Music Recommendation

Okay, for the first installment, I’ll go just a tad off the beaten path. This recommendation is for anyone who thinks they may like some country music, but just can’t hardly stand to listen to the local country music stations. I guess that just about describes me! The artist I recommend is one I have never actually heard on any of my local stations even one time in my life! I did hear him one time while traveling. I was in south Texas, I think near Beaumont to be exact, and heard a song of his along with numerous others that I had never heard locally before. I guess in Texas everything is bigger – even the variety heard on the radio.

However, as a songwriter he has numerous tunes that have been recorded by many others. One in particular is almost universally known in American music. It has been recorded by many people including instrumental versions by Chet Atkins. In a totally different genre it was recorded by Sammy Davis, Jr. The most widely known version, though, was recorded in the early 1970s by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The song? Mr. Bojangles. The artist? Jerry Jeff Walker.

Jerry Jeff is a very unique performer. It is widely assumed that he is a native of Texas, since that has sorta been his home base for decades. He has been a major player on the Austin music and songwriting scene for quite some time. He belongs to an eclectic group of singer/songwriters that include such notables as Billy Joe Shaver, Donnie Fritts, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Gary P. Nunn and many others.

However, oddly enough, he is actually native to New Jersey. He transplanted eventually to Texas after spending a fair amount of his early years in New Orleans – a not so small amount of which was spent in the local lockup. It was on one of these overnight stays at the New Orleans "Hilton" that he met the inspiration for his most famous song (Bojangles).

Now, actually my exposure to his music is somewhat limited. There are tons of artists about whom I could comment on their craft with more detail. I do plan on getting deeper into the JJW catalogue in the future as I am able because I thoroughly enjoy what I am familiar with.
I first heard his name as a teenager. My childhood neighbor and friend had a much older brother who had something of an affinity for both JJW and DAC (David Allen Coe) For years I basically linked these two tri-named artists and their music together. I actually became more familiar with DAC earlier than I did JJW. Actually, though, the two are quite different and I may be wrong, but I do not think they are really that closely to be associated – either artistically or personally. After years I will definitely say that DACs music (and personality or lack thereof) has more than worn thin. I really do not care that much for it. DAC seems to be a total jerk, a drunk, rude, crude, singer songwriter doing somewhat crude, sometimes humorous, sometimes annoying, somewhat edgy, outlaw country. JJW could be described (it seems to me) in much the same way – except that (and of course I do not know either one personally) he does not strike me as a jerk at all. Maybe he is a pretty good guy who writes and sings somewhat crude, sometimes humorous, sometimes annoying, somewhat edgy, outlaw country.

Before getting specific briefly, another associate of JJWs should be mentioned. Early in both of their attempts at stardom, JJW and Jimmy Buffet hooked up somehow or another and have apparently been friends ever since. JJW briefly had a television show on the country music network back in the late 1980s early 1990s and I once saw it where Buffett was his guest. The two obviously had a marvelously fun time recounting stories from their, um, colorful youth and singing their own and each others songs. The two collaborated on the song Railroad Lady which appeared on Buffett’s first major label album (A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacian) This song has also been performed by Willie Nelson (It is at the least on his Greatest Hits and Some That Will Be Album). I have to wonder if this song was the inspiration to the line from the Waylon and Willie hit Luckenbach Texas that goes as follows:

…Between the Hank Williams pain songs
And Jerry Jeff’s train songs
And Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain…

Now, my early exposure to his music is twofold. When I was sixteen, had a vehicle and a cassette tape player, the first two tapes I bought were Hank Williams, Jr.’s Habits Old and New (still my favorite HWJ work) and JJWs Ridin High. I bought this on a whim, in a bargain bin, only because I had heard about him from my neighbor. It is a good mixture of both uptempo and slow songs; silly and serious songs; his own songs and others (he does Willie Nelsons Pick up the Tempo, among others.) Like another totally different favorite of mine (Van Morrison) JJW seems to frequently sing about the woes of the business end music business, what they expect out of you, what they try to do to you, and so forth. Both the first and last song on this tape was just such a jab at the music industry. The opening number Public Domain has what is to me a memorable line:

I took a bite of the Big Apple
And I dabbled in that forbidden fruit
Oh oh they promised me points
And then they slipped me skinny joints
And I’ve yet to see me any loot
From that man in the high heeled Gucci shoes

The last number is the interestingly worded Pissin’ in the Wind which describes the difficulty of actually making a record his way.

I still have the original cassette and listen to it occasionally.

My next very short exposure to JJWs music came not long afterwards. I made another bargain basement purchase called Kickin Country which was a quirky collection of mostly little known throwaway numbers by a collection of both big stars as well as little knowns. Here was Walker’s live version of the infamous Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother. Gary P. Nunn does the spoken middle part and also announces at the commencement of the song that "This song is by Ray Wiley Hubbard." Pretty good hardcore country humor!

It was almost two decades before I heard much else, but when traveling with a friend in the late 1990s I got to listen to his copy of Great Gonzos: The Best of JJW. It had Redneck Mother and a song or two from Riding High along with 10-12 others, both of his own as well as other writers. It included a live version of Mr. Bojangles, and, interestingly enough, Nunn singing his own most famous tune live (apparently with JJW and band backing him up) – London Homesick Blues. If you think you’ve never heard this famous tune before, I’ll bet you’re wrong – at least if you’re much of a music fan. For years this was the theme song from the PBS show "Austin City Limits." The oft repeated chorus goes

I wanna go home with the Armadillos
Pick Country music from Amarillo and Abilene
With the friendliest people and the prettiest women you’ve ever seen.

Sound familiar?

At any rate, there really is not a bad song on this one. His version of (I think Shaver’s but I’m not sure) L.A. Freeway is excellent. Also included are the baudy, drunken Sangria Wine (the song I heard on Beumont Radio); Charley Dunn (about JJWs bootmaker in Texas); the classically moving Backsliders Wine; Easy Come and Easy Go (another stab at the process of making records); and Takin it as it Comes.

I highly recommend getting this album to anyone not familiar with JJWs music. There are 2-3 "best of" type collections out there and each one of them has something valuable the others don’t, but all of them have at least some of the essentials. This one, while not complete, seems to be the closest thing to complete. From there, if you like it, you can go further. I can only recommend Riding High, but I hope in the future to add to this collection.

Click here to see Ray Wiley Hubbard at JJWs 65th Birthday Bash describing the story behind "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother". That is JJW beside him laughing through most of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E24C4NY0ga8

The next two are JJW on the Dinah Shore Show with Don Meredith in the 1970s. He sings LA Freeway and MR. Bojangles (Norman Fell from "Three's Company" is on the second one briefly!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClHY2PEsw14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4RD8vlqVQ&mode=related&search=