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If You Could Choose Two Different Country-music Musicians/Composers to Write Songs about Your...

post #1 of 18
10/27/09 at 10:29pm
Thread Starter 
. . . who would those two musicians or composers be?

A group can count as a 'musician/composer'. It can be anybody from the birth of Southern popular standards (Steven Foster), to the inception of recorded Country (the Carter Family), to the most teflon-coated Nashville pop-whore stealing cheese right at this very moment (take yer pick). The two different musicians might produce similar, complimentary versions of your life story or radically different variants.

Myself--I'm feeling tempted to overthink this, so I'll shoot from the hip. Glenn Campbell for one version, John Doe for the other.

[I think that Vic Chesnutt might fit me more thematically, but I don't admire him as staunchly as I do John Doe. Vic Chesnutt would heartlessly portray the maladaptive freak that I occasionally fear I have become, while John Doe would humanize the mixed-up, middle-aged character with his hobo's bundle of familiar twitches and neuroses. Get the roaring guitar refrain right, John, and I'll consider myself redeemed.]
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post #2 of 18
10/27/09 at 10:41pm
Guess I'd have to say Lyle Lovett for a tongue and cheek version and Bob Wills for a swinging version.
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post #3 of 18
10/27/09 at 10:53pm
Easy…

Iris DeMent

Rodney Crowell
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post #4 of 18
10/27/09 at 10:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jazznap View Post
Guess I'd have to say Lyle Lovett for a tongue and cheek version and Bob Wills for a swinging version.
You from Texas? Lyle Lovett is _always_ a sophisticated, if ironic start to any musical narrative. Why, if I were critically injured by my pet bull, I'd want Lyle to recount the bovine catastrophe in song. Maybe he'd convince Julia Roberts to join in on the refrain.

And few folks swing like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys!
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post #5 of 18
10/27/09 at 11:02pm
Four non blondes already wrote a song about me
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post #6 of 18
10/27/09 at 11:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tru blu View Post
Easy…

Iris DeMent

Rodney Crowell
Man, I don't know Rodney Crowell, but Iris Dement's querulous warble just sends chills up and down my spine. I know she's good, but there's something about her voice that shreds my nerves.

With musicians who actually trigger an adverse reaction, I sometimes cook up a fantasy cover-album just to take the sting out of the threatening artist's music. I've thought for years that the only cure for me would be convincing Iris DeMent to do an all-acoustic tribute to early punk classics. The thought of her warbling to "God Save the Queen," "Gimme Shock Treatment," and "Straight Edge" soothes me.
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post #7 of 18
10/27/09 at 11:07pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGreen View Post
Four non blondes already wrote a song about me
Lucky guy. . . .
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post #8 of 18
10/27/09 at 11:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by catachresis View Post
You from Texas? Lyle Lovett is _always_ a sophisticated, if ironic start to any musical narrative. Why, if I were critically injured by my pet bull, I'd want Lyle to recount the bovine catastrophe in song. Maybe he'd convince Julia Roberts to join in on the refrain.

And few folks swing like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys!
Haha, no SoCal my whole life. I came across Lyle from his few jazz ventures and got hooked on his songwriting. He's an amazing writer. I love his deadpan delivery.
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post #9 of 18
10/27/09 at 11:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jazznap View Post
Haha, no SoCal my whole life. I came across Lyle from his few jazz ventures and got hooked on his songwriting. He's an amazing writer. I love his deadpan delivery.
I'm showing my age, but I saw him live in Raleigh in 89--one of the best live shows I've been to. At that point, he'd only released LL and Pontiac. But he was touring with his Very Large Band. He did a version of "Here I am" as an intro, and I just remember the deadly sincerity with which he begged, "Please, If it's not too late--Make it a cheeseburger."

I've always believed it, but if only Lyle Lovett and Karen Carpenter had shared that rampaging bull, they'd both be alive today.
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post #10 of 18
10/28/09 at 1:26am
Willie Nelson; Johnny Cash
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post #11 of 18
10/28/09 at 1:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by catachresis View Post
Lucky guy. . . .
If you heard the song, you'd disagree.
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post #12 of 18
10/28/09 at 1:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FalconP View Post
Willie Nelson; Johnny Cash
'Classic Country Rebels: just about "Poncho and Lefty." But then I figure that you're not channeling Willie when he was in his Judy Garland "Somewhere over the Rainbow" phase.

"Hello, walls."
-- hello!
-- hello!
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post #13 of 18
10/28/09 at 1:50am
Lefty Frizzell and Dolly Parton

Quote:
Originally Posted by catachresis View Post
Man, I don't know Rodney Crowell, but Iris Dement's querulous warble just sends chills up and down my spine. I know she's good, but there's something about her voice that shreds my nerves.
Whatever you do, don't listen to Joanna Newsom.
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post #14 of 18
10/28/09 at 1:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by priest View Post
Lefty Frizzell and Dolly Parton
Wicked pair (!).

Quote:
Whatever you do, don't listen to Joanna Newsom
Yeah, she gets up my nose too.

{Channels Willie}

Three cans
---I'd like to have right here. . . .

Three cans
---I'd perch upon my ears. . . .

Three cans
---I'd rather own than borrow. . . .

Whoa, whoa, whoa. . . .

Sennheisers. AKGs. And (some) Grados.
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post #15 of 18
10/28/09 at 2:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by catachresis View Post
'Classic Country Rebels: just about "Poncho and Lefty." But then I figure that you're not channeling Willie when he was in his Judy Garland "Somewhere over the Rainbow" phase.

"Hello, walls."
-- hello!
-- hello!
I was thinking about his "Yesterday's Wine" album. Very touching semi-autobiographic stuff.
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