On Top Of Old Smokey - October 27, 2012

If you're like me, the On Top Of Old Smokey you grew up with was a goofy bastardized campfire song.  Maybe in the back of my mind I knew there was a real song, maybe saw it in the track listing on a Burl Ives album or something, maybe the plaintive folk melody was lodged in my consciousness like a fish hook....but what I knew was this:

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese

I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed

It rolled off the table and onto the floor

then my poor meatball rolled out of the door

It rolled through the garden and under a bush

then my poor meatball was covered with mush

Early next summer that very same bush

was covered in meatballs, meatballs and mush

Yah I know.....pretty profound shit.  Hilarious. A real side-splitter.  A few years ago I received as a gift from my wife and daughter some previously unreleased Hank Williams radio recordings - The Mother`s Best Sessions.  More about the Mother`s Best story later.  There is a complete 15 CD box set of this material, while the release I have is 3 CD`s that distills the seventy-two 15 minute shows into an excellent overview.  There are the hits, sometimes just written or recently recorded, unexpected covers like Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain and Cherokee Boogie, a whole load of gospel with lots of harmonies from The Drifting Cowboys, and a version of On Top of Old Smokey that was a revelation to me.  I never knew what a heartbreaking lament it was - but I guess Hank did. Check it out

In the intro, Hank refers to a it being one of the "top pop tunes in the nation."  This is likely a reference to the version by The Weavers, an abysmal piece of shit I couldn't bring myself to post here even in the interests of history.

A couple of weeks ago I stayed up too late drinking beer, playing piano and singing with Jeanne Tolmie, and On Top Of Old Smokey was one of the songs we played.  It got me all fired up about the song (again) and Saturday afternoon, Rachelle Reath and Jeanne came over and we worked out a version of it....here it is.  

The lyrics we sang are Hank's version (which differs to many versions in the second verse) with a few of our own extras and twists.

On Top Of Old Smokey - Traditional

On top of Old Smokey

all covered with snow

I lost my true lover

from courtin' too slow

On top of Old Smokey

I went there to weep

for a false-hearted lover

is worse than a thief

A thief he will rob you

and take what you've saved

But a false-hearted lover

will lay you in the grave

The grave will decay you 

and turn you to dust

The price you will always pay

when you misplace your trust

They'll hug you and kiss you

and tell you more lies 

than crossties on a railroad

or stars in the sky

On top of Old Smokey

Old Smokey so high

where the birds up in heaven

can hear my sad cries

On top of Old Smokey

all covered with snow

I lost my true lover

from courtin' too slow

Mothers Best Sessions

The Mother's Best shows were broadcast live between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. on WSM out of Nashville, Tennessee and Hank was paid $100 a week for recording the shows that usually consisted of one country song, one instrumental and a gospel song to close the show. During the 15 minute show Hank and the announcer Louie Buck would pitch the flour in between Hank's songs and Hank even wrote a theme song for the show.

"I love to have that gal around
Her biscuits are so nice and brown
Her pies and cakes beat all the rest
Cause she makes them all with Mother's Best"

Back in those days if a radio show wasn't actually live, it was recorded live onto a 16 inch acetate and that's what the Mother's Best sessions are.  Hank and the Drifting Cowboys had a grueling touring schedule.  All the travel was by car and adding to the grind was the obligation of Opry regulars to return to Nashville most weekends, no matter where they were, to perform. The transcriptions gave WSM and its listeners a daily dose of the Lovesick Blues Boy, just as though he was there right in studio.  These recordings have a compelling immediacy and show off the relaxed musicianship and professionalism of a seasoned touring band and their dynamic leader.

At some point in history, WSM was purging its vaults and the Mother's Best acetates were destined to be dumped.  WSM employee and huge Hank fan Les Leverett recognized their value and saved them from oblivion.  What followed was years of legal battles between the estate of Hank Williams in the persons of Jett Williams and Hank Jr and "other parties"...yeah, I can't seem to find out on the internet exactly who.  While Leverett had given the acetates to Jett Williams (who had gone through a long legal battle to prove she was Hank's daughter)  a copy had also gone to someone else, possibly Drifting Cowboys bass player Hilious Butrum.  

Whatever the murky details are, the end result is an amazing musical document.  A relaxed Hank, joking  and talking, a band on top of its game, a group of musicians delving into their extensive catalogue.  A real piece of country music history.  After researching this blog, I'm feeling like I'm going to have to get the 15 CD set, if only to hear Hank's venereal disease PSA.  "Stars In Her Eyes" is a 14 minute soap opera than Hank sings and recites, interspersed with running remarks from woman who portrays an unfaithful wife who contracts syphilis. 

New July - New Song - October 21, 2012

A Song A Week is a song a week in name only.  I had been feeling bad/guilty about my lack of activity on the blog, but I have got over it.  I started the blog to give myself a kick in the pants, to ensure that I was engaged and active with music.  What it boils down to is I have been busy playing and practicing music - The Golden Country Band, old folks shows, working on my original material - along with getting through the busiest period of the painting season with my company, Kingfisher Painting Services.  I've had ample opportunity to record a song for the blog, but it just has seemed less pressing and important.  

What has instigated this blog post is a new song I've been working on.  It started to come together Friday night after Golden Country rehearsal and I pounded it out on the piano over the next couple of days and came up with this.....that was last weekend.  I did numerous takes of the song for the blog but I wasn't happy with the melody and dramatic and narrative arc of the song, so I kept working on it over the last week.  Here's me performing the song  in its current form

******Stardate January 13, 2016: this song has gone through numerous melody, time signature, feel, and key changes.....and it still ain't quite there.  

New July 

I laid my arms by the side of the road

they were tired said they needed a rest

I laid down my heart and laid down my head

after listening to them confess

My torso, my legs and me

drinklessly persevered

weaving, weaving

no matter which way we steered

I've decided I'm gonna start smoking

please, light me on fire

I'll burn hot and bright through the soft dark night

a funeral pyre of human desire

At dusk, bats' acrobatics

the geometry of geese in flight

these are the charms I use

to defend against the night

Summer rain inert upon abstract blocks of hospital

where three thousand lie damaged and decaying

A crouching woman howls, a man snarls and lick his balls

in paper slippers I shuffle through the halls

And I got nothing to protect me

from things that fall from the sky

but I ain't worried

I ain't worried

I heard it's gonna be a new July

And I got nothing to protect me

from things that fall from the sky

but I ain't worried

I ain't worried

I heard it's gonna be a new July

Going Away Party - What Week Is This!

Goin" Away Party

I've been busy. Here's a great song penned by Cindy Walker.  Thanks to Brad Johnson, Calvin Dick, Eric Gallipo,  and Rachelle Reath.

And here's an excellent reading by Marshall 

Chapman 

The Comeback Trail #2 - Bus Depot Blue

What!?!  Another blogpost!?!  COMEBACK TRAIL, YO.  Here's a song I recorded on my cd Hurtin' Dance Party (2002).  After the fractious demise of The Dogbreath Brothers, I played solo for a couple of years and the initial concept was that this would be a solo album.  However I excitedly invited all kinds of people to play on it, the result being some very fresh live off the floor recordings as we learned and recorded the songs on the fly.  The sessions also acted as the genesis of two distinct combos:  the heavy-hitting and unpredictable Mansmell  and the dreamy and atmoshperic Whelps. 

But I digress here...Bus Depot Blue is a simple narrative C&W song that would have been part of the Mansmell repertoire, but we never performed it live too much because it's kind of quiet and sensitive and Mansmell was anything but.  People wanted the rock, they wanted to see Calvin Dick lose his shit on a set of drums.  The studio version features the Wurlitzer Sideman, a mechanical drum machine circa 1950's.  Playing lapsteel is Tolan McNeil.  Pretty sure we did 3 takes, not sure which one we used.  I remember Tolan not being totally stoked about his part, but I think his snakey intuitive playing makes the song.  Not only did we rarely play the song back when it was current, I never play it now.  Ever.  So it was kind of strange I sat down to play and it popped out.  Here's the version I just recorded and below it is a link to the album version.

Bus Depot Blue, studio recording.

Bus Depot Blue - David P. Smith

Snot-nosed kids with Grandma, knapsacks and sweethearts
seats adjoined row on row all vinyl and chrome
Ghostly figures on the screens of coin-operated TV's
like flickering memories of a time we used to know
This big and modern bus depot is the end of the road
You're riding Greyhound to Saskatoon
you might as well be flying to the moon

And I'm sick with hurt and I'm confused
I'm sick of arguing till dawn
I'm sick with booze and missing you
and you've barely been gone
My heart is in my mouth it might fall out on the floor
and I can still see you walking out that automatic door

Yodel

A hundred mile high prairie sky towers sullen and grey
The night glides in on silent wings sucks the light out of the day
Clouds fall to the ground, rain is all around
you're headed east, I'm headed west, I guess that you know best
Travelling down this highway, my heart filled with regret
a note to myself - remember to forget

Remember to forget the joy that we had
remember to remember the crap that made me sad
there's nothing on the radio 'cept preachers and white noise
but it's better than listening to the echoes of your voice

Yodel

The Comeback Trail: She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones Cover - August 20, 2012

Followers of this blog, if such a thing exists, may have noted the absence of postings over the past few weeks.  Been sucking wind.  Blowing chunks, some might say.  You'll find no litany of excuses here....you wanna know the dreary details?  Drop me a line, give me a call, we'll go for a drink.  I'll fill your glass - and your ear.  I'm attempting a comeback.  My tailor's sewing me a bejeweled lycra jumpsuit with a padded junk pouch.  Keep watching the blog and you might get a peak of that.

In the meantime, here's a George Jones song.  George Jones is such an emotive and absolutely unique vocalist that taking on one of his standards is somewhat foolhardy.  Well call me a fool, and a hardy one at that.  I love this song and have sung it for years.  When I was first getting into C&W I bought this cassette at a drugstore in Three Hills, Alberta.

I had heard of George Jones but didn't know much about him.  There were some Hank Williams songs on the collection I knew, I think maybe a Buck Owens cover too, some other titles I recognized - so I bought it.  I was just out there making exploratory purchases to discover and learn about country.  No one I knew was into the shit.  I've got piles of George Jones now, but for quite a while this was the only George I had.

She Thinks I Still Care was written by songsmith Dickey Lee, who also wrote the oft recorded Patches as well as many other hit songs.  It has been recorded an estimated 1,000 times by different artists including Elvis Presley.  Here's my version of the song.

She Thinks I Still Care - Dickey Lee

Just because I ask a friend about her
Just because I spoke her name somewhere
Just because I rang her number by mistake today
She thinks I still care

Just because I haunt the same old places
Where the mem'ry of her lingers ev'rywhere
Just because I'm not the happy guy I used to be
She thinks I still care

But if she's happy thinkin' I still need her
Then let that silly notion bring her cheer
But how could she ever be so foolish
Oh where would she get such an idea

Just because I ask a friend about her
And just because I spoke her name somewhere
Just because I saw her then went all to pieces
She thinks I still care
She thinks I still care

Here's a couple of George Jones versions, one by Elvis.....and more.  Enjoy!

Young George:  gotta love the guy doing harmonies popping in and out of frame to sing his lines

Classic George live on the Johnny Cash show

Elvis:  this is pretty good.

Beck

Random:  George McGovern

Just one more...The Grand Tour

New Blues #3 - Funeral Blues - Songwriter workshop intro song - July 22, 2012

The blog, staggering through the summer - staggering fo' sho' - A Song A Week in name only.  Maybe I'll pile multiple songs into weeks later in the year to make up for the summer doldrums.

So next week I'm heading up to Barkerville to participate as an invited artist in a week long songwriting workshop facilitated by Dave Bidini and his band.  Following that I'll be performing at the Arts Wells Festival.

 I must admit to a certain level of trepidation about this workshop, not that I know what to expect really, but being in a group/classroom situation and having to come up with songs definitely takes me out of my comfort zone. I don't know what "comfort zone" means, or is, or if I have ever been there, but I won't be there next week. I kind of spew songs out as they come to me, as I filter the world and my experiences and emotions through the cerebral song grinder.

Last week, I recieved this email

Your instructor, Dave Bidini, would like me to pass on a message, regarding your Song Writing Course. He would like you to come up with a short, one-minute song. This song will tell the class who you are, and will be played at the first session. Yes, you have homework already!

I exited the comfort zone, put my head down like a good little boy and wrote a song.  It's a minor blues middle age lament about funerals and storms.  

New Blues #2 (Funeral Blues)

I emote with icons

stumbling down the passage of time

two thin dimes on my feet silver dollars on my sockets

draped in a cool white sheet

I could see the storm a-rising as I rolled on 'round the bend

thinking 'bout the funerals I've been planning to attend

in my cum-stained pants and my curly hair shirt

with my sack of blood and my bottle of dirt

my wagon of woe, my world of hurt

when lightning struck the cruise ship

it shattered like a pomegranate

and I clung to two hearts

that keep me anchored on this planet

oh woh woh woh woh woh

oh woh woh woh woh woh

oh woh woh woh woh woh 

woh

****Star Date:  January 12, 2016:

So a couple of things happened since I posted this blog and now.  Over the past coupla years rehearsing and recording,  I mixed up the order I composed my "New Blues" series.  This song, Funeral Blues, in reality #3 became New Blues #2.  And I wrote some more lyrics.  And it got recorded with a band.  I'll post a version of it soon!    

Horseleg Swastikas - Silver Jews Cover - July 8, 2012

I had been staying at my friend Dave Gowans' place, we were milling around before I departed to catch the ferry, and he put on the Silver Jews  album Bright Flight.  I was struck by the vision and imagery of David Berman's writing and his startlingly original wordplay and became an instant convert. I've been a serious fan since, accumulating the entire discography and covering a couple of songs....this one, and from the album American Water, the song Random Rules which we recorded  and released on my CD Mantennae.  The sweet girl vox featuring Rachelle Reath and Megan Boddy, plus percussive touches, were added later by DJ Hairwolf at The Palace Of The Golden Dragon.  

CLICK HERE to listen to our version of RANDOM RULES recorded by Scott Bennett live in the living room at Walnut 

Street. 

Here my version of the song

Horseleg Swastikas - David Berman

Drunk on a couch in Nashville

in a duplex near the reservoir

every single thought is like a punch in the face

I'm like a rabbit freezing on a star

On the wrong side of Sunday morning

shattered in a terrible light

working for a bankrupt circus 

on the wrong side of Saturday night

And I wanna be like water if I can

'Cause water doesn't give a damn

water doesn't give a damn

Chased by a floating hatchet

you can't just shoot your way out and go

I could tell you things about this wallpaper

that you never ever wanna know

There's an altar in the valley

for thing in themselves as they are

and the triumph of the obstacle

and horseleg swastikas

And I wanna take a ride on the back of a sunbird

up into the highest number

up into the highest number

And I wanna be like water if I can

'Cause water doesn't give a damn

water doesn't give a damn

If you haven't heard the original, check it out!