tour as both his opening act and backing band. The Lips kept busy over the next two years by touring in support of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and working on their movie Christmas on Mars. They returned to the studio in 2004 and spent much of 2005 recording; that year, the Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks and VOID video collection were both released, whetting fans' appetites for the band's 2006 album At War with the Mystics.

So there, you can spend the rest of your life researching The Flaming Lips



posted by okharpman at 11:56 PM 0 comments
Soldiers Last Letter


Soldier's Last Letter

When the postman delivered the letter
Well, it filled her old heart full of joy
But she didn't know 'til she read the inside
It was the last one from her darling boy.

"Dear Mom," was the way that it started
"I miss you so much," it went on
"And, Mom, I didn't know that I loved you so
But I'll prove it when this war is won."

"I'm writing this down in a trench, Mom
So don't scold if it isn't so neat
For you know as you did, when I was a kid
And would come home with mud on my feet."

"Well, the captain just gave us our orders
And mom we will carry them through
I'll finish this letter the first chance I get
But for now I'll just say I love you."

Then the mother's old hands began to tremble
As she fought against tears in her eyes
For they came unashamed, there was no name
And she knew that her darlin' had died.

That night as she knelt down by her bedside
She prayed, "Lord above, hear my plea
Protect all the sons who are fighting tonight
And dear God keep America free."

Okay, I have a chore for you. A chore means like, ... something you have to do every day. In the olden days of Oklahoma, all the kids had specific things to do, whenever they came home from school. Some had to gather the eggs. Some, ... feed the cows. Others, ... milk the cows. By the way, how often should you milk a cow?

Our grade school kids went to the Harms Homestead in Oklahoma City. They were broken up into small groups led by one of the volunteers, and they took all of the groups to the various farm chores that had to be done. I went along as a member of the faculty.

When my group came to the cow, the girl had the kids act like they were milking the cow, with a plastic glove stapled to the area were the cow's udder was supposed to be. An udder is the cow's teats, where the milk comes out, ... the faucets.

"How many times a day should this cow be milked?" I asked. The student in charge was flustered big time.

"Ah, ... I don't know that." She was a city girl for sure. "Three times a day? One time? I don't know!"


Soldiers_last_letter

I then explained to her why a cow had to be milked twice a day, early in the morning and close to sundown, or the cow's mammary glands would stop making milk. So, having read up to this far, here is you chore for this page. Click the url above, and then it will send you to that song, Soldiers Last Letter. It was a hit, during the II World War by Ernest Tubb, and Tubb was my mother's favorite singer. Why? Well, Dad was in the Army at that time, and they lived in the California.

Now minimize that page but let the music play. My guess would be that Chet Atkins is responsible for the music background. He came from a classical guitar background, when he spent a year with one of the classical guitar masters. He then moved back to Nashville and made his music part of Country Music. Big time. He was, at least, part owner of RCA Records.

Atkins couldn't sing worth a piddle, and only put out one album that he sang on. It was a total failure, but as a session man, and making a legitiment art form out of Country Music, his influence has been unexceeded. Atkins covered everybody on his albums and was a session man on tons of records cut. Do a google check, on Atkins. But, now it is time for your chore. Here it is.

1) Find out who wrote "Soldiers Last Letter." It is credited to Ernest Tubb, but you need to dig further than that, to find out who wrote it.

2) Do some further Internet research and find out how many Country Artists "covered" that song. Obviously, who ever is playing the music, as I write this, did a cover of the music. Who else did?

3) Which artist was the latest to cover the song?

You can find some sites that will give you the chords on the song. Actually, those chords may be updated by Chet Atkins, but, as it was first recorded there were no more than 3 chords changes in the song, and you can actually get through the song by playing only to chords, ... the first chord and the last chord of any key you choose.

Now, I have listened to Tubb forever. My mother had a sheet music with this song on it. After the tornado, I doubt that she still has it. But Jimmy Rogers (the Country Blues Singer) gave Tubb his guitar, on his death bed and wanted him to carry on. Tubb tried, but another singer, singing like Jimmy Rogers, just wasn't a money maker. So Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours, changed their musical style to a "laid-back" Country Style, and he was an instant hit.

Throughout the '40s, Tubb was the man to take the US through WWII. He continued to have lots of play time, through out, the 50s, and his last song, that hit the charts was in 1964 or so, when he came out with, "Thanks, Thanks A Lot" and "One In the Row, and his Big Hit, the two chorded, "Waltz Across Texas." (I've use the Waltz song to teach hundreds of students how to play guitar. This is off the top of my head. A little research will probably find me wrong, but ... you can do the research, and I will gladly admit that I am mistaken.

The last few years of his life, he continued to play. His lead guitar man played simple one string lead-ins and riffs. They all wore White Stetson's and out of his group came legitiment stars in their own right. Charley Green? Again, ... a little research would easily find me wrong. The group played throughout the US, and one of his last appearances was at Joplin, Missouri, when he was an hour late and took the stage, drunk. A bad habit of a lot of stars, including the great Hank Williams. And Hank will be another, longer story.

I like Ernest Tubb music. He's dead, now, but he carries on with a big Country Store down town Nashville and at least one more in Austin, Texas. His Country Music was simple, crisp, laid-back, and cool.

posted by okharpman at 2:53 PM 1 comments
Thursday, April 20, 2006
What is the difference between "Cowboy Music" and "Country Western Music?"

-----There is a lot of difference, I think. Cowboy Music's home-base, was in Hollywood. The Sons Of The Pioneers were created, over a time, in Hollywood. It was a "need-based" creation, I suppose, back in the early '30s when Westerns were big. Gene Autry was discovered in Oklahoma at a relay station singing Western songs, and quickly moved to Hollywood.

-----At the same time, Roy Rogers found his way to The Sons of the Pioneers, which lead him to a record contract as well as a film contract. As the industry churned out Western after Western, they needed Cowboy Songs, and the group was formed and reformed over the years. These guys were really singers and professional musicians. Jimmy Hindrix and the Beatles added much to our music history, but you simply cannot over-look the importance of the Sons Of The Pioneers. If you want to hear how great "The Pioneers," were, you can get your teacher to let you hear "The Ghost Riders in The Sky." They are absolutely phenominal.

-----Notice in the song below, that the four basic chord structure in any song, has gone beyond basic. C F G7 D, would be your basic chords for a song in the key of C. But look at the chords below. These guys were making music in the '30s, and their chording, even at that time, goes beyond the run-of-the-mill, Toby Keith song, wouldn't you say? Bear with me here, but looking over the chord structure, the song goes into a different key, ... with the chorus. Hmm. I need to pull my old guitar out and see what this song sounds like. By the way

Artist/Band: Sons Of The Pioneers
Lyrics for Song: Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Lyrics for Album: Rca Country Legends

*****
Tumbling Tumbleweeds by Bob Nolan

Prelude:

C F C
I'm a roaming cowboy, riding all day long
G7 C
Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.
F C Cm6 A7
Nights underneath a prairie moon,
D7 G
I ride alone and sing a tune.

Chorus:

F F7
See them tumbling down,
E E7
Pledging their love to the ground,
F C C#dim
Lonely but free I'll be found
G7 C C+
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

F F7
Cares of the past are behind,
E E7
Nowhere to go but I'll find
F C C#dim
Just where the trail will wind,
G7 C C+
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

Fm6 G7 C Am6# B7 Em B7 G7
I know when night has gone that a new world's born at dawn,

F F7
I'll keep rolling along,
E E7
Deep in my heart is a song,
F C C#dim
Here on the range I belong,
G7 C C7 C+
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

Repeat from Chorus to end

Last time add:

G7 C
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.


Toby Keith's Song, which is pretty much his theme song, now, was patterned after the stuff done by
The Sons Of The Pioneers, but look at the difference in chord structure. Pretty Awesome if you ask me.



Artist: Toby Keith Tabs/Chords
Song: Should Have Been A Cowboy Tab in Key of G. No "Diminished Chords" on this song.

Should Have Been a Cowboy
by Toby Keith
Transcribed by: Keith Reding

Played in a syncopated rhythm the same through out the song.

Intro: G | D | C | D | G | D | C | D

D G D C D G
I bet you've never heard ole Marshall Dillion say
D C D G
Miss Kitty have you ever thought of running away
D C D
Settling down will you marry me
G D C D
If I asked you twice and begged you pretty please
G D C D G
She'd of said Yes in a New York minute
D C
They never tied the knot
D G D
His heart wasn't in it
C D
Stole a kiss as he road away
G D C D
He never hung his hat up at Kitty's place


Chorus:
G | D | C |D
I should've been a Cowboy
D G | D | C |D
I should'be learned to rope and ride
G D C D
wearing my six-shooter riding by pony
G | D | C |D
on a cattle drive
D G | D | C |D
Stealing the young girl's hearts
D G | D | C |D
Just like Gene and Roy
D G | D | C |D
Singing those campfire songs
G | D | C
I should've been a cowboy


Verse 2

I might of had a side kick with a funny name

running wild through the hills chasing Jesse James

Ending up on the brink of danger

Riding shotgun for the Texas Rangers


Go west yound man, haven't you been told

California's full of whisky, women and gold

Sleeping out all night beneath the Texas stars

Dream in my eye and a prayer in my heart


Chorus


Please, support Toby Keith. Guitar Chords, Tablatures
Buy: Toby Keith Sheet Music | Toby Keith CD | Toby Keith Posters
[ More Keith Toby Tablatures | More Toby Keith Chords ]


©2005 cowboylyrics.com


All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners. All lyrics provided for educational purposes only.


-----I found a great history of Cowboy Music and you will want to read it all. Remember, that this kind of music would never have formed in any other country in the world. Is that amazing, or what? Maybe Australia or countries in South America, but it didn't happen there. Only in the US. These guys played great chord progressions and had tight harmony, way back in the '30s, and Country Music, based in Nashville and now in Austin, Texas.

History of Cowboy Music

-----The sad thing is, one of my best guitar friends, who could play all of that and many time more, died in December at 76. His name was Bob Vaughn. He had a ... guitorgan ..., and he would blow everyone away. I am a guitar player, but Bob Vaughn, to me was the difference between a tsunami and a ripple. Do a google search on .. "guitorgan."

-----I'm watching Pink Floyd on the Tonight Show, and there in big time visability is a Hammond D-2 organ, the same type that the Beatles used on their White Album and probably most of their other albums around. Hammond is another Amerocan, musical name that you should google. It was an organ made differently than any other organs of the day and was present in Studio with Phillips in Memphis, where Johnny Cash and Elvis got their starts. David Gilmore is the lead singer and vocalist that is on right now with Pink Floyd. With Hammond D-2 organs, you will always find a Leslie Box. If you watch the videos of the early Mowtown stuff, you will see the D-2 setting on the uncovered floor, on the ground. Stevie Wonder probably got his early start on that organ. My M-3 Hammond is under the weather right now. I've got to tear it apart and see if I can find a loose connection.

-----Be ready for my next blog posting on American Indian Tribal Music. It consists of one drum and rattles. Considering, that I am sitting right in the middle of where this music comes from and am leap years ahead of Mr. Cecil, when it comes to this kind of music. Among American Indians, Blues Music is popular, as well.

The Caddo County Harpman

posted by okharpman at 9:12 PM 0 comments
Friday, April 14, 2006
Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling Clementine.

So a quick look at this website and what gives it away as a Public Domain song? Over the years I have memorized this song and unmemorized it. It is in 3/4 time, which means your pick hits the lowest string and then you pick roles over the other five or 4, three times. I hate that. I think it is so boring to get up and do a song like this without some fancy slaps and hits with your pick. My style of guitar playing is more like Folk Music, than it is like Country Music.

The above is not the ONLY Clementine site. I picked this one because it has an MP3 Download on it. I would love to for others to add new verses as they discover them.

1) In a cabin, in a canon,
An excavating for a mine;
Dwelt a miner, a forty-niner,
And his daughter Clementine.
Chorus:
Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
Oh my darling Clementine,
You are lost and gone forever,
Drefful sorry, Clementine.

2. 3.
She drove her ducklets, to the river
Ev�ry morning just at nine;
She stubb�d her toe, against a silver,
And fell into the foaming brine.
Chorus: I saw her lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles soft and fine;
Alas for me, I was no swimmer,
And so I lost my Clementine.
Chorus:

I believe that should be "a sliver," don't you? A sliver is a piece of wood that goes into your skin at some place, like your foot or hand, but in a tornado, you can and will get them everywhere if you are not below ground.

I can remember us singing this song in our music class in Marland. We had a book for each of us, and we went through the book, just like it was an arithmetic book. I don't think we ever finished it, year in and year out. As a freshman (9th) grader, I won the lead roll in the "Junior/Senior Play." That shows how small that school was.

I will get out David Allan Coe's edition of this song, and put it here. He does a great job on that whole album. Coe spent time in prison; is covered with tatoos; blond hair below his shoulders; silver stuff coming through his nose and ears; and is overweight and wears a "Hell's Angels" jacket. Generally, Hells Angels describes outlaws who ride Harley-Davidsons and do drugs and "hell" bent on getting in trouble.

David Allen Coe
http://www.officialdavidallancoe.com/

I have a friend that was supposed to introduce him. He greeted David and told him what he was supposed to do, and David said, "#$%%%, nobody introduces ME, but myself."

posted by okharpman at 9:13 PM 1 comments
Thursday, April 13, 2006




You Don't Even Call Me By My Name


-----Why am I putting this song on this blog? Why? Because it is one of my favorite songs ever written. Hopefully you will get a copy of this song and listen to it. It is just, incredibly written. Not by a long shot, Steve Goodman's greatest song, but it is one of the simplest Country Songs ever written and was a killer hit. It is still being played on CW stations across the US. Just how many Country stations are there in the US? I don't know, but I do know that there are more CW stations in the US, than any other type of radio stations right now I am listening to "The Killer" on SERIUS Radio. "The Killer" is the name for Jerry Lee Lewis.

-----This song still puts money into Steve Goodman's bank account. What is the greatest song ever written by Steve Goodman? I know the answer, so research it. What is the song and how many Country and Blues artists have "covered" it? That means, how many artists have put his greatest song on an their album with them singing it. Hint, ... even Ray Charles did a cover on it. I don't play it, because it is not an easy song for an ordinary guitarist.

THE REAL STEVE GOODMAN

-----It just so happens, I have a David Allan Coe album with a great "Clementine" cover. On a scale of 1 to 10, it is a 10. But David isn't a nice guy. Steve Goodman, was, though. Steve Goodman was a genious. Now, I just gave you the best Steve Goodman website on the planet, so I would love for you to browse it and see what you find. You would think stevegoodman.com should be his website. Wrong! The creep that grabbed that Internet name, at least, lists the REAL Steve Goodman, as the first two url's on his site. He is, though, very humble about the real Steve Goodman's genius. But if you just put, stevegoodman.com, you'll see, that there is a lot of difference between the two. Don't even bother to go to that site. The guy is not worth your time. Above, it is. Also, there is the Steve Goodman that wrote Gospel Music, which I have mentioned earlier.

-----Now, what is this blog about. Of course, nothing else but "Oh My Darling Clementine," one of the truly great songs of the American Western Wilderness. This is the first song that I screwed up, the first time I entered a talent contest at the small school we attended. It was embarrassing, but I did end up getting through the song.

You Don't Even Call Me By My Name
(Steve Goodman)

C ----------------------G
It was all that I could do
-----------------C
to keep from cryin'
F --------------------------------------C
sometimes it seems so useless to remain
F ---------------------------------------C
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
G----------------------------------C
You never even call me by my name.
C ---------------------G ---------------C
You don't have to call me Waylon Jennings
C--------------------- G ---------------------C
And you don't have to call me Charlie Pride.
F------------------------------ C--------------------- Am
You don't have to call me Merle Haggard, anymore.
D---------------------------------- G
Even though your on my fightin' side.

CHORUS
F ---------C
And I'll hang around as long as you will let me
G
And I never minded standin' in the rain.
F----------------------------------------- C
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
G ---------------------------------C
You never even call me by my name.


I've heard my name a few times in your phone book
I've seen it on signs where I've laid
But the only time I know, I'll hear David Allan Coe
Is when Jesus has his final judgement day.

(enter now the Steve Goodman story. The first half is played
with a background of C and G. Just before Steve writes back
with the perfect Country and Western song, it is just a straight
background C chord.) "Now Steve Goodman sent me this song and said, "David, this is the perfect Country Music song. And I wrote back and said, "Steve, it cannot be the perfect Country Western Song, because it doesn't say anything about Momma, getting drunk, pickup trucks, prison, rain, and trains." So Steve sat down and wrote another verse to the song and sent it to me, and I realized that it WAS the perfect Country Western song, and I am obliged to put it on this album."

Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison.
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But, before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train.

So I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain. No,
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
C--------------------- G ---------F--------------------- C
You never even call me, I wonder why you don't call me
F -----------------C -----G ---C--- F ----C
Why don't you ever call me by my name.

Performed by: David Allan Coe (early 70's)

Make your teacher get the song and sing along with it. Somebody reads the spoken part. Some stations got revised copies of this song, where the verse with "Jesus" in it, wasn't played. I still sing this song and will sing it until I die, because, "... I don't mind standin' in the rain!"

Caddo County Harpman
Now you need to open the next blog about Clementine. That is my daughter in picture, teaching a child how to play the piano. She has a Performance Piano Degree from Cameron University and has her own Music Business called "Holli Hill Music Studio."

posted by okharpman at 10:09 PM 0 comments
Home On The Range


I am putting this song on the list because it is a must. I can remember singing this in my 5th grade music class. Yes, we had a class back in the 50s which taught music, in a small, small town in Oklahoma. Thanks to our present administration, very few small schools have music anymore. Been cut because of a silly program called No Child Left Behind.

Well, with the loss of music, there are lots of kids left behind. In our local school, we have music classes and smaller towns, lose students to our school, because the student's abilities are in music.

This is a great song to research. I would love everyone to comment on this song, throughout this session. Without a doubt, it IS a Public Domain song, with lots of verses added. I'd love to see additions to the verses below. And, how about the instant, negative vibes you get from the very first hit after you do a google on it.

You learn, right off, that it is the state song of Kansas. When we lived in Kansas, we lived as far to the North in Western Kansas. Nebraska was 11 miles away. After the first real snow, early in September, I realized that, my place in life, was not going to be Kansas, ... at least that far up in Kansas.

The first time I went out to shovel the snow, I ended up in bed with a pathetically bad back, and, if I was bad then, you can image what my back is like over 30 years later. So have fun, researching this song.

Home On The Range

Home on the range song
Camp Songs and Lyrics
Home on the range Recommend Bussongs.com
to a friend!
More about this song / Easy reading version with music

1st Verse:
Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus:
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

2nd Verse:
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all the cities so bright.

Chorus

3rd Verse:
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

Chorus

4th Verse:
The red man was pressed from this part of the West,
He's likly no more to return
To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering campfires burn.

Chorus

5th Verse:
How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light of the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Chorus

6th Verse:
Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours;
The curlew I love to hear scream;
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain-tops green.

Chorus

7th Verse:
Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus

posted by okharpman at 9:49 PM 0 comments
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Name:okharpman
Location: Oklahoma, United States

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