Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The revolution will be supervised.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Second rate reporter says what?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / Music / Music and Postcards – Tonight It’s Country

Music and Postcards – Tonight It’s Country

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I thought that Friday’s conversation in the threads about country music was interesting, so I asked brendancalling if he could put together a little something about country music to go along with our postcard thread.  He did a stellar job.  Just amazing!  Here’s his playlist:  Balloon Juice Country 

POSTCARDS / WISCONSIN ELECTION April 4

There’s going to be a lot of money flying around for these races because there’s so much at stake.  So this time around, postcards are where we can make a difference.  (Though we will likely put up a donation link for Wis*Dems because I imagine some of you will want to donate anyway.)

Just a few postcard things so postcard peeps can get started, and then we’ll get to the music.  We have all the addresses for the Wisconsin Senate race (SD-8), which is 1,000 addresses, and for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race we have addresses selected especially for us by Voces de la Frontera – Latino and African American folks who vote Democratic 80% of the time.

If you want to write postcards, or if you have an Indivisible or other group that writes postcards, please send me an email (my nym at balloon-juice.com) and I’ll get you set up with addresses to write.  You can start writing any time.  First date to MAIL the postcards is March 10.  More details in the post linked just below.

Wisconsin Election Returns Tonight & Postcard Effort for the Spring Election (Open Thread)

If you have any postcard questions, chime in with a comment, or send me email.  And if you have postcards pictures to help inspire the rest of us, send them to me by email, and I’ll add them in the comments!

MUSIC!

Hello fellow jackals. Longtime commenter brendancalling here. Yesterday, I got into a long subthread on country music in the TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Slava Ukraini! Post. Big surprise—a lot of people hate country music, or at least THINK they do.

I can understand that sentiment. To make an imperfect analogy, if your only experience with beer is Budweiser, yeah—I can’t blame you for hating country music. There’s a lot of crap out there, especially if all you’ve been exposed to is modern country music. Heck, if modern country music was beer, it wouldn’t even come close to Bud—it’d be more like warm Hamms.

Budweiser, to continue the analogy, represents a certain kind of beer. But it doesn’t taste anything like, say, a Guinness, or a Flanders red ale, or a Belgian sour, or West Coast IPA or a Pennsylvania porter. It’s the same with modern country—sure, you’ve got your modern country (aka “bad rock with a fiddle” to quote Tom Petty) but you’ve also got western swing, the Bakersfield sound, straight up honky tonk, Texas country, zydeco, Cajun… the list just goes on and on and on. Just as there’s a lot of different beer out there that actually tastes good, there’s a LOT of good country music too. It just doesn’t get on the big stations that dominate the industry.

I’ve been playing music for a long time. As a teenager, I was obsessed with hardcore punk and metal. By the time the 1990s and “grunge” hit, I had already moved on other stuff—all those bands from the 1990s like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and the rest sounded like punk rock with better production. And good grief, the lyrics didn’t appeal to me at all. It was just so bummed out and sad and self-pitying. My hippy housemate had turned me on to Phish, another band people tend to love or hate. Whatever you might say about that band, they are truly eclectic, and incorporated a couple of jammed-out bluegrass songs into their sets—which is how I discovered Bill Monroe, and went down a rabbithole. I don’t think I listened to anything but bluegrass and old country music for… I wanna say five years at least. And then of course I lived and played music in Nashville (Music City USA, baby!) for about 4+ years until the pandemic ruined everything. So you could say I know a good bit about the genre.

Anyway, long story short, WaterGirl asked that I make a playlist for one of the regular postcard writing events, and I was happy to do so. In this list, I primarily chose country songs from my persona (and very long) Apple Music playlist. I have a thing for bands and artists that fly under the radar, although some of the artists I have here are not that. The vast majority, I suspect, are bands the average listener hasn’t heard, whether old or new. And I tried to choose songs that weren’t hits: I skipped Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” as great as that song is, and instead chose her version of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee.” I guarantee it’ll make you weepy.

I also tried to include black, Latino, and LGTBQ artists—because the genre is seen (justifiably) as almost entirely white people. So please enjoy Yola, Howdy Glenn, Willi Carlisle, Johnny Rodriguez, and Mercy Bell. I wish I had a deeper knowledge of Black and Latino country, TBH: there’s a lot I’m still discovering. I also threw in some old weird stuff and country from places you wouldn’t expect (like Scruffy the Cat, a 1980s Boston band). I included both old songs and songs by newer bands. Some bands have more than one song in my list—The Royal Hounds, Scruffy the Cat, Charles Hager, Andrea and Mud, etc—mainly because I like them so much. Or, for real, they’re friends of mine who work really hard, and merit a larger audience. Also, I’m in at least two of these videos. I won’t tell you which though.

WaterGirl asked for 20 or so songs—I wound up with 82, and the only reason I stopped is because I have to go to a jam session. I hope you enjoy the tunes, and I apologize if I left a favorite artist out. There’s just so much! I’ll try to drop by the post tonight to engage in comments. Peace out y’all!

In case you missed it up top, here’s the playlist that brendancalling made for us: Balloon Juice Country 

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  6. 6.

    brendancalling

    A couple others I didn’t remember to add include Carolina Chocolate Drops. Danny Paisley, the Supersuckers (who play mostly hard rock but put out 2 or 3 country albums), Resonant Rogues, and Goddam Gallows. Oh well…

  7. 7.

    sab

    I listened to music a lot all through the 1980s and 1990s but it wasn’t main stream rock or country, and now I feel like I was living in a cave the whole time as far as relating to popular culture.

    Oh well. My 71 year old sister had never even heard of ABBA until about 5 years ago.

  10. 10.

    brendancalling

    @WaterGirl: Pat’s best album is “That’s All There Is,” but it’s not on YouTube. Check your music platform of your choice for tunes like “Funny Little Thing About a Hammer,” Pennsylvania Hills,” and “Conversation With Jesus.”

    Pat is one of my best friends. Very left wing. Very working class. Solid dude.

  15. 15.

    brendancalling

    BTW, anyone interested in the history of 20th century country music should listen to the first season of Cocaine and Rhinestones, a podcast hosted by Tyler Mahan Coe. His vocal style takes a little getting used to—he kind of talks like a robot for the first few episodes—but the history he shares is AMAZING. Trigger Warning for the Spade Cooley episode, though. Cooley brutally abused and murdered his wife. Coe shares the details (with the warning).

  17. 17.

    Mousebumples

    Late to the thread, as I just got home but I’ll be doing postcards after we get settled.

    Thread timing question – I think we’re planning on Tuesday nights around this time, and either Saturday afternoons or evenings. Any preference?

    Personally, my Saturdays are unpredictable, but I can try to at least be around for answering questions, if needed.

  20. 20.

    delphinium

    @brendancalling: Thanks for putting this playlist together! Rarely listen to country music but when I do, prefer the more “traditional” music. Really liked the Leo Rondeau song-will continue listening to the list.

  21. 21.

    brendancalling

    I threw on Hank Thompson’s “Honky Tonk Town” because if you listen to the band, it’s basically jazz players. HT is a good example of (very polished) Western swing. That whole album is heavy on the jazz. Bob Wills (did I include Bob) is the King of Western Swing, and equally (if not more) jazzy, but nowhere near as polished. Bob, especially, takes his cues from Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. So does Hank, but w/more slick and less improv.

  23. 23.

    brendancalling

    @WaterGirl: Remember the veteran woman beaten up by the National Park Police in Philly several years ago, for protesting the Iraq War?

    That’s her singing. She’s great.

  25. 25.

    Mousebumples

    @WaterGirl: Might be a sign that Saturday nights aren’t great for postcards… If no one else comes by to postcard, we can always just ask about timing again on Tuesday?

  29. 29.

    delphinium

    @WaterGirl: I liked that song too by Pat. As for postcard writing, I need to order more and then will get started on the WI races and any of the other ones coming up.

  34. 34.

    delphinium

    @WaterGirl: Maybe that isn’t the right term, like I said I don’t listen to a lot of country, but songs from the playlist by Lou, Pat, and The Daiquiri Queens (listening now) seem more straight up country to me and not so much the “bad rock with a fiddle” that Brendan noted. Also thinking along the likes of Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn type of country. Does that make sense?

  36. 36.

    kalakal

    @brendancalling: Thank you so much for putting this together. As I said in the previous thread I know zip about country and the bits I’ve heard mostly disliked intensely, I suspect it’s the stuff you’d describe as

    it’d be more like warm Hamms.

    I’ve heard of hardly any of the artists listed, don’t think I know any of the songs.

    This is great! I’m so looking forward to going through the list, it’s all new to me! Don’t expect I’ll like it all but I’m sure I’ll like some.

    Once again, thanks

    ETA basically I share Tom Petty’s ( who I loved) opinion

  40. 40.

    MattF

    OT. Because of an openly racist YouTube rant by Scott Adams, the Dilbert comic strip has been cancelled in nearly all newspapers. Gift WaPo link to story. Pity, the strip used to be funny.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @MattF: Oh, ugh.  Off to read.  I knew he had turned into a right-wing guy, but openly racist?  In his comics or in real life?

    I guess I’ll find out as soon as I click the link.

    edit: All that was missing was “young bucks buying steaks”… and the n-word.

  50. 50.

    brendancalling

    @WaterGirl: He is SO SO SO good. I discovered him by accident. “Hot and Heavy Handed” is him doing 90s country, but stripped down and all of sudden they’re not cheesy songs.

  51. 51.

    Kristine

    I cleaned my office today and found the postcard stamps I thought I’d lost. I’ve emailed WG for addresses and would be here for a Tuesday night write-a-thon.

  53. 53.

    SpaceUnit

    Okay, this thread is gonna be a challenge for me.  I’m mostly into the alt, punk, post-punk kinda stuff.

    Here’s some mid 80’s post-punk country.  Lone Justice:

    Shelter

  54. 54.

    brendancalling

    @WaterGirl: Yes, just like rock or jazz. Jazz: big band; bepop; post bop; hard bop; fusion; and so on. Rock: blues-rock; metal; pop; prog-rock; folk-rock; hardcore and punk; yacht rock; funk; soul; r&B.

    Same thing with country. It’s a big genre, and it’s unlikely you can’t find something to like for either lyrical and musical reasons.

    If all you heard of jazz was Kenny G, you’d think jazz sucks! If all you heard of rock was Nickleback, you’d never come back! Same with country.

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    @MattF: The strip got pretty repetitive years ago in my opinion. But that’s hardly a cardinal sin for newspaper comics; how many times has Garfield eaten some lasagna? This week’s meltdown and (appropriate) cancelation was something quite different to be sure.

  60. 60.

    brendancalling

    @SpaceUnit: A lifetime ago, I played bass for a bluegrass/speed metal crossover band called Uncle Fucker. We had a troupe of dancing girls called the Fuckerettes.

    Here’s a video of our version of Bill Monroe’s instrumental Wheel Hoss.

  61. 61.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    Since the other thread is dead I thought I’d put this here: unfortunately valued commentator Mnemosyne is no longer with us.  Am I allowed to post a link?

    Mnemosyne Dailykos death notice (no doxxing)

    edit; NOT THE SAME MNEM. ~WaterGirl

  64. 64.

    kalakal

    my wife was playing some music one day on Pandora and had gone out the room. I listened to a track and when she came back I said “never heard of the guy that was just on but he’s one hell of a guitar player ”

    Doc Watson – Windy and Warm

  66. 66.

    Jager

    40-plus year career in radio, part of the generation who put rock on FM. helped redefine what adult music radio is. Did news and talk stations on the local and corporate levels. I never did a country station until I got my first job as a VP/GM. The company handed me a dead in the water AM (fixed it with a solid news and local talk format) and a 100KW FM. The FM was running a syndicated oldies format. The number 2 station in the market was a sloppy old line country station. Hmm, I talked to a friend of mine who owned a successful “‘cowboy station” and went to work. We blew up the oldies format, put a country station on with a modern attitude and formatics. It worked! The station went from a 1.6 share to 12.9 in 3 months. I was going through a nasty divorce at the time and Garth got me through it. https://youtu.be/nIHWhUVxJh8 (Much Too Young to Feel this Damn Old”)

  78. 78.

    brendancalling

    Personally, I think that Merle cut I posted is a real banger. I’d love to hear a woman do it as “A Workin’ Mom Can’t Get Nowhere Today.” That one steel line—you’ll know it when you hear it— is just… chef’s kiss. Its so good.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @hervevillechaizelounge: I believe I said this last time you posted that, but I don’t believe that is the same person.

    Old Kossacks may remember a lovely woman who used to post here under the alias of “Mnemosyne”.  I just found out that Marie-Grace (her real name) passed away from cancer-related issues on October 11 at age 82. She had come to visit and stay with us here in the South of France in the Aude in the early ‘10s and her dream had been to come back and live here permanently. Alas that was not to be. She was a brave and delightful woman and is greatly missed by all her friends.

  85. 85.

    CarolPW

    @hervevillechaizelounge: Pretty sure that is the wrong Mnem. Ours is not that old, does not live in North Carolina, did not pine to live in France and would not be described as a kind gentle person (particularly in respect to trolls).

  95. 95.

    raven

    Not much mention of “Ya’llternative” so I’ll point you to this book

    ”
    “Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene”
     

    Country music of late 1960s and early 1970s was a powerful symbol of staunch conservative resistance to the flowering hippie counterculture. But in 1972, the city of Austin, Texas became host to a growing community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and fans who saw country music as a part of their collective heritage and sought to reclaim it for their own progressive scene. These children of the Cold War, post-World War II suburban migration, and the Baby Boom escaped the socially conservative world their parents had created, to instead create for themselves an idyllic rural Texan utopia. Progressive country music–a hybrid of country music and rock–played out the contradictions at work among the residents of the growing Austin community: at once firmly grounded in the conservative Texan culture in which they had been raised and profoundly affected by the current hippie counterculture.

    In Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene, Travis Stimeling connects the local Austin culture and the progressive music that became its trademark. He presents a colorful range of evidence, from behavior and dress, to newspaper articles, to personal interviews of musicians as diverse as Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Doug Sahm. Along the way, Stimeling uncovers parodies of the cosmic cowboy image that reinforce the longing for a more peaceful way of life, but that also recognize an awareness of the muddled, conflicted nature of this counterculture identity. Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks brings new insight into the inner workings of Austin’s progressive country music scene — by bringing the music and musicians brilliantly to life.

  97. 97.

    Jackie

    Since this was the morning post today, here’s the update:

    ”Former agriculture secretary Nikki Fried will be in charge of the state party as Florida Democrats attempt to pull themselves out of their worst political position in years.”

    “Fried, 45, rebounded from her Democratic primary loss to Charlie Crist in the governor’s race last year to become state party’s new chair, taking in 52% of the vote in what had become a heated campaign to succeed former chair Manny Diaz.
    Fried, of Fort Lauderdale, was a late entry to the race, announcing her bid less than two weeks ago.”
    https://nordot.app/1002360326858571776

  98. 98.

    raven

    In Champaign-Urbana most of my crew turned away from rock in the early 70’s and went to music like Commander Cody, Asleep at the Wheel, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Old and in the Way and the Dead. Jerry Garcia loved to play bluegrass and the “Pizza Tapes” with David “Dawg” Grisman and Tony Rice is phenomenal.

  100. 100.

    Steve in the ATL

    1. That is not the same Mnemosyne, as others have noted.

    2. Love Scruffy the Cat.  Also check out “you dirty rat” though “mybabyshesalright” was their best song.

    3. How about Jason and the Scorchers?  Their cover of Dylan’s “absolutely sweet Marie” was the best it was ever done.  Great originals include “harvest moon”.

    4. Maybe a little love for Billy Strings?  Dude can pick the ol’ gitfiddle.

  102. 102.

    brendancalling

    @raven: I love Asleep at the Wheel. My current band does one of their tunes. Genuinely nice people too. Their drummer used to hang at my local in Nashville.

  104. 104.

    brendancalling

    @raven: “Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Doug Sahm”

    Absolute legends. Jerry Jeff’s “Viva Terlingua” is a masterpiece.

  106. 106.

    brendancalling

    @WaterGirl: One of the early giants of speed metal. Even the slow songs are fast. One of my favorite bands even today, but as someone who prides himself on reading the room, it’s nothing I’m posting here. Ever.

  108. 108.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: BettyCracker was sorta rooting for her.

    I’m impressed she won so handedly after only jumping into the race two weeks earlier. That doesn’t say much good about her competitor, I’m thinking.

  110. 110.

    Steve in the ATL

    @brendancalling: From a high school friend:

    Todd snider forced his way on stage at 616 [venue in Memphis ] when my band Martini Age was playing. We opened for cracker and he snuck in a 5 song set. He was artfully sneaky. He’s good but what a goob.

  111. 111.

    wonkie

    Thanks for the list of songs! I have been browsing through it and found Leo Rondeau. I got curious about him and googled him. He has a website, FB, instagram etc—nothing posted since 2020. No shows. No FB postings, Nothing. I hope he didn’t die of covid. Or maybe the shut down just ruined his career. It/s a shame. I like his unpretentious thoughtful songs.

  112. 112.

    brendancalling

    @NotMax: Spade.

    Great fiddle player. Legitimately one of the worst human beings to ever walk the face of this earth. He brutally abused and later murdered his wife in front of their children. I will not go into the full details, which sadly I know thanks to the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast. He was sentenced to life in prison. Reagan pardoned him, and Spade died the very next day.

  121. 121.

    brendancalling

    @NotMax: ​
      After learning about it, I can’t listen to him anymore. I just can’t. Kinda like w/Clapton, once I learned what a truly shitty person he is with the racism, it just ruined him for me.

  129. 129.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Mousebumples:”@WaterGirl: Might be a sign that Saturday nights aren’t great for postcards… If no one else comes by to postcard, we can always just ask about timing again on Tuesday?”

     I vote for Tuesday. Saturday evening took me by surprise. :-)
    Postcards To Voters is also providing addresses for Judge Janet – here’s the link from their Twitter account.​
      https://twitter.com/DemocratWit/status/1629173794764992512

    ETA: Gorrammit, the link didn’t post the first time. My apologies.

  132. 132.

    HumboldtBlue

    That’s a damn fine music list.

    Thank you, Brendan!

    Also, there are few better things than threads that get into the weeds on the music folks have to share. That and books (other than sic fi) have me jotting down names and albums, always leads to gems.

  136. 136.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: Our softball team “The High n Mighty” was the first long haired team in C-U and most of the teams hated us. It started as a goof and we ended up being really good. Many of the guys on the team were part of the Record Service and eventually we had really nice uniforms and Reds was one of our sponsors.

    We’d go there, the Red Lion and Ruby Gulch for music but we were mostly housed in the House of Chin. George Chin was a madman and fit right in. Here’s George and a Champaign cop one 4th!

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: What a great name.  High and mighty turned out to be a pretty accurate description!

    I was on a volleyball team with a bunch of people who worked for the city of urbana, and we called ourselves the BureauCats.  The Cats, for short.

  138. 138.

    Xavier

    I was just listening to Radney Foster’s “Del Rio Revisited: Unplugged and Lonesome”. Now that there’s some real honky-tonk music. You got cheatin’ and somebody done wrong and drinkin’ to ferget, and that’s just the first three songs. You also got lost love and bad hombres and singin’ Folsom Prison Blues along with Johnny Cash on the AM radio. 5 stars on Amazon, check it out.

    But seriously, great list, for people whose hatred of country music as heard on iHeartRadio is mostly justified.

  139. 139.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @brendancalling: Totally missed this thread last night, but thanks for sharing the playlist.  I’ll check it out today.  One thing I love about streaming is playlists.

  140. 140.

    Xavier

    Gotta have a shout out for Waylon Jennings’ record of songs by Billy Joe Shaver, “Honky-Tonk Heroes Like Me”

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