Titus writes:
On
behalf of Anne & myself, I would like to thank Lex for playing
some of our favourite tunes on the show last week, and I hope that the
listeners enjoyed our playlist.
I’m
mindful of the fact that I’ve covered quite a few music & literary
styles over the past six months, but the one music genre I haven’t
covered until now, is Country Music. Now this is sometimes called
Country & Western, was first produced in the 1920’s, and originates
from the South & South West of the United States. Inevitably over
the years there have been fusions, which have brought us Country Folk,
Country Rock, Hillbilly, Rockabilly, Southern Soul, Swamp Rock, Cajun,
Bluegrass to name but eight! Country Music tends to focus on working
class American life, and most lyrics illustrate this, plus other genres
such as Mexican, Hawaiian & Irish music have had influence on it.
Instruments?
Well, in its early days, Country musicians were known to use e.g.
banjos, fiddles & harmonicas, but nowadays a plethora of percussion
can appear, plus electric/acoustic guitars, bass & keyboards. The
U.S. Congress has recognised Bristol, in the State of Tennessee as the
birth place of Country Music, and an excellent museum dedicated to the
cause can be found in that city. The first family of Country Music are
widely known as The Carters, who had an offspring called June Carter,
famous for her marriage to Johnny Cash in 1968......talking of whom, he
became one of the most famous faces of the genre, along with others,
such as Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Patsy
Cline, Jim Reeves, Tammy Wynette and Bill Monroe. From the mid 1950’s
to the early 1960’s, what was called ‘The Nashville Sound’, was at its
peak, but then it seemed a gradual decline set in, coinciding with the
deaths in separate plane crashes of Cline and Reeves.
So
was this the death of Country Music? Not on your life. The style
inspired many rock musicians, like Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Carl
Perkins & Jerry Lee Lewis. Even today, we see Country bands with a
make up of cowboy values, with cowboy hats, cowboy boots and western
wear prevalent on the scene.
I
must admit that I was never a lover of Country Music, until I heard a
couple of singers, who can only be described as ‘modern’ artistes on
the John Peel Show, namely Neko Case and Laura Cantrell. Neko is a
very complex character and to save space I’ll not dwell on her career,
save to say that ‘Furnace Room Lullaby’ was a truly great album. It is
Laura Cantrell who really impressed me with 5 sessions for John’s
programme, and three were recorded live at Peel Acres in Suffolk.
Amazingly Laura was born in Nashville in 1967, but moved to New York to
study English at Columbia University. She sang with various bands
before meeting, and then marrying the founder of Diesel Only Records,
Jeremy Tepper, and it was this label that her debut album ‘Not the
trembling kind’ was released on in 2000. Peely loved the album, playing
most tracks from it, and found that he & Laura had very similar
tastes in music. JP said at the time “It is my favourite record of the
last ten years, and possibly my life”. Peel and his wife Sheila
stayed with Laura & Jeremy in New York, and before too long, the
visit was reciprocated, and indeed, three sessions were recorded at
‘Peel Acres’, which I had the privilege to listen to, live in my living
room. After John’s death in 2004, Cantrell dedicated her 2005 album
‘Humming by the Flowered Vine’ to his memory.
She,
in addition to being a country singer, is a DJ who at the time of her
association with the Peel Show, had her own show at a New Jersey Radio
Station, and still regularly broadcasts a programme called ‘Dark Horse
Radio’ on Sirius XM, featuring the music of George Harrison. As far as I
know, much of her work can be traced via the internet, and it is the
title track from her ‘Not the trembling kind’ LP that I have asked Lex
to play, and it can be found here.